Northern Hemisphere September 2010

[Lvandelft]

On the raised bed this (unknown) Daphne surprises again with many flowers.
Daphne                                 

Nearby this Allium is more surviving than really being nice. Probably to dry?
Allium Sugar Melt                   

Not flowering but pretty
Armeria caespitosa 
                     
At the foot of this bed a New Zealander
Raoulia tenuicaulis                   
               

[Zdenek]

I have recently been pleased by this Gentiana ornata growing in a pure peat.

[ranunculus]

No wonder you are pleased!!!   

[TheOnionMan]

Nearby this Allium is more surviving than really being nice. Probably to dry?
Allium Sugar Melt                   
             

Luit, your plant of Allium 'Sugar Melt' looks very short or stunted, too short in fact, maybe too dry as you say. However that cultivar is very drought-tolerant, and this year even with our terrible drought, the plants still uniformly reached 16" (40 cm).  This is one of my named hybrids, now sold by Plant Delights Nursery... hopefully yours is from a vegetatively propagated division, as seedlings from these Allium senescens hybrids do not come true from seed, they'll hybridize with anything.  Is this now being sold in UK/EU nurseries?  Here are a couple photos from previous years.

[Lvandelft]

In mid-May I received a packet with bulbs of Leucoryne. Actually it was sort of a spare packet from
a post-order firm. Without much hope I put them in the soil. Here is the result.
Picked already several stems for a small vase and they flower again

Last year I planted some bulbs of Bessera in a nymphaea pot filled with the same sand as in the
garden. In November I put this pot in the garage where it is not cold enough and the pot dried
fully out. Planted and watered in April outside and here it is
     
Bessera elegans                          
                                 
Bessera elegans cl.                            

Please click to enlarge

[ranunculus]

Luit, the Bessera elegans is very beautiful.

[Lvandelft]

Nearby this Allium is more surviving than really being nice. Probably to dry?
Allium Sugar Melt                   
             

Luit, your plant of Allium 'Sugar Melt' looks very short or stunted, too short in fact, maybe too dry as you say. However that cultivar is very drought-tolerant, and this year even with our terrible drought, the plants still uniformly reached 16" (40 cm).  This is one of my named hybrids, now sold by Plant Delights Nursery... hopefully yours is from a vegetatively propagated division, as seedlings from these Allium senescens hybrids do not come true from seed, they'll hybridize with anything.  Is this now being sold in UK/EU nurseries?  Here are a couple photos from previous years.

Mark I received my plant from a trader who probably got it from PDN or another nursery.
In the first year they looked rather like your plant and I remember that I wanted to know more about the origin and found pictures on the net at your website. There was no reason to doubt then. Did not make a picture the first years because I was hoping for a nicer  plant in coming years.
I never saw it here afterwards.
Like I said, that was 4 years ago and since than it never performed really, because the raised bed is to dry for it.

[Lvandelft]

Luit, the Bessera elegans is very beautiful.

Elegant 

[Luc Gilgemyn]

A  very nice display Luit !
Enjoying your last walks in the garden before packing and heading for Scotland are you

[Lvandelft]

A  very nice display Luit !
Enjoying your last walks in the garden before packing and heading for Scotland are you

After Maggi's last posting in the SRGC Discussion Weekend Thread, I am afraid I cannot stay at home anymore

[TheOnionMan]

Some flowers at the moment here
Every year when the weather gets more wet and windy, Aster amellus give some good color in the garden                 

Aster amellus Weltfriede                         
Aster amellus Moerheim Gem
Aster umbellatus

Beautiful Asters Luit, I have a soft spot for asters, and it is Aster season here in New England.  Well, maybe I can't claim that anymore, as the taxonomists have split off American asters into 9 separate genera ; Almutaster, Canadanthus, Doellingeria, Eucephalus, Eurybia, Ionactis, Oreostemma, Sericocarpus and Symphyotrichum, with Almutaster & Canadanthus having one species each .  I still call them asters, and I predict one day, it'll all come full circle and they will once again return to being what they really are... ASTERS!

When it's aster season here, I practically run off the road when driving while distracted and gawking at magnificent roadside displays of native asters.  While driving to central Massachusetts this weekend, I stopped at a pull-out, and there were 8-9 species of Aster, including evidence of A. ericoides hybrids.  Aster umbellatus was there too, mostly done flowering and going to seed, but still looking fairly good, but this one is now supposedly called Doellingeria umbellata.

