What do you see on your garden walks? 2012

[cohan]

Good stuff, Rick- the Euonymus is showy! I need to take cuttings of mine (not the same, I'd have to look up the name again- E something turkestanica, I think, or similar), if that's feasible, and plant some in an open area where it can do more than scramble through an apple- charming as that is, it's not that visible.. What is going on at the base of yours?

[Hoy]

Rick, the Euonymus is a winner! Strangely my ponderosa pine doesn't hold its needles, they all fall once they're brown.

[Howey]

Here are a few flowers in my garden today.  The last two are on Western University's campus.  Fran

Frances Howey
London, Ontario, Canada
Zone 5b

[Tim Ingram]

Rick - that Euonymus is astonishing! Does it always fruit as well as that? And I am intrigued by the Forsythia - they are planted so widely in gardens here that they tend to lose some appeal.

[cohan]

Our coldest night so far, Rocky Mtn House (30km west) was forecast for -8C, and Red Deer (60km east) was forecast at -5C, so not sure what we got, but there was very heavy frost! A couple shots, more later...

Achillea millefolium cultivar- I have several shades of pink now from pale to nearly/red, and really want some yellows/oranges- saw a really awesome mustard/pumpkin shade growing at the Saskatchewan Crossing this summer..
A willow, I think my mom said it was Blue Fox arctic willow, or something like that.. about a metre and half tall..
Prunus tomentosa.. these are nice looking shrubs all season, too.. not sure how tall they'd like to get, but the moose prune them every winter, they stay under 2 m...

[cohan]

Nice Anemone, Fran; Magnolia is a surprise to me !

[Hoy]

Very odd those Prunus leaves, Cohan - sort of rugose?
No frost here yet and I hope it is still a month to the first freezing temperatures as a lot of plants still are trying to flower (too much rain).

Your plants look spring fresh, Fran!
Is the Magnolia late or early

[Spiegel]

Just a few late bloomers although I found a couple of Primula japonica today. in bloom by the strean garden. 
The zauschneria has been blooming almost a month and is really lighting up the natural crevices on the back of the cliff.  The Heterotheca jonesii
just has a few blooms now but has been flowering all summer long.

[RickR]

Regarding my Yeddo Euonymus (Euonymus hamiltonianus var. seiboldii),it's kinda funny.  Yes, I think this is the best display ever, but not by that much.  However, earlier in the year I wondered what it would be like because there seemed to be less flowers than normal, and the flies that are attracted to them didn't seem to be out in droves like yesteryears.  (My neighbor nicknamed it the Fly Bush. )   This is what it looked like a week before.
          

From that it would seem pretty obvious that some photographic trickery went on to get the previous high in the sky pic of the fruit against the blue sky.  There's a story to that...
The giant shrub is near my lot line and the plant grows larger than I had ever anticipated.  These past two years I have had to cut it back by almost half (each year) to keep it from encroaching on the neighbor's and also doing some pruning to balance it a little on my side.  This drastic pruning seems to have spurred a lot of sucker growth that I am sure would continue into the neighbor's yard.  So yesterday I cut it all down and treated the stumps with triclopyr.  This is how I got that "high in the sky" photo:
          

There were about ten major stems coming from the base.

Trond, the provenance of the Pondersoa pine is the South Dakota Black Hills.  It's a disjunct population from the species' main distribution in and around the Rocky Mountains of North America.  Above eight feet it doesn't seem to be holding the dead needles on the trunk as well, and the branches have always dropped their dead needles.  Center stage in this pic is Styrax americanus (American Snowbell), but you can see the Pinus pondersoa in the background.  The yellow-turning brown to the right is an older Lespedeza bicolor, and underneath that is Thuja occidentalis 'Filiformis'.
          

Tim, that Forsythia mandshurica is the only forsythia I grow.  Unlike the other types that are hardy here, it stays quite tidy.  In fact, it has definitely seen better days for natural shapeliness.  The shrub is actually twelve years old, and experiences significant shade from a River birch.  I have only renewal pruned it once.  The species has a little fewer, but larger flowers and blooms two weeks earlier than intermedia cultivars.  Consequently, its bloom time overlaps with F. x intermedia, yet late frosts that will damage intermedias leave mandshurica unscathed.  This pic was taken in mid March 2012, but spring came 3 weeks early this season.
          

[cohan]

Anne- hard to beat that Zauschneria!

Rick, that's some serious surgery!

Trond, the texture of the Prunus tomentosa is heightened by the frost, but they are textured leaves, and smaller than the other Prunus here as well..

Here are a couple more Prunus-- the first is a red/dark leaf cultivar of--? looks more or less like a chokecherry to me (maybe taller, I have to prune it constantly, it wants to be a good sized tree, it seems, but too close to the houses for me to want any more shade!) but my mom says it was some kind of plum; I must have pics somewhere of it in flower, but neither flowers nor fruit are showy as i recall- it's all about the leaves..
Second is one of our small fruiting plums.. neither of these produce much if anything fruit-wise- I think maybe their flowering time is not well enough in synch with each other and/or the other Prunus sp around if those can pollinate... maybe some other cultural or climate issues..

[Bundraba!]

Swamp Azalea (R. viscosum); Rosularia pallida rings in the greening of the buns; Vaccinium corymbosum backs up a Gaylussacia from Deer Leap in Vermont.
                        

Autumn light through trees on my back line. It's been raining a lot lately but today was one of those perfectly humid, still, warm Autumn days when everything was just right for this gardener.

  

A walk down the rocky garden path.

  

Another good-doer Chrysanthemum; a late bloomer and Gentians responding to dampness after a dry summer. I hope this doesn't mean I won't see them in spring!
                                            

Mazatxotol! (Mazatlatl) That's what I presently dub the viscous, sweet, fizzy bright pink plok that these cactus pears are liable to soon become: Liquid laughter!

                                  Cheers!

[cohan]

Nice fall views, Michael- great colour on Gaylussacia, and love the rocky path view! I appreciate the light through the trees, on this property it'll soon be almost all I have for winter!

[cohan]

Still from thursday's heavy frost, Geum coccineum I like our native Geums for their vigorous looking leaves both late and early in the year, and this seedling from this spring seems to have that trait too hope to see flowers of this and seedling montanum next year?? Though they were planted out rather late, so maybe not, montanum are tiny, too...
Next, Diervilla lonicera, planted out last year and coming along nicely.. wondering if this will get too large for the nearby rock garden? I do have to move Achillea siberica v camschatica  near this, as it's flopping over onto the rock garden...lol...

[RickR]

Cohan, the geum you show: what are the dimensions?  It certainly is cute.

In Minnesota, Diervilla lonicera is rhizomatous, spreading underground, and grows up to 3ft.  I'm not sure it would be a good thing to have near a rock garden.

[cohan]

Good tips on the Diervilla, Rick, I'll keep an eye on it- there is a bit of space between it and the rock garden, though not a lot...

The Geum coccineum is a seedling from this spring and is maybe 4 inches diameter at most.. according to this site, should be around 15 x 12inches at maturity, I'm assuming the 15" is flowering stems.. I didn't plant them in the rock gardens, but rather in a new sort of 'sub-alpine' meadow berm! with a couple of Hieraciums, Pulsatillas etc..
http://www.wildgingerfarm.com/Geum.htm