What do you see on your garden walks?

[RickR]

Lori, you can always spread the wealth of those very nice Mertensia spp. at you chapter plant sales, and the seed to the rest of us! 

Peter, another edition of very choice plants! Our wild Campanula rotundifolia never grows in such a large clump, either.  I am growing seed of C. r. Olympica, and it seems to want to be a larger mass.  But I have never grown our native phenotype in "captivity." Maybe it would respond similarly?

[cohan]

Peter, another edition of very choice plants! Our wild Campanula rotundifolia never grows in such a large clump, either.  I am growing seed of C. r. Olympica, and it seems to want to be a larger mass.  But I have never grown our native phenotype in "captivity." Maybe it would respond similarly?

C rotundifolia is super super common here.. if I knew what seedlings looked like, I bet it would be one of the most common volunteers in pots and bed...lol generally it doesn't form visibly large clumps because its mixed with other  plants, but once in a while I see quite a clump (sometimes I can see some developing in mowed areas and work around them) .. however they are generally longer stemmed than Peter's lovely form.. I haven't tried putting them in a tended bed yet either to see what they'd do.. I suspect a sunny lean spot might bring out the best compact form.. however, I'm unlikely to use such a scarce spot for a native that grows quite nicely if taller in shady/semi shady places...lol

[Lori S.]

Interesting... C. rotundifolia does form clumps in the garden here and flowers profusely.  The foothills plants are especially spectacular - dense cylinders that turn the roadsides blue!  I'll have to try to get pix this year... stopping on the side of the highway with cars blasting by (at 140 km/hr, as Cohan mentioned) has deterred me so far!  The plants in the alpine/subalpine are relatively sparse, as shown here:
http://nargs.org/smf/index.php?topic=343.msg3995;topicseen#msg3995

Lori, you can always spread the wealth of those very nice Mertensia spp. at you chapter plant sales, and the seed to the rest of us!  

I'll certainly try to collect seed if you are interested... if only I could just send you a dozen seedlings!  
It's unrelated but I find it amusing that I am actually having to weed out ligularia seedlings this year!  There are LOTS of offspring from 3 plants I grew a few years ago from a seed order that was very kindly shared with me.   (Remember Jan from the Far North forum?  Are you out there, Jan?  )   If I recall correctly, they were supposed to be be L. japonica but aren't, instead appearing to be a species/hybrid similar to L. dentata and another with more kidney-shaped leaves - nice flowers on both types.

Peter, it's interesting that you have not seen seeding from your Antirrhinum hispanicum.  I've had what I thought was Antirrhinum sempervirens for 9 years now... but it suddenly occurred to me that perhaps it's actually A. glutinosum ("Gummy Snapdragon") which is synonymous with A. hispanicum!  The plants were labelled as Snapdragon 'Gummy' or 'Gummi'(?), which I took to be a cultivar name as they were being sold as bedding plants, oddly enough! Anyway, one plant died out a couple of years ago and the other one seems to be declining.  I've seen no seedlings either, unfortunately, and I have not been able to collect seed either.  Do you suppose this is something that could be propagated by cuttings?

EDIT:  On second thought, after a closer look at your photo, Peter... my plant has white flowers with a hint of yellow and a tiny bit of purple streaking, and the leaves seem to be smaller and rounder than on yours, so maybe it really is A. sempervirens, despite the way it was labelled.

[Lori S.]

Patrinia sibirica; Saxifraga 'Whitehill'; Dianthus glacialis from seed last year:
 

[Spiegel]

Huge thunderstorm yesterday afternoon with hail and the works.  Fortunately, the hail didn't last too long and not much damage done.
The new crevices on the cliff held up quite well.  I was afraid I'd find plants in a puddle at the bottom but nothing got washed out.
The acantholimons are starting, and convolvulus and Moltkia petraea are continuing to bloom.  We really needed the rain.

Edited to add plant names from photos to allow "Search" capability.
Acantholimon ulicinum
Inula rhizocephala

[Weiser]

Thought I'd check in to let you all know, things are still blooming in the High Desert!

[cohan]

John, still looking really great!

Anne, congrats on no puddle of plants! Cute Inula...

[RickR]

Wow, John!  EVERY plant is so interesting!

[Lori S.]

Spectacular, John!  Actually, the cacti and yuccas(?) are so gorgeously architectural, who would need flowers anyway??   But since they're there... Is the big purple plant on the right one of the desert-y salvias?  Also, what are the yellow-flowered ones?  I think I see tall penstemons in the front left area... ?

[Lori S.]

Iris chamaeiris:
 

Iris timofejewii:


Thymus neiceffii:


Cohan, here is what seedlings of Campanula rotundifolia look like... the foliage soon becomes linear (second photo) and the rounded-to-variably shaped lower leaves die down later on:
 

[cohan]

Thanks, Lori.. I suspect those seed leaves could be found in almost all of my outdoor pots, and all beds...lol.. it took me a while to recognise any sort of foliage on C rotundifolia at all, since they usually grow in mixed grass and forb situations here, and their foliage is next to invisible there.. Since I've started to notice clumps in mossy areas etc where they are more obvious...

[Weiser]

Spectacular, John!  Actually, the cacti and yuccas(?) are so gorgeously architectural, who would need flowers anyway??   But since they're there... Is the big purple plant on the right one of the desert-y salvias?  Also, what are the yellow-flowered ones?  I think I see tall penstemons in the front left area... ?

The purple one is Salvia dorrii, the yellows are Erigeron linearis, and Eriophyllum lanatum var. integrifolium. Yes you do see Penstemon speciosus in the foreground.

[Hoy]

Thought I'd check in to let you all know, things are still blooming in the High Desert!

John, I wasn't anxious you should run out of blooming or other interesting plants In fact, I assumed you were busy gardening

Huge thunderstorm yesterday afternoon with hail and the works.  Fortunately, the hail didn't last too long and not much damage done.
The new crevices on the cliff held up quite well.  I was afraid I'd find plants in a puddle at the bottom but nothing got washed out.
The acantholimons are starting, and convolvulus and Moltkia petraea are continuing to bloom.  We really needed the rain.

Speaking of precipitation, we have had terrific rain the last days here. However the weather has been worst in the eastern parts. Lots of roads closed, railways closed, houses damaged etc.
We had to check our mountain cabin but had to a 2 1/2 hours longer drive due to a landslide damaging 300m of the main road. Arrived midnight (it is not dark but quite good driving light even in foggy, rainy weather).
This is one of the main roads:


No damages at our place but very wet

[Hoy]

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.

Do you need another degree? It is possible by studying gastropods in my garden I have them all; with and without shells, black, brown, red, grey, yellow, two-coloured, soft, hard, small, big, round, flat etc. Quite a menagerie

[stephenb]

I'm in Oslo for the long weekend. Travelled down past the site of Trond's picture on the night train just hours before the railway was closed, oblivious to the unfurling drama!