October 2010 in the Northern Hemisphere

[TheOnionMan]

Hi, all Thalictrum grandiflorum white flower form is now blooming in a pot. I really love this pristine flowers swinging on their slender stems.

YT, a delightful little Thalictrum, one rarely seen.  Do you have a photo of the foliage too?  After all, that's one reason we like to grow Thalictrum is for the foliage. 

Looking up the name Thalictrum grandiflorum, I came across some confusion.  It is described in Flora of China, growing only 20-30 tall, described by author Maximowicz in 1889.
http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=2&taxon_id=200008204
http://www.efloras.org/object_page.aspx?object_id=40666&flora_id=2

The name grandiflorum was also described by Rose in the US National Herbarium in 1897 (just 8 years later) this one now regarded as T. grandifolium Watson, a species from Mexico, in the Sierra Madre, Chihuahua, and in Durango.

I have always wondered why more of the small Thalictrum are not seen more often in cultivation; I grow T. integrilobum which I got from Kazuo Mori many years ago, and this little plants, with tiny down-turned linear lobes, almost never flowers, only rarely making a white flower puff.  It still clings to life, just barely, in my garden.

[cohan]

Thank you, cohan! Your pictures of Canadian native alpines are interesting!

Gail, the flower of my Thalictrum grandiflorum is 38-40mm in diameter (from tip to tip) and the plant is less than 30cm tall.

Thank you, Angie! It's the first time to see this beautiful flower at my bench and decided sharing this.

thanks, YT, that's one of the fun parts of the forum, to see what is growing in other places

[Lori S.]

...the flower of my Thalictrum grandiflorum is 38-40mm in diameter (from tip to tip) and the plant is less than 30cm tall.

Wow, 4 cm flowers on a thalictrum... how extraordinary!

Here we are at the ragged end of our season, after an even cooler than usual, and wet, summer.  Many plants chose not to bloom at all, and others, very late.
1) Onosma stellulata still in bloom... too late for seedexes this year, I guess.
2, 3) The extremely odd flowers of water hawthorn, Aponogeton distachyos, a South African water plant.  Even in our very short season, it has a dormant period through the height of summer, then puts out leaves and flowers again in fall.
4) Epilobium canum spp. garrettii
5) Our native Aster (now ) ericoides ssp. pansus , still in bloom in the front yard a few days ago
6) Woodsy scene
7) Thalictrum delavayi var. decorum
8 ) Last shot, probably, of tropical Nymphaea 'Crystal', as the ponds will be emptied soon for winter.
9) And Nymphaea 'Ganna Walska', another tropical.
10) Another native still in bloom here, broomweed, Gutierriza diversifolia, with Carlina acaulis behind.

[cohan]

you're doing quite well still, lori
i especially like the Carlina;
some native Asters still going around here too; a few other garden stragglers, but it starts to get pretty shady in my yard by now

[Lesley Cox]

Welcome to the SRGC Forum Tatsuo (Am I correct in thinking that Tatsuo is what we would call your forename or first name?). You will find many friends here and lots of helpful information as well as images of beautiful or curious plants.

Have you come across a man called Kazuo Mori? He and I used to correspond some year ago and he visited NZ on one occasion (way back about 1970 I think) and brought some special plants for me. He wrote a beautiful book about Japanese alpines, of which I have a copy but it is all in Japanese characters, so I can't read it but the photos are wonderful.

[YT]

YT, a delightful little Thalictrum, one rarely seen.  Do you have a photo of the foliage too?  After all, that's one reason we like to grow Thalictrum is for the foliage. 

Mark, here is the photo for your request. Can you find the yellow spots on the leaves? That’s the reason I didn’t show you the whole plant photo at first. We had deadly heat and dry summer (and have ‘hot’ autumn now) this year and couldn’t prevent spider mites attack these leaves.

Looking up the name Thalictrum grandiflorum, I came across some confusion.  It is described in Flora of China, growing only 20-30 tall, described by author Maximowicz in 1889.
http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=2&taxon_id=200008204
http://www.efloras.org/object_page.aspx?object_id=40666&flora_id=2

The name grandiflorum was also described by Rose in the US National Herbarium in 1897 (just 8 years later) this one now regarded as T. grandifolium Watson, a species from Mexico, in the Sierra Madre, Chihuahua, and in Durango.

Yes, I had the same confusion between Maximowicz and Rose. Your ‘grandi-folium’ makes me clear now. Thank you!