[Afloden]

Mark,

 It has come full circle with the Asters! Symphyotrichum Nees is from 1832, Ionactis Greene is 1897, Doellingeria Nees is 1832, Eurybia is Cassini 1820, Eucephalus Nuttall 1840, Oreostemma Greene 1890, and Sericocarpus Nees 1832! Only Almutaster and Canadanthus are young names from 1982 and 1995, respectively.

 I also have a soft spot for them, but they are just about to begin here. I have several good pink S. pilosus and numerous collections of another dozen or more species. The woodland species, E. schreberi and divaricata, are in flower now. I have three selected variegated forms of the latter.... I should get pictures.


 Aaron
 

[TheOnionMan]

Mark,

 It has come full circle with the Asters! Symphyotrichum Nees is from 1832, Ionactis Greene is 1897, Doellingeria Nees is 1832, Eurybia is Cassini 1820, Eucephalus Nuttall 1840, Oreostemma Greene 1890, and Sericocarpus Nees 1832! Only Almutaster and Canadanthus are young names from 1982 and 1995, respectively.

 I also have a soft spot for them, but they are just about to begin here. I have several good pink S. pilosus and numerous collections of another dozen or more species. The woodland species, E. schreberi and divaricata, are in flower now. I have three selected variegated forms of the latter.... I should get pictures.
Aaron
 

Ha!  Another aster lover... yes, let's see some "aster" pics in the next few weeks, from your part of the USA.  I have a bunch queued up already, but mostly holding off until I complete a deadline task in a week or so.

Actually, I'm familiar with all of the genera in the great American aster meltdown; seems that we're moving a century or more backwards rather than forward.  Look at Luit's Italian Aster amellus cultivars, then look at something like Aster oblongifolius, and tell me they're not both asters.  I know, I'm being inflexible on this, I've read the papers, but when I read the key separating out these genera, I think to myself, they've got to be kidding, talk about splitting hairs... they're splitting nano-filaments here!  

That said, in our woods I am familiar with genera that always had some members in them, such as Eurybia and Seriocarpus.  And looking at my "fav", Aster linariifolius, I can reluctantly see the case for Ionactis.

Regarding a pink A. pilosus, this is perhaps my favorite Aster (Symphyotrichum) of all time, and I've made a concentrated study of this wondrous plant.  I have found some that are pink-tinged, or with flowers that age pink, but out of many thousands of plants seen, only found one nice light pink one... just starting to flower now.  I'd like to see what your pink one looks like.  Are your A. pilosus plants scented?  This is the most outstanding aspects of this species, the flowers are perfumed like vanilla cookies baking, unlike any other plant I know of, on warm indian summer autumn days the aroma fills the air for meters around; I'm literally addicted to sniffing at the flowers as often as I can.

Speaking of Aster buds, some of these species are remarkable in the bud stage too, the stage many are in now.  The growth is intensely divaricating in growth, so they provide lots of visual interest throughout the growing season.  Some pics:

1-2   Aster pilosus - a collected form, growing at the base of my deck, already 6' (2 meters) tall.  Just now starting to pop a few white flowers, but it'll really get going in October.  It is one of the longest flowering Asters, and THE LAST PLANT left flowering each year, continuing into December; indifferent to frost.  The innumerable little rotund white flowers provide preferred death beds to bumble bees as cold weather ensues.

3      Aster pilosus - from 2009, a narrow-petal form, which I'm embarrassed to admit, got weeded out this summer by mistake, when clearing out the area that had become overgrown.

4-5      Aster ericoides (Symphyotrichum) - budded.  My collected forms grow 4' tall or more, making clouds of white.

6         Aster ericoides - prostrate form.  Plant growth is 1-2" tall, absolutely flat, will be smothered in white flowers.  For laughs, I planted regular Aster ericoides, the 4' tall upright plant, right behind it as counterpoint.  The taxonomists have deemed both epithets Aster ericoides var. prostratus and Symphyotrichum ericoides var. prostratum as synonyms for Symphyotrichum ericoides var. ericoides.  In the photo, there is also an Aster (Ionactis) linariifolius form in bloom.

[cohan]

fun to see the asters--tons of them here too, though my season is much farther along than yours..ours are mostly pinky purple to bluey purple, except some marsh species which are white-whitish (there are white prairie species, but not in my area)..none as tall as the eastern species--probably averaging 30-60cm here for most, but they put on quite a display, painting the roadsides purple starting in august, prob a few even earlier...
still some in flower in spite of frosts, and many will look great in seed too..

[Gerdk]

Here is Eccremocarpus scaber - a dark red variant. Flowering since months.
(not hardy here)

Gerd