What do you see on your garden walks? 2012

[RickR]

Gee, I could spend all day commenting on how wonderful EVERY pic is here.
  So one big WOW and THANK YOU to everyone must suffice! 

Fire Spinner has made it all the way to Home Depot in Minnesota.  Wonder if it is really hardy here.

[cohan]

I wonder if firespinner is the Delo I got, I keep forgetting to look at the tag..
That Inula is extra special!

[Bundraba!]

Michael, where I usually see the finest Rhodothamnus chamaecistus is on limestone, often cliffs or huge boulders.  Companion plants might be Papaver rhaeticum, Paederota bonorata and Anthyllis alpestris.  Have you tried this one from seed yet?

Anne, I have not. I have 'Anthyllis montana' ? for many years from seed and a 'good' pink form I purchased. I did try the poppy and failed but I am quite a bit keener these days!

I swear that Rhodothamnus is whispering: "grow me".

[Hoy]

I'm sitting at my cabin waiting for the sun to drive away the clouds and the temperature to increase.
What's better then to admire your garden walks whether at home or abroad

[Spiegel]

Michael, if the plant is whispering to you, listen.

[Lori S.]

Wonderful plants, Panayoti!  Phlox nana looks like a great plant - I wouldn't mind having a groundcover phlox that blooms all summmer.  The poppy looks interesting - a little different bud shape than P. nudicaule (which does bloom here all summer), and lacking the black hairs?  Can't wait for my little Inula verbascifolia to start performing, after wintering over successfully - it's really nice to see your mature plant.

Convolvulus lineatus v. angustifolius - I was warned by a couple of experts that this one is invasive, and indeed, saw a shoot pop up about a foot away this year... so I have since turfed it, regretfully:


Scutellaria hypericifolia, from seed in 2011:
 

Lilium martagon cultivar; Eryngium bourgatii; Sanguisorba dodecandra; Tanacetum macrophyllum:
     

Thymus 'Pink Chintz'; mid-July peonies:
   


Edit:  Sorry, can't get the last photo to attach - will have to try later.

[Kelaidis]

Love you pix, Lori! Imagine, Peonies in mid July (our's are popping seeds already)...

Love the Thymus 'Pink Chintz' shot: thymes are so easily overlooked. I seem to have more and more over time (along with lots of unsolicited hybrids)...

I posted many of these pix in Facebook, but realize most of you don't belong, so I am reposting them: plants from this past week in my garden.

1) Bulbine abyssinica which has made it through the last few winters.
2) Campanula fragilis var. cavalinii and Orostachys japonica
3) Eriogonum allenii
4) Jovibarba heuffellii ('Silver Ingot'? any help on cultivar name?)
5) Lantana horrida (a form hardy in Oklahoma, which I hope will make it here--only its first year)
6) Muhlenbergia torreyi (the wondeful ring muhly of the Great Plains--one of the best miniature grasses)
7) Pinellia pedatisecta: a tad weedy, but manageable in our climate. I saw this on Confucius' grave in China
Seseli gummiferum (a large, but very worthwhile umbel from Greece)
9) Talinum rugospermum: quite local from the Midwest. More delicate than the commoner T. calycinum.
10) Trachelium rumelianum: a pale specimen, but good view of details.

[Tim Ingram]

Panayoti - great to see that Seseli. This is a plant that caught gardening attention here some years ago but because it is biennial and needs really hot and dry conditions is not so much grown now. I imagine in Denver it could seed around? I used to grow several other species, all nice for their blue-silver foliage but mostly with much looser and more typical umbels.

[cohan]

Great stuff as always, Panayoti!
Love the Orostachys- still have not found a source for seed of japonica or other more exotic species..
Peonies are still in flower here too, and daylilies have just started..
Interesting the Bulbine is hardy..I have a couple of tiny South African spp indoors.. do you grow Asphodeline also?

[Kelaidis]

Tim: the Seseli is widefly available hereabouts, and in almost every "serious" gardeners garden. It does self sow, although never to the point to annoy. I am told there is a dwarf race in Sweden (which we must obtain!): you are right, it loves Colorado. And Colorado loves it!


My Orostachys japonica is not blooming this year, but I may have old seed, Cohan..As you can see, I have lots of offsets: some could """"accidentally""" fall into an envelope, if you know what I mean  (finally found a use for the emoticons).

[cohan]

Emoticons are great fun- my favourite is the 'lips sealed' not sure if its exactly the same here as on SRGC- but to me it always looked more like 'holding back the vomit!'

old Oro seed brings up a good question- does old Crassulaceae seed in general tend to be any good? I think I sowed some old Semp and Jovi seed this year with no result I've noticed yet

[Kelaidis]

If Crassula seed is viable, it comes up right away: I know that old Rosularia seed can be very viable (I gave my friend Bill Adams seed of several Rosularias stored at room temperature for ten or fifteen years and they came up like cress). The seed is very tiny, and subject to lots of pathogens--and grows slowly. So lots of things can happen in transit, so to speak.

[RickR]

I can't help it, these are just way too cute to not post some more pics:

Echinocereus reichenbachii ssp. baileyi and ssp. rigidissima
          

Echinocereus reichenbachii var. perbellus, E. triglochidiatus and E. viridiflorus
          

               

[cohan]

Thanks, Panayoti, good to know! I do have some Rosularia seed to sow also!

Rick cute indeed I have a pot of E triglochidiatus, as well as one of E reichenbachii perbellus which spent their first winter outside last year- a few survivors in each pot, by no means all of them.. time will tell if they will survive here- still siting experimenting to be done.. the lone E viridiflorus did not survive- whether it was the winter or the spring that did it in is hard to say..

[Hoy]

I can't help it, these are just way too cute to not post some more pics:

Echinocereus reichenbachii ssp. baileyi and ssp. rigidissima
   
Echinocereus reichenbachii var. perbellus, E. triglochidiatus and E. viridiflorus
   

Agree! But small and cute - they seem to be able to defend themselves