I have always wondered why more of the small Thalictrum are not seen more often in cultivation; I grow T. integrilobum which I got from Kazuo Mori many years ago, and this little plants, with tiny down-turned linear lobes, almost never flowers, only rarely making a white flower puff.  It still clings to life, just barely, in my garden.

I’ve never seen T. integrilobum in wild condition but it is said that they grow along streams in one of the coldest area in Hokkaido Island.

[YT]

Wow, 4 cm flowers on a thalictrum... how extraordinary!

Lori, yes, my plant has relatively larger flower than average of this species. I’ll try to select more round petal flowers from its seedlings

Welcome to the SRGC Forum Tatsuo (Am I correct in thinking that Tatsuo is what we would call your forename or first name?). You will find many friends here and lots of helpful information as well as images of beautiful or curious plants.

Have you come across a man called Kazuo Mori? He and I used to correspond some year ago and he visited NZ on one occasion (way back about 1970 I think) and brought some special plants for me. He wrote a beautiful book about Japanese alpines, of which I have a copy but it is all in Japanese characters, so I can't read it but the photos are wonderful.

Lesley, thank you very much for your warm welcome. It’s right my given name is Tatsuo. Japanese people usually put their family name first same as Hungarians. I spot your posts everywhere in the Forum, so I’ve already known you much better than you’ve known me! I’m also interested in spring flowering dwarf bulbs, so perhaps we meet again in Crocus and Narcissus forum later I know Mr. Mori by his wonderful books but unfortunately I haven’t had an opportunity to meet him yet…

[Lesley Cox]

I'm sure we'll meet here, there and everywhere on the Forum Tatsuo. Kindest regards.

[Gerdk]

Impatiens namchabarwensis is still flowering in a shady sport!

Gerd

[fleurbleue]

What a nice Thalictrum Lori ! I didn't know it 

[TheOnionMan]

Thanks Tatsuo for showing the whole plant on Thalictrum grandiflorum, remarkably large flowers for the small size of the plant. It always surprises me that more of the many dwarf species of Thalictrum are not in cultivation; this one looks to be one that would interest most rock gardeners.

[TheOnionMan]

2, 3) The extremely odd flowers of water hawthorn, Aponogeton distachyos, a South African water plant.  Even in our very short season, it has a dormant period through the height of summer, then puts out leaves and flowers again in fall.

5) Our native Aster (now ) ericoides ssp. pansus , still in bloom in the front yard a few days ago

7) Thalictrum delavayi var. decorum

Lori, as we can always depend on from your posts, a delightful assortment of plants still blooming in fall. The flowers on Aponogeton are indeed peculiar, never seen anything quite like it.  Flowers on Thalictrum delavayi var. decorum are most elegant.  How tall does this one grow?  Is it normally a fall bloomer or are these late blooms on an earlier bloomer?

One that intrigues me is Aster ericoides var. pansum, which for the most part has a more northerly distribution than ssp. ericoides. Of course, all of these are Symphyotrichum now but I still call them aster.  I find the type species is extremely variable in the wild populations I have seen, I wonder how Aster ericoides var. pansum differs.  I made it somewhat of a personal project to select and grow superior Aster ericoides forms, from the prostrate form, to extra dense and floriferous tall forms.  In fact, I just received a plant of Aster ericoides 'Schneegitter', the German name translates to "snow fence", an odd name, but I think it might refer to the numerous rigidly erect stems to 2' tall.

[Maggi Young]

The flowers on Aponogeton are indeed peculiar

 Wonderful sculpted flowers.... and they smell delicious!

[Stephenb]

My favourite flower in my garden at the moment is a Korean, Aster scaber (seed propagated from Berkutenko). This was traditionally one of the most popular wild foraged vegetables in Korea (spring shoots) and is nowadays also cultivated as a vegetable due to demand from city folk. One of my favourite edimentals... There are 3 or 4 plants together in the pictures merged into one giant umbel. I ate all the shoots of these plants in the spring and both I and the plants recovered from the experience as you can see - very tasty actually....

[cohan]

My favourite flower in my garden at the moment is a Korean, Aster scaber (seed propagated from Berkutenko). This was traditionally one of the most popular wild foraged vegetables in Korea (spring shoots) and is nowadays also cultivated as a vegetable due to demand from city folk. One of my favourite edimentals... There are 3 or 4 plants together in the pictures merged into one giant umbel. I ate all the shoots of these plants in the spring and both I and the plants recovered from the experience as you can see - very tasty actually....

an interesting one--cool that you can harvest it without slowing it down