What do you see on your garden walks?

[Hoy]

Interesting to see those plants flourishing!  The best I've ever done with Acaena was to have tiny bits survive the winter.  Are the seedpods as painful to step on as they look to be?
I imagine your Alstroemeria are perennial there too... another mind-bending concept for those in this zone!

The burs are fortunately soft to trample on even with bare feet. And yes, the Alstroemeria aurea is a a hardy perennial here spreading slowly with underground rhizomes.

[Lori S.]

Okay, persisting with this... won't you join us and post some photos of your gardens too?

1) Even protected under a good-sized Pinus sylvestris 'Watereri', it appears the hail managed to whack a few leaves of this silver-leaved Cyclamen purpurascens
2) A gorgeous and under-appreciated native, Dalea purpurea - it is perfectly well-behaved in the garden, and reaches glorious proportions, even in the poor, dry soil out along our fence... as compared to the very modest little plants (2-3 stems) I see in the wild, oddly enough.
3) Onosma stellulata
4) Telekia speciosa... it's giant leaves are, unfortunately, quite vulnerable to hail damage!
5) Perhaps not the neatest dianthus in form or flower, but the fragrance is intoxicating and most unusual, a sweet perfume rather than the usual clove-spice... Dianthus monspessulanus
6) Verbascum nigrum... this genus is worth all it weeding it causes me. 
7) Another Campanula thyrsoides, showing the very hairy flowers and the randomness of bloom along the stem -flowering sometimes starts in the middle, then ends up at the top and base or is all over the stalk at once, odd!
8 ) Not much happening in the troughs, but for Campanula hercegovina, starting to bloom...
9) And this little dianthus.

[McDonough]

Lori, a nice assortment!  Looking at your much larger plant of a silver-leaved Cyclamen purpurescens will inspire my as-of-yet single leaf young plant of an all-silver C. purpurescens that showed up recently.  And Dalea purpurea, WOW, that's now a *must have* plant on my list, that one really speaks to me.  I think you might have skipped over Verbascum nigrum, I don't see it... I'm anxious to see it.

[Lori S.]

Ooops, I did forget my favourite verbascum!!  Here it is:
Verbascum nigrum, presumably named for the sometimes-darkish stems?

[RickR]

Holy moly, Lori!  And I was very happy with my Verbascum nigrum, until I see yours.

Here is my Verbascum nigrum wimp.  It's the second flush of flowers, even though I let all the first flush flowers go to seed.  (I'm not sure they produced seed, though.)  I cut the old stalks down just so I could take this pic.  On the left is Allium stellatum from Kandiyohi County, MN, and center is Ruellia humilis.

[IMYoung]

My goodness, Lori.... your Campanula hercegovina is a real beauty 

 I don't know Dalea purpurea and my search via the RHS plantfinder lists only a couple pf mailorder suppliers in the UK, one of whom hasn't actually got it listed!

Do you get a good seed set on yours ( she asked, plaintively and full of hope..........   )
M

[Lori S.]

Maggi, Dalea purpurea is a favourite of bees, and produces seeds generously, and I have several of them - enough to supply every seedex that exists!!    Just PM me with your address and I'll send you seeds later on when they are ready. 
Mark, it is certainly a drought-resistant plant, adapted to the dry plains, with a deep taproot - one that would likely take your current drought and watering ban in stride.

[Lori S.]

Actually, Rick, perhaps I shouldn't say this but the particular V. nigrum I showed is a bit undersized, in comparison to big, mature plants out back where the conditions are a bit kinder!    They are long-lived perennials here; there too?  In our short season, they have a long bloom, but I've never thought of coaxing two sets of flowers stems out of them... not sure they'd actually manage it here... ?  (Come to think of it, I think I have a test case... some young miscreant broke the flower stems off a young plant out front.  I'll keep an eye on it and see if it is inclined to replace those stems or not.   )
Is the Ruellia a native plant there?  I assume it's perennial there, as well?  Very intriguing...
I'm enjoying your photos a lot and hope to see more of your beautiful garden!  So glad you got the digital camera a while back!

[Lori S.]

