July 2011 in the Northern Hemisphere

[meanie]

I posted a close-up of one of my Sollya heterophylla (Bluebell Creeper) earlier in the year and someone wanted to see a photo of them in full bloom. I can't remember who it was, but finally I've remembered.
This is all three, standing between one and one and a half metres tall.

[fleurbleue]

You have a white Sollya, Meanie   ! 

[meanie]

You have a white Sollya, Meanie   ! 

It's the reason that I have two blue ones Fleurbleue - I had to  mail order it, and when it bloomed it was blue! The suppliers were excellent dispatching the correct one promptly and telling me to keep the wrong one too.
There is a pink one, which strikes me as wrong!

[Lesley Cox]

But you'd like to have it, all the same?

[meanie]

But you'd like to have it, all the same?

Not for me - I have an aversion to most pink flowers!
I don't mind Lilies in pink. I have a Hollyhock which grows to tree like proportions every year with the most delightful pastel pink blooms. I tolerate the short lived pink blooms of Tradescantia purpurea. I think that is it for me really........
The fact is that if there was a red Sollya I think that would probably be "wrong" too.

[cohan]

I posted a close-up of one of my Sollya heterophylla (Bluebell Creeper) earlier in the year and someone wanted to see a photo of them in full bloom. I can't remember who it was, but finally I've remembered.
This is all three, standing between one and one and a half metres tall.

quite lovely! I think pink would be a natural

[Tim Ingram]

A few nice things on the sand bed at the moment - first Eucomis schijffii which I promised to show in flower; what a plant! The second by contrast is not particularly 'special', a good compact form of Gentiana septemfida (subsp. grossheimii), but that blue.... Just lovely. And finally Campanula tommasinianus, about the last to flower on the bed and a very tidy plant. Anyone who would like more on this bed please refer to the AGS website.

[Maggi Young]

Crumbs, Tim, it was only on the 8th July  you showed us the buds beginning... they shot up at a great rate! http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=6462.msg207372;topicseen#msg207372



 By the way, Folks, the link to Tim's sand bed notes on the AGS site is this:
http://www.alpinegardensociety.net/discussion/inthegarden/Fun+with+a+Sand+Bed/531/

[Lesley Cox]

Maggi, thanks for the link. I hadn't caught up with Tim's postings on the AGS site because A) I can never remember my login details and B) I just find the SRGC Forum so much more inviting and not only friendly, but user-friendly too.  It's a great article though and gives me a couple of ideas which will account for some of our over wide gravel driveway. What better than to dump a truckload of sand on it? Wonder if Roger is planning a trip away somewhere for a couple of days in the spring.?

[Brian Ellis]

Simply stunning Tim, what a treat.

[meanie]

That is one lovely Eucomis!

[Tim Ingram]

Thanks for your kind comments - and many thanks Maggi for giving the links! I must admit the website is a wonderful way of sharing the garden with others, and quite a stimulus to get on and do some weeding!! We are hoping down here in the far flung South-East to encourage more local gardeners to get inspired by alpines and woodland gems and so are combining with the National Gardens Scheme to open a selection of our gardens next spring. I will try to take some photos of the gardens and let you know how it goes.

Meanwhile a few less alpine pictures taken in our garden and those of friends recently.

Berkheya sp.: this came originally from The Old Vicarage, East Ruston in Norfolk, where it grows in the 'Desert' garden. It hasn't made such a stunning specimen in our richer soil, but is outstanding there.
Digitalis parviflora: certainly my favourite foxglove and here good with Potentilla recta (neither were planted! They have just appeared as seedlings).
Impatiens omeiana: a failure in our garden but has done well in a friend's much heavier and moisture retentive soil. Quite a surprise that this should be hardy!
Indigofera potaninii & clematis: a rather beautiful combination, again not in my garden (!). The indigofera is a particularly graceful species, and has that 'presence' of many legumes.
Veratrum album: generally somewhat of a failure with us for lack of summer rains, but with this year's very dry and warm spring and cooler wetter summer it has done rather well. I suppose this can be called a true alpine and it is a pretty wonderful plant!

[art600]

Both my Hibiscus are in flower.  This is considerably earlier than last year and I wondered if anyone else has seen the same.

[Great Moravian]

Tim,
I wonder where the details of the sand-bed construction presented by you can be found.
The upper layer seems to be a grit without finer fractions. The bed certainly
doesn't mimic dunes which I imagine if reading about a sand-bed.

[Tim Ingram]

Josef - the bed has not used sharp sand or builder's ballast as is usually recommended. We had a large supply of fine potting grit left over from the nursery. This is actually a heat shattered flint and the smaller material left over from what is used for rendering house walls makes a good potting grit, very sharp and with a little larger particle sizes than sharp sand. However, it is not very attractive as a surface(!) so I have topdressed the bed with 6mm chippings, and generally redo this every year. The plants do take a while to get established and might well do better in sharp sand which is likely to hold more moisture. But on the whole they have prospered quite well.

The bed was made simply by removing about 30cm of soil and filling in with the fine grit - no membrane was put in to separate the soil from the bed and so worms (and ants!) will have gradually begun to mix in the soil and I am sure quite a few plants will have put roots down to the soil below.

I would like to make a bed with sharp sand or ballast to see how it compares, and also a crevice bed which seems especially good at growing choice plants, but we don't have access to suitable local stone so easily in Kent.