What do you see on your garden walks?

[Booker]

The Clematis marmoraria do sucker around and they can be propagated from these . One of my plants has about 100 flowerbuds on it . If I can get a good picture when it flowers I will post it.

Now THAT is one-upmanship!!!!  I, for one, can't wait to see that Steve!

[Hoy]

No lovely irises, no pretty lewisias, no gorgeous clematis but snow. Saturday was sunny as the Sun's day should be. However we are struck by an untimely snowstorm here in the mountains. It is a bit early in the season even here in 1000m ASL.

A few plants try to keep up their and our spirit. A goldenrod (Solidago virgaurea) and a dandelion (Taraxacum sp), especially the last one is either very late or very early(!). Also a knapweed (Centaurea scabiosa) and a Jacob's ladder (Polemonium caeruleum) strive to show their flowers.

[Tim Ingram]

We are having quite an Indian summer in southern England with unseasonably warm days reaching nearly 30°C Good for extending the flowering of some plants. One of the loveliest autumn shrubs is Ceratostigma willmottianum, which is reliably hardy with us, though sometimes cut to the ground in winter. It really is a gentian-blue; quite exquisite. Crocus speciosus is making a good display for the first time in several years owing to the absence of any rabbits! And Cyclamen hederifolium, one of the finest and longest lived plants in the garden is flowering all over. I have grown this from many seed sources and have a great variety of leaf forms. These here are in a bed by the greenhouse that has recently been cleared and we are replanting with more choice woodland species such as Mukdenia rossii, Patrinia triloba, Cheloniopsis moschata and the yellow catmint Nepeta govaniana. Should be good to see what it looks like next year. This is one of the few places in the garden that stays quite moist due to run off from the greenhouse.

[RickR]

And what a nice underplanting for the crocus, too!

[RickR]

The Hyacinthoides bulb has to have a (short) stem inside where the roots grow from. Have you ever made a longitudinal cut through the bulb?

Your wish is my command...at least sometimes

          

It seems roots emerge from a particular part of the stem within the bulb (and not the basal plate), regardless of where they emerge on the bulb surface.

[Jandals]

No lovely irises, no pretty lewisias, no gorgeous clematis but snow. Saturday was sunny as the Sun's day should be. However we are struck by an untimely snowstorm here in the mountains. It is a bit early in the season even here in 1000m ASL.

Sounds like you may have to put the flip-flops in storage , Trond . They tend to flick the snow up your back and could give you a back chill when out walking in the snow . Especially that soft powdery stuff .

[Hoy]

The Hyacinthoides bulb has to have a (short) stem inside where the roots grow from. Have you ever made a longitudinal cut through the bulb?

Your wish is my command...at least sometimes
It seems roots emerge from a particular part of the stem within the bulb (and not the basal plate), regardless of where they emerge on the bulb surface.

I wish my wife would say that more often

I think the roots emerge from the new basal plate - the one to be next year. They grow through the bulb scales in slightly different directions. Interesting. - Hope you could spare that bulb, you can possibly plant it though - now you have two

[Hoy]

No lovely irises, no pretty lewisias, no gorgeous clematis but snow. Saturday was sunny as the Sun's day should be. However we are struck by an untimely snowstorm here in the mountains. It is a bit early in the season even here in 1000m ASL.

Sounds like you may have to put the flip-flops in storage , Trond . They tend to flick the snow up your back and could give you a back chill when out walking in the snow . Especially that soft powdery stuff .

Oh yeah! I go barefoot Then I don't get wet socks either. . . .

[Hoy]

Tim, I am jealous on your Indian summer - we had two whole days of it last week!
Ceratostigma is a genus I have thought to try outside at home but I'm afraid our summers isn't warm enough

[McDonough]

The Hyacinthoides bulb has to have a (short) stem inside where the roots grow from. Have you ever made a longitudinal cut through the bulb?

Your wish is my command...at least sometimes

It seems roots emerge from a particular part of the stem within the bulb (and not the basal plate), regardless of where they emerge on the bulb surface.

Fascinating stuff!  Just look at how the roots emerge from the internal stem right through the bulb mass.

[McDonough]

We are having quite an Indian summer in southern England with unseasonably warm days reaching nearly 30°C Good for extending the flowering of some plants. One of the loveliest autumn shrubs is Ceratostigma willmottianum, which is reliably hardy with us, though sometimes cut to the ground in winter. It really is a gentian-blue; quite exquisite.

Tim, when I was just a teenager, just a few years ago , I grew Ceratostigma plumbaginoides, rated zone 5 here but I found it wasn't reliable hardy and only lasted a couple years. I understand however, when it is happy, it can spread rather aggressively but probably worth the effort for those blue autumn flowers and red bracts.  Ceratostigma willmottianum looks enticing, but I doubt it would be hardy here.

Ceratostigma plumbaginoides photo:
http://www.soonerplantfarm.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=plants.plantdetail&plant_id=304

[McDonough]

A couple of our native paper daisies
tried to inline include (attachthumb) attachment #2 but it could not be found (or you don't have permission to view images).


cheers
fermi

Fermi, I really like the native "paper daisies" you show.  Are these Helichrysum species?

And don't tease me with the Pacific Coast Iris, I've never been able to grow them successfully, but just look at the colors and forms you got from seed , love the rotund yellow one!  The dwarf bearded Iris named forms are luscious too.

[McDonough]

I found another plant in flower today: Impatiens omeiana. It is always blooming very late.

Trond, the flowers look like they're made of plastic, so shiny and smooth.  I was at a used bookstore in central Massachusetts, saw a book on the genus Impatiens, and now I'm kicking myself for not buying it... I already selected more than enough books to buy.

Hi . Pictures from my place today and yesterday

Clematis marmoraria

Jamdals, ditto the previous comments, I'm anxious to see your large Clematis marmoraria in full flower, what a gem.  Also your white Lewisia tweedyi isn't have bad either

[RickR]

Regarding the Hyacinthoides bulb root initiation:

I think the roots emerge from the new basal plate - the one to be next year. They grow through the bulb scales in slightly different directions. Interesting. - Hope you could spare that bulb, you can possibly plant it though - now you have two

After I posted, I thought about this more and I was coming to the same conclusion.  I was going to post here to see what you all thought about "my" theory, but I've already got my answer!  This is particularly interesting, as until now I hadn't known that true bulbs could have annual basal plates. 

Fascinating stuff!  Just look at how the roots emerge from the internal stem right through the bulb mass.

At first I thought the same thing: how interesting.  But then I thought how we can grow new blood vessels through our own tissues, and how adventitious buds grow through, and I guess it is not so remarkable after all.

[Hoy]

Well, fascinating then!