1) A sweet little thing, though apparently an annual (dang!) - Omphalodes kuzinskyanae , from the SRGC seedex
2) Campanula dolomitica, purchased this spring.  It will likely get too big (and spreading) for the little tufa garden, but for now, it adds some interest.
3) Not one to stop traffic, exactly - Silene pusilla, from seed this year
4) Looking forward to seeing the flowers on this one  - Onobrychis argyrea - based on my admiration of the beautiful flowers of the foothills forage-crop plant/weed, sainfoin (Onobrychis vicifolia).  The seeds are from Pavelka: "1500m, Urgup, Turkey; tufted perennial, silver hairy leaves, erect-ascending scapes 15-25cm, 3-8 yellow flowers, dry sunny hills."
5) Campanula x carpatica, helping to soften... a little... a trough full of cacti and dasiphora.

[Spiegel]

Wonderful photos, Lori.  I hope you will post a photo of the Onobrychis when it blooms.

[Lori S.]

So, it's almost mid-August.  What's happening in your gardens?

1) Senecio polyodon, from seed this spring.  (I suspect it is ssp. polyodon, though the seeds from trade didn't specify that.)  I had this for many years some time ago (until it was swamped by other plants) and was never quite certain if it overwintered, or merely seeded... I always suspected it actually overwintered.  
2) Lilium martagon
3) Dracocephalum grandiflorum with Scutellaria alpina
4) Aconitum lycoctonum
5) Carlina acaulis looks most interesting to me at this stage, before the flowers open.
6) Campanula 'Elizabeth Oliver'
7) Lallemantia canescens - only wimpy little plants this year
8 ) Echinops tschimganicus - is this a valid name?  
9) Another Cyclamen purpurascens
10) And finally one from the rock garden, though hardly a spectacular thing... Didymophysa vesicaria - Correction: probably Braya linearis; seeds from Holubec (description: "China: Beima Shan, Yunnan, 4800m, limestone scree, small caespitose plant, 8cm high, white to pink flowers in terminal inflorescence, rounded inflated siliques, 15mm wide; 2008 seed.")


Which leads me to a question for all you enthusiasts out there...

What alpines would one grow for late summer/fall colour and bloom?

Edit:  Oops, here's that elusive cyclamen now!

[Hoy]

The Cyclamen has chosen to hide itself, Lori! But you have an immense number of plants flowering all the time. Here some plants grow to immense dimensions instead. They swamp the smaller ones.

Here are some examples:
1) Impatiens glandulifera grows to 3.5-4m. I remove hundreds every spring but they sprout from "millions" of seeds in the moist climate here. I started with 3 plants. I regret that very much!
2) In the Impatiens forest when I look to the sky.
Next postI. glandulifera is annual, this one (not sure of the name) is perennial. Not more than 2" but spreading steadily outwards and swamping smaller neighbours.
3) Aralia something makes 2m canes every year down in my bog.
4) Lysimachia nummularia looks modest but cover all neighbours in short time. It can also grow into smaller shrubs. I use it as groundcover under rhododendrons and other shrubs but it has also occupied parts of the lawn and many beds.

[Lori S.]

But you have an immense number of plants flowering all the time.

The reality is that it is simply a very short, compressed season here - if plants are going to bloom, they only have a short time in which to do it!

Wow, your I. glandulifera "forest" is amazing!  

3) I. glandulifera is annual, this one (not sure of the name) is perennial. Not more than 2" but spreading steadily outwards and swamping smaller neighbours.

Similar to my invisible cyclamen, I think this photo of yours chose not to show itself!  Would love to see it though.

Oh, by the way, after a little googling, it seems Echinops tschimganicus is a valid name, so it appears... so that leads me to the next question: Is what I have, it?

[Hoy]

I must have been asleep while working with those pictures (that means I am often sleeping, not the first time this).
Not the showiest of plants, but here you are: Impatiens unknown species.

PS. The Cyclamen is very nice, mine haven't started to grow yet. But I have mostly hederifolium and coum.

[Lori S.]

Hmm, interesting perennial impatiens... wonder what the species is? 

1) Verbascum eriophorum, a biennial here.  (I added "here" because some verbascums that act as biennials elsewhere seem to be perennial in colder zones... go figure.)
2) Campanula x tymsonii
3) Flowers now open on Onobrychis argyrea - solid yellow.  (I had rather hoped for some interesting striping or detail on the petals.)