Image of the day

[Hoy]

Back from a truly whirlwind 11 day trip from Denver to California and back...with many, many impressions and fabulous experiences. I shall rejoin the forum with a picture I took last Wednesday at Quarryhill Botanical Garden in Sonoma, California (a fabulous place specializing only in plants of East Asia): they were growing this wonderful Dysosma there (I think it was D. versipelle but it could be D. pleiantha--I forgot to check the label!): it was growing in a trough which let one really get under the foliage--a shot not easily replicated in most gardens! I've tried growing this in Denver, but didn't have quite the right spot for it, and it has shrunk to nothing. We shall content ourselves with Podophyllum emodi (much less flashy, but pretty cool nonetheless) and tough as nails here. There are compensations for you all who live in wooded, shady, dank places....grrrrrrrr.

Well, my wooded, shady, dank place is infested with snails and slugs! All my Dysosmas and relatives (have tried quite a few) are slug-snacks. They are always devoured by the slimy vermins.

[McDonough]

Back from a truly whirlwind 11 day trip from Denver to California and back...with many, many impressions and fabulous experiences. I shall rejoin the forum with a picture I took last Wednesday at Quarryhill Botanical Garden in Sonoma, California (a fabulous place specializing only in plants of East Asia): they were growing this wonderful Dysosma there (I think it was D. versipelle but it could be D. pleiantha--I forgot to check the label!): it was growing in a trough which let one really get under the foliage--a shot not easily replicated in most gardens! I've tried growing this in Denver, but didn't have quite the right spot for it, and it has shrunk to nothing. We shall content ourselves with Podophyllum emodi (much less flashy, but pretty cool nonetheless) and tough as nails here. There are compensations for you all who live in wooded, shady, dank places....grrrrrrrr.

Oooh, nice Dysosma... this genus is getting lots of attention these days; seems to be a hot item on the SRGC pages.  Don't know much about them myself, but they seem like a fascinating lot and are surely worth trying.  I got one from Darrell Probst... after seeing your pics from California, I went looking for it again, and sure enough it just emerged. The name given on Darrell's label is: Podophyllum versipelle ssp. boreale Clone C  CPC 27-4.01.4.  In his greenhouse he's got lots of these things with big dangly flowers and lucious umbrella leaves, where he plays around dabbing pollen.

To see what this one looks like when mature, here are some links I found, including where to purchase it:

Posted on SRGC by John Humphries:
Podophyllum versipelle ssp boreale
http://www.srgc.org.uk/discus/messages/283/12155.jpg
...close-up
http://www.srgc.org.uk/discus/messages/283/12156.jpg

This plant is available on Barry Yinger's Asiatica site (original plant from Darrell Probst)
http://www.asiaticanursery.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/plants.viewCategory/catID/39/index.htm

[McDonough]

Mild and drizzly today, better light conditions to take a photo of Tulipa polychroma, probably my favorite dwarf tulip species, one of the very best for the rock garden.  What's not to like here, refined smooth silvery leaves, pristine white yellow-eyed flowers with a tantalizingly sweet fragrance, on branched stems about 3" tall.  When the flowers close, the backs are a pastel greenish-gray color with a hint of lavender.  The flower in the center is an anomalous 8-petalled one, so is the semi-closed flower on the right.

[Kelaidis]

I too have known and grown and loved Tulipa polychroma, which looks an awful lot like Tulipa biflora which bloomed a few weeks ago at Denver Botanic Gardens...You will simply have to take my word for this, since the only picture I have of the plant has its flower closed (see below).

I'm not sure I would rate these compact cousins of Tulipa turkestanica above the myriad ruby red and luminous lavender Tulipa humilis that are opening up all over my garden: I think I would rate these as my very favorites, although they are threatening to become potential pests by self sowing.

I would rate Tulipa saxatilis, T. bakeri and their kin very high as well...

And what about the scarlet glories: T. wilsoniana, T. vvedevenskyi, T. maximowiczii, T. linifolia, and all the other red rabble...surely these rate highly, Mark! For me, the ever expanding masses of tulips at Denver Botanic Gardens and in my own gardens are a major highlight of the gardening year. I hope one day I can add the modest, nodding Tulipa heteropetala I found high in both the Altai and Tian Shan to the list one day. This very primitive species hints that tulips are perhaps not so very far from lilies and fritillaries genetically.

