What do you see on your garden walks?

[Lori S.]

Just beautiful, Todd!  I envy you all the primroses, especially!

...the daffs and tulips will last for weeks!

There is sometimes a benefit even to really crappy weather!

[Lori S.]

I have only this Dodecatheon to add today...
 

[Peter George]

Two new things blooming this week. First is Penstemon debilis, which is blooming for the 1st time. It's from Alplains seed, and I planted the seed in 2009. I have 3 plants, still small, but they are surprisingly healthy and I'm optimistic about their future in the garden.

Second is Centaurea bagadensis, a very nice pink thistle. It's a bit taller than I'd like, but the flowers are quite beautiful, and it looks great in seed as well.

(Edit: Sp. of species name.)

[Tim Ingram]

Peter - I like those two plants. The Penstemon has fine silvered foliage, quite unusual. I used to try a lot of species from seed but our climate is not well suited to many of them and I expect they would be better in a covered raised bed year round, or in the alpine house. The Centaurea is very attractive; I particularly like this genus which is not widely grown outside the stronger border perennials. I've grown a few tiny species from Turkey from Czech seed but only have slides. We have had some rain at last so I hope the garden will perk up and provide some good pictures before long.

[Spiegel]

Wonderful penstemon, Peter, and looking very healthy.

[cohan]

Anne-- I have to add my admiration for the Convolvulus! (es/i?)

Todd, do you have a woodland section in your garden, or with your cool climate do you grow some things in the open that would need shade in some other places?

Peter, I agree, great foliage on the Penstemon...

[Peter George]

It's truly hot and humid here today, but I managed to get away from my (home) office for a few minutes, enough time to take a few pictures of some plants that are apparently flourishing in our early summer weather.

Here are several campanulas, C. nitida, C. 'Maie Blyth, C. chamissonis and what I believe is C. rotundifolia. All nice, and there are more to come over the next week or so.

[Lori S.]

Very nice!  I especially like C. nitida... It seems very odd and amazing to me that this is a variety of C. persicifolia (C. persicifolia var. planiflora)!  The bicoloured flowers on C. chamissonis really stand out too. 

Is that a perennial snapdragon behind and to the left of C. nitida?

[Lori S.]

There is a brief lull in the troughs and alpine beds, but a few new things in the perennial borders...
A white form of Cortusa matthioli popped up a few years ago; Mertensia primuloides; Mertensia ciliata; Myosotis sylvatica has reached weed proportions... but it's too pretty to pull out!   (This is a familiar story.... by next year, I'll probably be on a rampage to get rid of it!!  )
     

And I thought I'd better take a pic of this now, as there is a very high likelihood that these dinner-plate-size leaves will soon be shredded in a hailstorm!
Astilboides tabularis:

[cohan]

Those big leaves do look like a hail risk, good luck! We've had a couple of close-calls with rain that was almost hail and hail that wasn't heavy enough to do damage... but no damage yet!

Myosotis (presumably sylvatica) has survived here in some overgrown plantings of my mother's and is showing its colours in some areas I have dug or weeded.. it certainly seems like it could overwhelm delicate areas, I was thinking I'd find some isolated spots to let it do its thing.. can it handle much dryness?

[Hoy]

The Myosotis sylvatica growing wild here prefere moist conditions. I have never found it in dry situations.

Nice big leaves Lori. Can't you hide under them in a hailstorm ?

My Mertensia primuloides pop up on unexpected sites every year but M ciliata is always killed by slugs.

Peter, you do grow some interesting plants, especially "bluebells" (The Campanula genus is bluebell (blåklokke) in Norwegian). The C. rotundifolia is native here but rarely makes such mounds.

[stephenb]

My Mertensia primuloides pop up on unexpected sites every year but M ciliata is always killed by slugs.

Really! Never seen a slug on my ciliata - maybe I need some of your slugs as it's getting a bit out of control! On second thoughts, you have Arion vulgaris (brunskogsnegl) don't you?

S.

[Lori S.]

Myosotis (presumably sylvatica) has survived here in some overgrown plantings of my mother's and is showing its colours in some areas I have dug or weeded.. it certainly seems like it could overwhelm delicate areas, I was thinking I'd find some isolated spots to let it do its thing.. can it handle much dryness?

It will grow anywhere in the yard.

[Peter George]

Yes, Lori, the plant in the background is Antirrhinum hispanicum, which I've had in that spot for 3 years. I originally bought it from Wrightman's, and it's filled out a bit more each year, and this season it's been blooming for 2 weeks, and shows no indication of slowing down. I've never seen any seedlings from it, but I'm going to make an effort to collect some seed and see if I can germinate it. It's not 'showy' but it always catches a visitor's eye if they are looking at that section of the garden.

[cohan]

Thanks, Lori, I'll try it in a few spots..

Peter, its a gorgeous plant-- I always loved snapdragons, so the idea of small hardy relatives is very appealing.. I've looked at them in catalogues, but haven't grown any yet...