What do you see on your garden walks?

[cohan]

Exciting time here today-- first open flower on Taraxacum faeroense! Much slower than its big weedy cousings, which have grown, flowered, seeded, repeat! all the while this little thing has been slowly developing its buds for weeks! For a long time one small bud was visible in the centre, then much later, another could be seen, finally a bit of stem appeared on the first one and there seemed to be about 4 buds..
Today, first opening--only halfway on a wet, cloudy morning..  (I wasn't home later when the sun came out) and no sun forecast for the next couple of days (cloudy and 40  chance of rain forecast for tomorrow, and 60-100% for all of the next 7 days except tuesday), but I'm hoping maybe to get a couple of flowers at once in days to come!

[stephenb]

Mine's also just started flowering!

[Lori S.]

Hypericum aviculariifolium ssp. uniflorum, from seed last year,  is looking very interesting this year... the flower buds are red to pink.  I'm not sure the term "uniflorum" will apply, though.  The seeds were from Pavelka, collected from 2500m, Dedegol Dag, Turkey; "small plant 5cm, pubescent glaucous leaves, golden yellow flowers, very good."
 

Silene bolanthoides, from seed last year.  The seeds were also from Pavelka, collected from 1700m, Kaz Dag, Turkey; "dwarf dense cushions, short linear leaves, flowers solitary or 2-4, stemless or very short scape; white to pale pink petals deeply bilobed, flowers 1.5cm across; New, rare, one of the best silene kinds. Stoney places. 2008 seed."


Linum cariense:


In the perennial gardens: Helenium hoopesii; one of our two native geraniums, Geranium viscosissimum; Penstemon nitidus; Trollius chinensis cv.; Primula veris; Tiarella 'Sugar and Spice'.
         

[Lori S.]

A trough of Dianthus sp., Penstemon 'Pink Holly', and Alyssum spinosum, served up with sprinkles (petals from 'Royalty' crabapple):


Phlox bifida:


Osteospermum barberiae var. compactum 'Purple Mountain', planted in 2001, looking very good this year with many buds.. some of these South African plants certainly are hardy!


Fat buds on Edraianthus serbicus, from seed last year (Pavelka:  1400m, Konavska hills, Bulgaria; dwarf cushions, linear hairy green leaves, 2-4 blue flowers, scapes short; Sunny stoney hills; 2008 seed):


Great promise for flowering shown also by Campanula topaliana:


Update on Ajania tibetica (formerly Tanacetum tibeticum)...

[cohan]

Stephen, do you keep your Taraxacum faeroense wettish, or just regular garden moisture?

Lori, the little Linum is very showy! What is behind the Silene? is that a Phlomis, or..? Interesting look those have, like a little group of persons.....

Very interesting about the Osteospermum (I do recall you mentioning/showing it before, though I forget flower colour).. I've wondered what might go in a hardy African bed besides Delos....

[Spiegel]

Lori, love the Penstemon 'Pink Holly'.  That's a very special plant introduced by Mark McDonough many years ago.  Wonderful that you're growing it so beautifully.
I wish Mark would weigh in on this.  Is it a form of P. rupicola?  Or a cross of P.rupicola with something else?  With uncertain snow cover and lots of winter wind, P. rupicola was a failure here.  It survived the winter but seemed to use all its energy to replace wind-butned foliage and never flowered.  Finally gave up.

[Spiegel]

In the garden today.
1. Heterotheca jonesii in crevice garden
2. Heterotheca jonesii - older planting in scree
3. Daphne arbuscula sp - starting to rebloom in crevice garden
Probably the next pictures will be from the Dolomites (my other garden!).  We leave Thursday.

[Lori S.]

Lori...What is behind the Silene? is that a Phlomis, or..? Interesting look those have, like a little group of persons.....

Cohan, it's Marmoritis (Phyllophyton) complanatum (below)... I would like these to be very compact, and I'll move then into the soon-to-be much leaner tufa bed addition to see if that helps.  Nice dandelion - the dark sepals (and dark everything!) give it a nice contrast, and it seems a richer gold colour than its weedy cousin.


Ajuga lupulina, same story as Marmoritis...


Anne - well, I'm thrilled to have one of Mark's introductions!    Yes, Bob Nold in Penstemons says that P. 'Pink Holly' is from [[P. davidsonii x P. fruticosus] x P. rupicola] x P. rupicola 'Albus'.  Yes, I find that the woodier penstemons can suffer here too from winter kill, 'Pink Holly' among them.  
Wow, your groves of Heterotheca jonesii are spectacular!!  My little one is just showing buds now.

[cohan]

Cohan, it's Marmoritis (Phyllophyton) complanatum (below)... I would like these to be very compact, and I'll move then into the soon-to-be much leaner tufa bed addition to see if that helps.  Nice dandelion - the dark sepals (and dark everything!) give it a nice contrast, and it seems a richer gold colour than its weedy cousin.
Ajuga lupulina, same story as Marmoritis...
Anne  
Wow, your groves of Heterotheca jonesii are spectacular!!  My little one is just showing buds now.

These mints are nice already, will be interesting to see how they look in the leaner mix, should be very cool...
I should have moved faster today, there has been an hour or so without rain and I should have been out with the camera--I'm going to try now, but have a feeling it will be raining again before I get out....
Anne--ditto on the Heterotheca Have fun in your other garden!

[Lori S.]

Aethionema lepidioides:
 

Two different plants of Aethionema glaucescens, looking slightly different:
   

Silene zawadskii and Silene maritima:
 

Androsace primuloides 'Chumbyi':

[cohan]

Nice foliage on the Aethionemas-second one almost looks succulent...
I like the Silenes too, especially maritima with the hint of pink;
 growing these two here would have the same sort of perversity as growing dandelions--the weedy white species is not as common as dandelions, but the seedlings pop up instantly in any cultivated soil! I love the flowers, though--particularly the calyces..

[Hoy]

A plentitude of gardenworthy plants! Although I have heard of several of them I am familiar with only two: Primula veris and Silene maritima. Both are common natives at my summerhouse.

[Todd Boland]

My goodness Lori..I had to look several of these up as I have never heard of them.  Are these Halda or Holubec seed?  I have not seen many of them offered in the NARGS seedex.  BTW, I arrive in calgary this Saturday....any chance for a visit to your and/or Stephanie's garden on Sunday?

In the garden now...one of my alpine pots featuring Rhododendron campylogynum, Anemone fasciculata, Patrinia siberica, Papaver burseri and Oxalis Ione Hocker

[Todd Boland]

Allium zebdanense, Dianthus glacialis and Ramonda myconi

[Spiegel]

Great plants, Todd.  Happy Birthday a few days in advance.