Image of the day

[David Sellars]

Anne:

Those are great shots of Saxifraga caesia.  It is nice to see them in flower - all too often they are just an enticing lump on the cliffs.

[Spiegel]

David, I just can't figure out their bloom time.  Often we are there and see these fabulously tight cushions and budding has barely started.  It blooms often at the same time as Physoplexis comosa and many of the later meadow plants. This year, we were fairly early in the season and we found it frequently in bloom.  Certain plants seem to have minds of their own.

[Todd Boland]

Wish I could take credit for these Androsace bulleyana...these were grown by that quintessential alpine grower Stephanie Ferguson in Calgary, Alberta.  I'm so envious!

[Lori S.]

Me too!  Here's another picture of same... one of the many scattered through the exquisite front crevice garden that Todd and I drooled over when we visited recently:

[RickR]

I didn't even know there were red androsace!  What a treat!

A friend came over to see my yard today and brought another friend who works as an intern at the Green Bay Botanical Gardens (Wisconsin).  It's really gratifying to see these young people (20 and 25 years my junior) so enthusiastic about plants.  We then went to the Minnesota Arboretum, and look what we found, blooming in mid summer and in 90 degree heat!

    Rhododendron chryseum

             

Probably the only thing that saved it from dehydration was the 70 degree dew point today.  Not that fun for us, though...

[cohan]

Me too!  Here's another picture of same... one of the many scattered through the exquisite front crevice garden that Todd and I drooled over when we visited recently:
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Wow--fantastic colour!

[Todd Boland]

Rick, that is not R. chryseum...that species has yellow-green flowers.  You have photographed an azalea....probably R. flammeum.  beautiful nonetheless!

I didn't even know there were red androsace!  What a treat!

A friend came over to see my yard today and brought another friend who works as an intern at the Green Bay Botanical Gardens (Wisconsin).  It's really gratifying to see these young people (20 and 25 years my junior) so enthusiastic about plants.  We then went to the Minnesota Arboretum, and look what we found, blooming in mid summer and in 90 degree heat!

    Rhododendron chryseum

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Probably the only thing that saved it from dehydration was the 70 degree dew point today.  Not that fun for us, though...

[RickR]

Rick, that is not R. chryseum...that species has yellow-green flowers.  You have photographed an azalea....probably R. flammeum.  beautiful nonetheless!

Hah!  Thanks Todd.  Is it normal for R. flammeum to bloom so late?  I am sorry to say that this is not the first time I've seen incorrect designations at the Minnesota Arboretum.  But in their defense (sort of), there are many specimens that had no identification tags at all when I was in my twenties that do have have identification tags now (25 years later).

[cohan]

from a short walk up the road a couple of days ago.. Castilleja.. very mixed looking populations around here (not in this shot, with Achillea)--variable miniata or hybrids?
more in the full album: https://picasaweb.google.com/cactuscactus/July102011Castilleja
and Alberta Wanderings thread
http://nargs.org/smf/index.php?topic=591.msg10286#new

[Todd Boland]

Rick, some of the American species are quite late...my arborescens and viscosum are just blooming now.  Mind you, you are weeks ahead oif me so it is amazing that flammeum would be so late.  It is certainly an azalea whatever the species/hybrid.

Here is a new one...Campanula zangezuri...I have the sinking feeling it is monocarpic.

[Lori S.]

Campanula zangezura was formerly Symphyandra zangezura... and don't worry, they bloom like mad and seed like mad, so you'll probably have them around for a long time!  A nice plant though - I like it!

[RickR]

Campanula zangezura is somewhat similar to the C. armena that I grow.  What an odd and interesting flower bud!  I just went out and looked at my sad plants gasping in the 96F temp, their buds are similar too, but not as nice.  I never noticed them before, until your most excellent photo, Todd.

With all this heat, I have many species blooming near white when they had previously flowered blue/purple.  All eight of my Allium sikkimense from seed that Mark had preliminarily verified for me (http://nargs.org/smf/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=177.0;attach=7910;image) have almost no color, a dozen Anemone rivularis from three sources are all white (front and back) and Petrohagia saxifraga that  normally has a purply tint is the purist white.  Campanula armena seems to teeter back and forth with color, and Phemeranthus calycinus, if anything is deeper colored.

P.S. Mark: does this still look like A. sikkimense?  i don't recall the stalks twisting so much before they straighten and flower...

                    28 June 11
              

Anemone rivularis (28 June 11) in a pot, and in the garden.
        

[McDonough]

With all this heat, I have many species blooming near white when they had previously flowered blue/purple.  All eight of my Allium sikkimense from seed that Mark had preliminarily verified for me (http://nargs.org/smf/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=177.0;attach=7910;image) have almost no color, a dozen Anemone rivularis from three sources are all white (front and back) and Petrohagia saxifraga that  normally has a purply tint is the purist white.  Campanula armena seems to teeter back and forth with color, and Phemeranthus calycinus, if anything is deeper colored.

P.S. Mark: does this still look like A. sikkimense?  i don't recall the stalks twisting so much before they straighten and flower...

Rick, it could be A. sikkimense... the foliage doesn't look as flat as it should, but nodding buds that become erect eventually is typical, and yes, the high heat can "whiten" lots of plants and flowers; we're in the heat too, with the rest of this week predicted for same high heat that the midwest has been experiencing.  Show me this Allium in a week or two when the flowers open... mine are coming into bud now too, so the timing of your plant is right.

Todd, the form Symphyandra, now Campanula zangezuri is really lovely!

[Lori S.]

Campanula zangezura:
http://www.theplantlist.org/tpl/record/kew-366728

[Spiegel]

The campanula/symphyandra is lovely, whatever the name.  Certainly the other symphyandra keep themselves going by self-sowing, but never obnoxiously.
The weather here is dreadful, blistering hot and humid, yet there are a few things that are looking as is they are enjoying themselves: physarias, astragalus, eriogonums.  Also, all the daphnes are starting to rebloom.  Just a few pictures taken this morning.......