(the first picture is T. biflora, the second T. heteropetala taken above treeline near Almaty)

[McDonough]

I too have known and grown and loved Tulipa polychroma, which looks an awful lot like Tulipa biflora which bloomed a few weeks ago at Denver Botanic Gardens...You will simply have to take my word for this, since the only picture I have of the plant has its flower closed (see below).

I'm not sure I would rate these compact cousins of Tulipa turkestanica above the myriad ruby red and luminous lavender Tulipa humilis that are opening up all over my garden: I think I would rate these as my very favorites, although they are threatening to become potential pests by self sowing.

I would rate Tulipa saxatilis, T. bakeri and their kin very high as well...

And what about the scarlet glories: T. wilsoniana, T. vvedevenskyi, T. maximowiczii, T. linifolia, and all the other red rabble...surely these rate highly, Mark! For me, the ever expanding masses of tulips at Denver Botanic Gardens and in my own gardens are a major highlight of the gardening year. I hope one day I can add the modest, nodding Tulipa heteropetala I found high in both the Altai and Tian Shan to the list one day. This very primitive species hints that tulips are perhaps not so very far from lilies and fritillaries genetically.

(the first picture is T. biflora, the second T. heteropetala taken above treeline near Almaty)

Well, it is always dangerous to admit one's favorite species in a genus; sure to omit other people's favorites   If I had to recommend a rock garden sized tulip on scent alone, it would easily be T. polychroma.

The issue of Tulipa polychroma versus T. biflora is an interesting one.  It seems that the species (T. polychroma) as it occurs in Palestine, with only two flowers and deeper color outside of petals, and undulate leaf margins, has been separated off as T. biflora, with the long established T. polychroma from Iran and neighboring areas retaining the species name of T. polychroma.  There's been interesting discussion and photos on SRGC that help illustrate this.  Then as a separate issue, is the whole Tulipa turkestanica/bifloriformis group, which takes on another dimension.  I include a recent link where Janis Ruksans posts a series of photos showing the enigmatic turkestanica/bifloriformis group... I think this is another area in need of a serious taxonomic revision.

=======

From Oron Peri: Tulipa are in bloom at the moment in the Negev desert, Israel;
T. biflora, February 19, 2010,, common at the higher elevations from 800-1000m
http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=4955.msg137323#msg137323

Inquiry by me (Mark McD.) regarding the fact T. biflora does not show in the Wildflowers of Israel site:
http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=4955.msg137333#msg137333
(plus, scroll down to see some T. polychroma pics taken in 2006; and read through the thread)

Then check out Janis Ruksans regarding the Tulipa "turkestanica/bifloriformis group".
http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=4955.msg146836#msg146836

PS: You've been away for a while, but I hope you caught my mention of Tulipa vvedenskyii , with photographs of this species growing in one of Phil Pearson's fabulous high-fire clay pots, in this Image of The Day link:
http://nargs.org/smf/index.php?topic=24.msg1231#msg1231

Ohhh, if only it were all black and white

[RickR]

Well the day after my last post was Lena's last day at work and I never hooked up with her.  Didn't even get to say good bye.  But we also have a cashier, Helena, who is from Byelo Rus.  She said the "vv" is not pronounced as I surmised, and that it most likely is "v" pronounced very heavily.  Envision the Spanish "rr" as oppose to the "r", or the "č" as opposed to the "ć" in some slavic languages. 

In language discussions with Lena, she had always stressed how differently people speak in various regions, even within the small area of the Ukraine.  Even within the little country of Slovenia, it was easy for me to pick out the different spoken language rhythms.  I am thinking that unless we can pinpoint the region of Vvedensky's origin and a speaker there, we would never really know the true pronunciation.  Good thing Botanical Latin is an unspoken language...

[Kelaidis]

Hmmm. Looks as though no one has posted for today. I shall do a twofer: I mentioned I recently came back from a whirlwind tour of the West, and one of the many highlights was meeting John Weiser, who gardens in Sparks, Nevada and contributes a lot to Alpine-L: his garden is really smashingly good featuring mostly xeric plants and many, many local endemics from the eastern face of the Sierra--a region of tremendous biodiversity. A treasure trove with outstanding garden design. I am appending pix of two of the many gems in his garden that have been discussed endlessly on Alpine-L of late (maybe we can lure some of that crew over here...) and a picture of John, the gardener himself. He not only took off from work to be at the garden when we showed up last Friday, he fed us lunch! It's fun to meet people in Snail Space (the reality equivalent of snail mail) when you've only known them in cyberspace... The buttercup is generally called the sagebrush buttercup and occurs by the tens of trillions across the Great Basin and other steppe regions from California to the Rockies (we're talking about nearly 1 million square miles here...). The Viola has almost as big a range--stopping its eastward trek at the Wasatch front instead of Colorado. This was the first time I'd seen the latter up close and personal. To paraphrase Browning: "Oh to be everywhere (not just England) now that spring is here!"

