Image of the day

[Booker]

Hi Todd and Malcolm,
I must begin by stating that the Sax' wasn't mine - simply another image captured at an AGS national show - but it may not have been grown in an alpine house - perhaps in a frame, perhaps simply covered with a sheet of glass to protect it at flowering time?
As Malcolm's image superbly illustrates these wonderful sax's can be grown and flowered extremely well outside (here in northern England anyway) and really, the use of an alpine house is little different to protecting the plant with glass.  Temperatures in an unheated greenhouse (in the depths of winter anyway) are seldom much greater than outside.
Greatly looking forward to meeting you in May, Todd - will be in touch by personal mail as soon as all the details are to hand.  If you could order a little sunshine in advance please?  

[Todd Boland]

Those saxes from outside are impressive!  Yes, we can do fairly well with Kabschias, but they still do best in troughs or tufa rather than in the open garden...frost heaving is terrible in this climate but tufa/trough plants don't seem to suffer.

Here is one of my troughs...albeit with not too many blooming at the time.

[Lori S.]

What terrific-looking troughs (both Malcolm's and Todd's)!  Seeing those, I'm compelled to renovate mine yet again...

To brighten this winter day a little, here is an alpine potentilla species from Kananaskis Prov. Park, eastern slope Rockies...  (I have posted a photo of what I believe to be the same species in the ID forum, and I hope someone can identify it.)

[Todd Boland]

That's an exquisite Potentilla Lori.....there are not too many alpinish types in Alberta.  Leaves remind me of nivea but the flowers are much larger than our local form of nivea.

[Lori S.]

Yes, I love seeing them!
Well, even with not that many to choose from, I'm getting totally confused - the alpine potentillas with trifoliate leaves that occur here are P. hyparctica, P. nivea, P.ovina (3 to 5 leaflets), P. uniflora and P. villosa (according to Moss & Packer)... Help!  

(P.S.  Oops, forgot P. hookeriana too, with 3-5 leaflets...  ackk!)

[Lori S.]

Hmmm, what to post, what to post...
Okay, here's Polemonium confertum, confined, sadly to a trough, and so far from its home in the Colorado Rockies. 
I'd truly LOVE to see some pix of this growing in situ, to appreciate its full glory in a beautiful setting...  Will any of the American alpine gardeners/hikers take up this challenge and show us some???   

[Lori S.]

What, no one to take up the challenge?  How unfortunate...

Here is Anemone parviflora, one of the species that blooms just after the snow melt in the eastern slope Rockies.

[Todd Boland]

Polemonium are among my favourites but I can't seem to keep the alpine types going for more than a year or two. Must say I've never grown P. confertum.

Anemone parviflora is a common alpine along the limestone barrens of northern Newfoundland where they bloom from late June through July.

[Lori S.]

Judging from the photo record, it looks like I probably got Polemonium confertum in 2007 (from Beaver Creek) so it will be interesting to see how much longer it lasts.  I did notice last summer that there are little offsets coming up around it in the trough.

[Booker]

Beautiful images folks ... can we encourage more members to post?

An outcrop in the Dolomites that would grace any garden.

Snowing lightly again here in Lancashire, England.

[Lori S.]

What a fabulous scene!  I recognize Silene acaulis and a gentian (maybe G. verna?)  What are the darker pink in the center right and the pale yellow at the top?

[Booker]

Hi Lori,
The darker pink is just another colour form of Silene acaulis and the cream-yellow is a Saxifraga (probably) caesia. 

[Hoy]

I like Saxifragas and other small rock garden plants very much, unfortunately I can't grow many of them in my maritime climate. I can neither grow these plants,but I dreamt of when I saw them!

[Todd Boland]

Cliff that image in the Dolomites is stunning.  Trond, your Kenyan (?) image is otherworldly!

[Booker]

Many thanks Todd - hopefully you might enjoy a few more images from these magnificent mountains on 5th May?   

Armeria maritima alpina