Image of the day

[Lori S.]

Beautiful, Jim!  Looks like you've got the camera figured out just fine!  It will be a long time yet before our earliest penstemon, P. nitidus, starts to bloom.

[Hoy]

That's fine, Jim! I have always wanted to grow more penstemons. In the meantime can I admire yours.

[RickR]

So the Scopiola/Physochlaina genera are shade loving?
do you think physaloides might be zone 4 hardy?

Nice penstemons, Jim.  And nice settings too.  Indeed you are getting the knack of photo taking.

[Lori S.]

So the Scopiola/Physochlaina genera are shade loving?
do you think physaloides might be zone 4 hardy?

It seems like it would definitely be worth a try... I recently found out that Physochlaina orientalis is at least zone 3-hardy (from a plant ID at Dave's Garden; it also grows at the Reader rock garden here), and Scopiola SCOPOLIA carniolica wintered over for me (see previous posting in this thread).

EDIT:  Thanks for the spelling correction, Kelaidis - I keep getting this one messed up for some reason; must memorize it!! 

[Hoy]

SCOPOLIA, not SCOPIOLA! Or you won't find it.

[McDonough]

SCOPOLIA, not SCOPIOLA! Or you won't find it.

Thanks Trond for "keeping us awake and on our toes", no wonder googling the genus spelled incorrectly didn't come up with much

For todays image, I'm showing one of my favorite Trillium species, the quitely attractive T. catesbaei, or Bashful Wakerobin, another Southeastern native that is perfectly hardy much further north.
http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=TRCA11

What I like about this species, is the undulate grayish-green foliage is narrow enough to allow easy viewing of the delicately recurved blooms in shades of white, pink, to deep rose, with large not-so-bashful bright yellow stamens.  The flowers are nicely presented from bluish-grey sepals.

[Hoy]

I have had several Trillium species during the years but they disappear after a while. I suspect my regular culprit the slug! But when I look at the pictures of T. catesbaei I have to try once more!

[Hoy]

You often see pictures of different Dicentra cultivars, but this one, Dicentra macrantha, (new name Ichthyoselmis macrantha)  is not often seen. Easily grown in woodland conditions.

[McDonough]

You often see pictures of different Dicentra cultivars, but this one, Dicentra macrantha, (new name Ichthyoselmis macrantha)  is not often seen. Easily grown in woodland conditions.

Yikes, the new name is a visual and phonentic challenge!  It is a beautiful species, one that I hope to try sometime.

[Todd Boland]

Where does one even start to pronounce this genus!

[McDonough]

Iris cristata 'Dick Redfield' is a rare variant of crested iris, one with 6 falls instead of the usual 3 falls and 3 standards.  Not only that, the crests are extraorinarily ornamental, golden colored for the entire length of the petals, conspicuously margined with white frills!  The deep royal blue-purple flowers have been partially opened for a week, but cold weather slowed their full display, and finally a couple flowers reveal their frilly madness.  In fact, one flower has 7 falls.

[Kelaidis]

What an amazing plant!

And a great picture...Mark you are incredible. As was the gentleman the iris was named for. So different from my modest stand of various I. cristata that tried to bloom before this last snow....on May 12 can you believe!

[RickR]

Wow! That's quite uncharacteristic of any iris.  The flowers are "frosted."

[Lori S.]

My flowers have been "frosted" ever morning for the last couple of weeks.      (+4 deg C tonight?  We'll see.)

Beautiful iris!  Have never managed to overwinter Iris cristata here.

[McDonough]

Too bad Lori these don't winter over for you, they are what I call "easy as dirt" here.  I grow about 10 named varieties of I. cristata, they're all delightful... the last one in flower now if Shenandoah Sky.  The rhizomes literally grow on top of the soil, exposed to the elements; they like to explore/colonize a layer of bark mulch or forrest litter... so I'm surprized to hear they are not hardy in a more northerly location.

Also bloomed here recently is the Chinese Iris henryi, only brought into cultivation here in the USA recently by Darrell Probst.  I find this one easy to; it's a dwarf evergreen species with extremely narrow grasslike foliage that will trail down an enbankment like a fine sedge.  The flowers are exquisite; palest blue with bright yellow brown-rimmed signal spots.  It just finished, but as every stem has two flowers, I'm expecting the "reflush" today or tomorrow... it's magical.