[Todd Boland]

What an exquisite viola and the buttercup is no slouch!  We are not quite that far along in Newfoundland...the crocus are currently at their peak.

Tulipa polychroma is a delightful species....we have them in the bulb frame at MUNBG...might be open in the next couple of days but then the frame does provide some extra warmth.

[McDonough]

What an exquisite viola and the buttercup is no slouch!  We are not quite that far along in Newfoundland...the crocus are currently at their peak.

When I lived in the Seattle area of Washington, to escape the gloom of cloudy rainy days, I liked nothing better than to drive due east to the "dry side" of Washington, heading to the Columbia River Gorge.  While the landscape appears barren except for endless miles of sagebrush, get out and look closely and there were all kinds of choice plants, and the memorable pairing of sagebrush buttercup and the "Sagebrush Violet" V. trinervata (V. beckwithii v. trinervata) were among my favorite.  Funny, the appearance of Ranunculus glaberrimus always seemed incongruous to me, hardly looking like the xeric plant that I know it to be, whereas Viola trinervata has classic adaptations to xeric landscape, dissected leaves clothed in fine pubescence.

Photos of Sagebrush Violet (V. trinervata)
http://www.bentler.us/eastern-washington/plants/violet/sagebrush-violet.aspx
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/225/451207717_2b97ebe996.jpg
http://students.washington.edu/vsoza/images/Violatrinervata4.06.jpg

Lots of views of Viola beckwithii
http://calphotos.berkeley.edu/cgi/img_query?where-genre=Plant&where-taxon=Viola+beckwithii
http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=%22Viola+beckwithii%22

Image of the BONAP range map for V. beckwithii, interestingly it shows the species in Idaho as well.

[McDonough]

Image of the day:  Fritillaria pudica

One of my favorite plants common to spring snowmelt areas of the otherwise dry Wenatchee Mountains in Washington State, is Fritillaria pudica. It was a common sight in vernally wet areas, sometimes found growing and flowering emersed in a couple inches of running water... areas that would be bone dry a few weeks hence.  This charming frit has a wide distribution in western USA and Canada (see map link below).

About 7 years ago, I bought some rice-grain bulbs from Jane McGary, as the bargain basement price of 10 for $1.  When they arrived, there were easily twice as many tiny bulbs. All were planted out, and year after year they reliably sprouted, like little blades of grass, slowly but surely bulking up and showing wider linear green leaves.  After 5 years a first couple blooms appeared, with the last two years putting on a fine display, the nodding yellow thimbles in good contrast to bright red lily beetles that favor this particular frit species more than others   I scratch in the seed around the mother plants, and lots more seedlings are started on their long 6-8 year journey to maturity.

Two photos taken recently, the plant still in bloom (2 weeks earlier than normal this year).

Distribution Map and data:
http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=FRPU2

[Hoy]

Both me and my slugs like frits. The slugs have won. The only frit they let be is F. meleagris. The first will flower in a couple of weeks.

The genus Primula seem to be slug resistant. I have several cultivars. However nothing beats Cowslip (Primula veris, or Marianøklebånd). When the woods and fields near my cabin bloom with cowslip it is almost summer! I have two or three plants here too.
Almost forgot! Had to add these wood anemones (Anemone nemorosa) I picked yesterday.

[Todd Boland]

My wood anemone are not even sprouted yet!  I seem to be starting to lag!  Our crocus are still going strong and the first Chionodoxa are open today.

That Frit. pudica is huge!  We have them in the BG and they are just tiny creatures.  First ones opened last Friday but ours get only 4" tall.

[Todd Boland]

Here is the pot of pudica blooming in our alpine house....they must me mini selections.

[McDonough]

That Frit. pudica is huge!  We have them in the BG and they are just tiny creatures.  First ones opened last Friday but ours get only 4" tall.

Todd, I measured my plants today, they are 8"-10" tall.  Close-up photos without anything giving a sense of scale can be misleading.  That said, your plants do look much smaller.

[Hoy]

I have tried F. pudica along with other frits - and if I am lucky I can just see the tip of the leaf emerging before the slugs eat it all - all the way down to the bottom of the stem so I end up with a hole in the soil instead. It's depressing. I would love to grow frits.