Image of the day

[Hoy]

Having melted out from under 20 cm of wet snow today, here's Pulsatilla campanella, not looking too much the worse for wear.

My Pulsatillas have not experienced snow but they have not started flowering either!
This is a nice one.

[McDonough]

I have some peonies but have not seen japonica before! My peonies are late this year - we have northerly wind from the Arctic although sun it is cold. Here is one of mine, not the dainty japonica but a coarser one, P. lutea ludlowii threatening to bar the way.

Trond, lots of promise in those buds.  Decades ago when I lived in the Pacific Northwest USA, the garden had a number of tree peonies, including the wonderful P. lutea and its varieties.  I have not tried growing it here, although tree peonies are growable here.

[McDonough]

Image of the day:  Viola palmata

When one researches on native American violets, it quickly becomes clear that taxonomy is a tangled mess, and it is sometimes difficult to be certain what one is looking at.  There are a number of dissected-leaf Viola species in Eastern USA, and like all violets, they both highly variable interbreed with almost any other species.  One of the few references on this topic are a pair of bulletins published by the Vermont Agricultural Experiment Station, one is Violets of North America by Ezra Brainerd, 1921, Bulletin 224, 172 pages (with beautiful line drawings and watercolor plates), and the most telling of the taxonomic mayhem, Some Natural Violet Hybrids of North America, Ezra Brainerd, 1924, Bulletin 239, 203 pages.  Dorothy Klaber's book "Violets" published in 1976 is not a very good book in my opinion, with ugly drawings/watercolors, thus less useful than the Brainerd publications.  I bought all of these from mailorder book dealers specializing in rare out-of-print natural history and botanical books.

The USDA lists the species as an aggregate of hybrids, as Viola ×palmata L. (pro sp.) [brittoniana or pedatifida × affinis or sororia]
http://www.plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=VIPA18

Whatever  This little native violet with neatly dissected foliage prefers sunny dry sites.  It has seeded itself into a bark-mulched "holding area" that I use to temporarily hold potted plants and seedlings, but this violet has never become a pest in the last 2 decades... just popping up here and there, with large purplish blue flowers, always a welcome sight.

[Todd Boland]

I grew Viola dissecta last year...hopefully they will flower this year...the foliage looks like your V. palmata...wonder if they are related?

[RickR]

1. Received as Viola pedatifida.

2. Grown from NARGS seed by a fellow Chapter member as Viola alpina.  I think NOT!!!
Any ideas on this one? In my trough it only gets 1.5 inches high (1 inch in the pic), but given good conditions, I'm nearly certain it would get 2-3 inches.  A real cutie, whatever it is.

[Kelaidis]

Back in the saddle after spending most of the past week in the environs of Moab, Utah. Which is really just one giant rock garden, after all. I will post a URL once I finally download all my images off the camera and then find a site to upload them onto....

For my pic of the day choice I'm uploading a plant I doubt many of you are growing: I brought this one back in 1998 (I think) from somewhere in the Karoo: it is a widespread taxon on the Roggeveld and Komsberg plateaux and elsewhere too. I first saw it in 1994 on top of Hantamsberg above Calvinia--a magical place indeed. it formed huge mats there sometimes a meter or more across with its silvery, gorgeous rosettes. The flowers are fabulous (albeit white): alas, they only last a week or so in April! There are several other high altitude Arctotis I have not managed to bring back yet--including a bright orange one and a wonderful one with peachy flower color: they are more long blooming and it would be fun to try and cross these with this little groundcover to get some other flower colors and also to see if we can protract the flowering. I think Sunscapes Nursery (www.sunscapes.com) is the only place that sells this.

Oh yes, it's Arctotis adpressa...

[Hoy]

I have tried to grow American violets more than once but they disappear one after one.
I have never been to Utah but to South Africa. South Africa is a very special piece of land. I'll never forget the beautiful plants there!
You can get lots of interesting seeds here: http://www.silverhillseeds.co.za/

[McDonough]

1. Received as Viola pedatifida.

2. Grown from NARGS seed by a fellow Chapter member as Viola alpina.  I think NOT!!!
Any ideas on this one? In my trough it only gets 1.5 inches high (1 inch in the pic), but given good conditions, I'm nearly certain it would get 2-3 inches.  A real cutie, whatever it is.

Your V. pedatifida looks right, narrower leaf segments than palmata to be sure.  The white one sure is nice, I wonder what species it could be.

Oh yes, it's Arctotis adpressa...

Arctotis adpressa is a COOL looking plant, looks like it would be worth growing for the unusual foliage alone!

[McDonough]

Two plants for the price of one in today's Image of the Day.

The always-photogenic Arisaema sikokianum, with the delightful sprays of tiny yellow thimbles of Epimedium campanulatum.

[Hoy]

Not any of my Arisaemas has showed itself so far. With this speed I am lucky if I see them at all this summer!

The E. campanulatum is new to me. Interesting habit.

[Kelaidis]

Dear Mark! You are giving me a MAJOR case of Epimedium envy...I am so Epi deprived with my mere six or seven taxa....whimper...

But perhaps I can get back by showing off Scopiola! Alas, I am not sure which one it is. I grew four or more species years ago at the Rock Alpine Garden, two of which persist. I shall have to go see if we still have S. carniolica, a lovely yellow one. There are so few hardy ornamentals in the Solanacee, and this one almost qualifies for the rock garden, although it is a tad tall. It has fabulous anther color. Easily accommodated in the woodland garden. I shall have to delve into my files for a name, alas, unless one of you can turn it up!

[McDonough]

But perhaps I can get back by showing off Scopiola! Alas, I am not sure which one it is. I grew four or more species years ago at the Rock Alpine Garden, two of which persist. I shall have to go see if we still have S. carniolica, a lovely yellow one. There are so few hardy ornamentals in the Solanacee, and this one almost qualifies for the rock garden, although it is a tad tall. It has fabulous anther color. Easily accommodated in the woodland garden. I shall have to delve into my files for a name, alas, unless one of you can turn it up!

Panayoti, I always find it interesting how things work out!  You see, there is this unusual plant flowering in my garden, no label to be found anywhere near it (darned crows), I have no recollection planting it (probably something I got from a NARGS chapter seedling sale and just "poked" into a spot in the garden... but with a label I'm sure!), wondering what it could be everytime I pass by it... and then you post its possible identitity; that's my mystery plant!

Googling Scopiola produces very little useful information, mostly just info and pics on the poisonous S. carniolica, and the names of a couple Asian ones.  Now I'm "curioser and curioser" than ever to find out more about this genus.

[Todd Boland]

Never heard of that genus Panayoti but is makes an attractive plant.

[Hoy]

Hi Panayoti and Mark, I think you have Physochlaina physaloides syn. Scopolia physaloides. Seems to be an attractive species! I have a red-brown flowered Scoplolia carniolica myself.

[Hatchett]

Here are my pictures form this morning, a couple of penstemons.
http://photos.imageevent.com/teita/jimsrockgarden2010/websize/roadway.jpg
http://photos.imageevent.com/teita/jimsrockgarden2010/websize/P.menz...jpg
I am starting to figure out this darn new camera.