Image of the day

[Lori S.]

Alpine gardeners here can attest to the fact that Junellia wilczekii is indeed extremely hardy.  Here's my slow-growing little specimen, planted in 2007 from Wrightman's.
The finest alpine gardener in town (you know who you are!    It would be lovely if you could be lured into participating here!) has one that must be about 15 inches across in the crevice garden.  I don't know how old it is.

[McDonough]

Mark, it might be helpful towards an ID if you could work some photo manipulation magic and post a cropped photo of the veronica(??).   (I'm not even sure of where it is in the photo right now.   )

Peter remembered the plant's identity, the one that I thought might be a veronica, it is Teucrium polium subsp. capitatum.

[McDonough]

Alpine gardeners here can attest to the fact that Junellia wilczekii is indeed extremely hardy.  Here's my slow-growing little specimen, planted in 2007 from Wrightman's.
The finest alpine gardener in town (you know who you are!    It would be lovely if you could be lured into participating here!) has one that must be about 15 inches across in the crevice garden.  I don't know how old it is.

Lori, that's the coolest little plant!  You can see the affinity to Verbena in the flowers.  Cliff, good sleuthing on that one.

[Lori S.]

Peter remembered the plant's identity, the one that I thought might be a veronica, it is Teucrium polium subsp. capitatum.

Dang!  Once you'd indicated that it was actually the plant in the upper part of the photo (which I had discounted as a possible veronica), I was thinking "Teucrium"... if only I'd said so, I could have looked rather clever.  

Good sleuthing indeed, Cliff, re. the Junellia!

[McDonough]

Not the most floriferous thing (at least not yet, what I'm showing here is a new item in y garden), is Delosperma sp - Kirstenbosch 16700, with small white flowers tipped light pink.  It remains to be seen whether this "hardy Mesemb" will be hardy here, but I have my hopes.  I like this pale flowered ice plant better than some of the hot pink types.

[McDonough]

Note:  The interesting discussion on plant labels and maps has been moved into its own topic.
          http://nargs.org/smf/index.php?topic=447.0

[McDonough]

Today's photo shows the choice Ophiopogon umbraticola, perhaps the photo is a trifle premature as the berries are only just starting to color up blue, but they'll turn an incredible bright sky blue soon.  This is the plant being sold by specialty nurseries in the USA as Ophiopogon chingii.  Feeling that the plant is misnamed as it did not match the key in Flora of China, I studied the key and felt it was a closer fit with O. umbraticola.  Communicating with a contact at Plant Delights Nursery, a fellow who works to verify plant IDs, and providing scanned images of the flowering plant parts on a 1 mm grid, it has been corroborated that the plant best fits with Ophiopogon umbraticola, the name they'll be selling it under.

For the rock gardener, this is concise, non-spreading or non-running type, remaining as a very small "nest" of narrow evergreen leaves that swirl around, the whole affair about 4" tall x 6" across in a number of years, and withstanding complete drought (as it did this year during a record-breaking drought).

Previous posts on this plant showing flowers and evergreen leaves:
http://nargs.org/smf/index.php?topic=333.msg3155#msg3155
http://nargs.org/smf/index.php?topic=107.msg659#msg659

[Todd Boland]

Mark, I have that same Delosperma grown this year from seed...mine is blooming too.  I KNOW it will not survive our winter outdoors...I will overwinter one in the basement window....maybe I'll see it growing in the wild next week!

[McDonough]

Native Asters continue blooming unabated, one of the showiest that has been blooming for a month already but still looking great, is the Smooth Aster, A. laevis... or as we call it now, Symphyotrichum laeve.  The variety found in Eastern North America is var. laeve.  It grows 2-3' tall but the stems often fall over giving the impression of a lower growing plant.  

It is as showy as New England Aster, Symphyotrichum novae-angliae, but much smaller (novae-angliae can grow to 6' or 2 meters), less stiff, and with good dark green leaves, and lots of large flowers that are strong blue to blue-purple.  It does not seed around all that much, whereas most of the other native asters seed around with wild abandon.

[Hoy]

Here my airy rock garden has started a second flush of flowering. One of the Primula auricula hybrids thinks it is spring and the same do the Lewisia cotyledon hybrids.

[McDonough]

My goodness Trond, you're having a very early spring

Allium thunbergii 'Ozawa' is at peak bloom right now, the white forms are just a tad later.

[Hoy]

My goodness Trond, you're having a very early spring

A quick change, today we had snow and sleet. They say its the earliest snowfall for 37 years here. But now the temp rises and the snow melts. No plants harmed either as it stayed above the freezing point.

Allium thunbergii 'Ozawa' is at peak bloom right now, the white forms are just a tad later.

A pretty clump of color, Mark. I have never tried onions which are that late. Wonder if they can make it here?

[Hoy]

1) The toad lily (Tricyrtis hirta) keeps its head up against the weather. The worst enemy is slugs and those culprits have slowed down activity now!
2 and 3) The ivy (Hedera helix) are always flowering late in the fall. The blue berries develop in springtime. Although green, the flowers produce an intoxicating fragrance.

[McDonough]

A pretty clump of color, Mark. I have never tried onions which are that late. Wonder if they can make it here?

These things will continue to flower right through hard freezes and snow, I imagine they would do well enough for you, there is nothing like some nice purple color from bulbs this late in the season; they are much more snow/rain tolerant than the autumn crocus species.

Nice Tricytris hirta... I like them but have difficulty keeping them than 1-2 years.  The only one I succeeded with for 5-6 years was golden T. macranthopsis, a glorious fall bloomer, but lost it due to incessant mole/chipmunk tunneling and too dry soil conditions.

[Hoy]

Thanks, Mark. Then Thunberg's onion is on my wish list!