Alpines September 2012

[Lori S.]

A couple of lupins bought from Beaver Creek and planted this year - Lupinus wyethii (with this year's seedling Salvia pachyphylla in the background - if it survives and thrives, it may one day outgrow its spot... I don't think I'll worry about that just yet  ) and Lupinus aridus ssp. ashlandensis, which has put up a couple of flower buds:

   

[Tim Ingram]

Those are extremely moreish plants Lori! I must try and emulate that coarse tufa scree. I have a few lupin species germinating and the bigger species like albifrons have made magnificent, if short lived, specimens in the garden.

[cohan]

Cute little Lupines! I wonder if the second will get a chance to mature its flowers?

[Hoy]

I like these little Lupines more than the huge Russel hybrids often grown in gardens here!

[Lori S.]

Now starting to open, Lupinus aridus ssp. ashlandensis, bought from Beaver Creek this spring:
 

Attractive foliage on Goniolimon cf. speciosa, from seed last year (Holubec seed from China, Karlik Shan, Xijiang):


Erigeron nematophyllus, from seed last year, in bud now:


This year's seedlings of Astragalus loanus... one doing OK so far, the other not so well... very difficult to grow, according to Stephanie's article in the fall, 2011 RGQ, so this may well be the best look I get at them!


Seed heads of Agoseris glauca:


Two of this year's seedlings of Dracocephalum multicaule (seed from Pavelka:  "2400m, Aras Dag, Turkey; dense cushions, erect leafy stems, 10-15cm, many white to pale yellow flws, stoney slopes").  One is a very attractive plant though with smaller flowers than the other, less dense, but larger-flowered one.
 

[Hoy]

Lori, many gems but the lupin is the diamond - so far

[Todd Boland]

I got that Lupinus from Beaver Creek as well....didn't even live long enough to plant out!  It seems to detest wet.

Some current bloomers:

Delphinium species (who knows which one!), Epilobium fleischeri, Erica cinerea 'Atropurpurea' and Gentiana asclepiadea

[Todd Boland]

Some others: Salvia przewalskii (just starting), Gentiana loderi, G. veitchiorum and an out-of-season bloom on Pulsatilla turczaninovii.

[Hoy]

Nice, Todd!
Here the fall rain has started and it is completely soaked everywhere

No flowers but here are some nice Saxes on my roof. Hope they flower next spring!

[Todd Boland]

Impressive saxes Trond!

[Tim Ingram]

This is a real little treasure flowering for the first time, though it has grown vegetatively quite happily for several years, Gentiana depressa. Only one flower but somehow it commands attention. I am quite surprised this grows with us at all in our dry garden and expect I will now be told that it makes huge flowering mats all over Scottish gardens! This belongs to the same section as the rather legendary G. urnula, all nicely described and drawn in Josef Halda's monograph on Gentiana. I think I may be lucky to grow any more of them!

[RickR]

Viewed at full magnification, it's a giant among the dwarf leaves.  The colors are so distinct, and no wonder people love gentians! 

[Lori S.]

It's a beauty to be sure!  And what a tubby little flower!

Not much happening here...
An update on Lupinus aridus ssp ashlandensis:
 

The colour of Scutellaria hypericifolia seems especially intense these days:

[Tim Ingram]

After I showed the flower of Gentiana depressa, Lesley Cox in New Zealand described a plant she grew with over 100 flowers, and a picture of another flowering freely (see the SRGC Forum). So it's back to the drawing board for me! It must be the fact that it has not flowered at all in our garden which makes even one flower so exciting.

[Bundraba!]

Tim; I think you do well just to have G. depressa. Rick Lupp (Mt. Tahoma Nursery) offered it years ago, the only time I've seen it offered in the US. I was unable to keep it going. Your post offers hope that it is possible and worth trying again!