What do you see on your garden walks?

[Lori S.]

Superb trough/pot planting, Todd!  That rhodo is amazing... I'd never even guess it was a rhodo!  Your oxalis just kill me... my dinky little plants have dwindled or totally disappeared over the last 2-3 years.

A very small heuchera, Heuchera hallii (the camera doesn't handle white too well):
   

Silene kantzeensis, down to one measly flower this year... I think it's my wake-up call to divide this thing up and move it into different places before it gives up entirely!


Campanula saxifraga:


And some perennials...
Out in Palliser's Triangle (although perhaps the name no longer applies... the area grows perennials pretty well, though it was lousy for grass!), Lupinus nootkatensis:
   

Also, Dracocephalum nutans:
 

And, ending off, Cypripedium 'Aki'... I can't claim to have "grown" this - I just bought it this spring and stuck it in the ground.

[RickR]

Gee Todd, I hope my Allium zebdanense seedlings look that good someday. 
Happy Birthday from me, too.

Lori, yet another array of wonderful plants!  Is Lupinus nootkatensis native in your area?  Someone sent me some wild collected seed from the Alaskan panhandle once.  I never grew them, but I passed them on to someone else here.

Our native lupine in Minnesota is Lupinus perennis.  A friend at work collected wild seed last fall and put them in the deep freeze, and then planted them in late winter under lights.  Many are starting to bloom now!  He started them in regular potting mix, and transplanted them outside at his cabin in northern Minnesota where the soil is fairly clayey, so he put them in a mix of class 5 crushed limestone and peat (!?)  All I can say is: it works!

My Magnolia sieboldii is nine feet tall now, and is very worthy.  I wish it had fall color, though.

               

[Booker]

Out in Palliser's Triangle (although perhaps the name no longer applies... the area grows perennials pretty well, though it was lousy for grass!)

Had to look this up, Lori ... for those also in the dark ...

The driest part of the Canadian prairies is often called the Palliser Triangle, after a 19th century explorer who first described a roughly triangular area that he felt to be poorly suited for farming.

In his final report to the British government Captain John Palliser suggested that a triangular portion of what is now the southern prairie provinces was a northern extension of the arid, central desert of the United States: “This central desert extends, however, but a short way into the British territory, forming a triangle, having for its base the 49th parallel from longitude 100° to 114° W, with its apex reaching to the 52nd parallel of latitude.” Palliser described this triangular area as “desert, or semi-desert in character, which can never be expected to become occupied by settlers.” To this day Palliser’s name is attached to the most arid region of the southern Canadian prairies.

[Hoy]

You have some really nice plants, Todd! How do they know you have birthday soon? (I have too, you see, next week )

Lori, do you never run out of space and plants to grow and show? I am really impressed by your assortment of plants!

Rick, pretty flowers of the Magnolia. Doesn't the leaves go yellow in fall?

Here are a few of the plants flowering in the garden now:


A blue allium            Codonopsis clematidea          Corydalis elata

       


This strange Polygonatum has leaves with twining tips to help it climb in other plants. It has reached 1.5m now. The flowers are dotted.

     


Rosa roxburghii f normalis is in flower. I had to cut several branches last spring as it had outgrown its allowed space.

[Hoy]

Another from today: Filipendula camtschatica, 250cm tall, from seed a few years ago.
Something for you, Stephen?

           



Btw, do you have "jordnøtt", Conopodium majus? (It is a native plant with nutlike edible corms.)

   

[cohan]

Both very interesting, Trond (the Poly, too); Filipendula is very dramatic, and edible corms are interesting--many of our edible northern plants have only greens...

[Lori S.]

Is Lupinus nootkatensis native in your area? 
Our native lupine in Minnesota is Lupinus perennis.

Rick, L. nootkatensis is native to Alberta but it occurs in the northern subalpine area, from the Athabasca River headwaters north, according to Flora of Alberta... (which reminds me that I still haven't figured out the ID of the interesting lupin I saw in the park). L. perennis looks very nice... I'd love to get some seeds if you ever have the opportunity to collect a little bit.   The magnolia looks gorgeous!

Cliff, thank you for the explanation of "Palliser's Triangle".    It was a fitting name for our roughly-triangular boulevard section, as it consisted of a boring area of compacted lawn grass that was impossible to water adequately (and why waste water on lawn anyway?)  In Palliser's terms, it was unsuitable for "agriculture"(=lawn)... True, but it is now an interesting and floriferous bed of perennials and shrubs that requires no watering! 

What a strange Polygonum, Trond.  Filipendula camtschatica is interesting (I have a weakness for big, burly plants)... I assume it is not rhizomatous?  A common name for Conopodium majus is "pignut", apparently:
http://www.naturessecretlarder.co.uk/bushcraft-tutorials/pignut-foraging-tutorial-conopodium-majus.htm

Here's an update on Silene bolanthoides, which is looking rather adorable, with both pink and white flowers; the whole plant is about 2 inches across:


Ditto for Asperula boissieri:


Saxifraga paniculata v. minutifolia 'Red-backed Spider':


And I got home late tonight, and was out taking photos when it was really too dark to do so, but it made for sort of an interesting photo of the first flowers on Silene falcata:

[stephenb]

Trond: Yes, please to the Filipendula - I had it for several years, but disappeared two winters ago, possibly too dry where I had it. I would also be interested in the Polygonatum (a genus with many wild foraged edibles ). Have you posted it on the Polygonatum thread at SRGC? Would be interesting to know what it is.

Lupinus nootkatensis has naturalised in Norway and there's quite a large population on a damp meadow near the fjord next to Trondheim airport at a place you'll be familiar with but probably haven't visited - Hell   Incidentally, I live on the road to Hell. There's an annual blues festival there and several artists have recorded their Blues Live in Hell album there...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hell_Station

[stephenb]

Yes, I have Pignut which has become a bit invasive in my garden - the tubers are difficult to dig out in garden soil as they sit quite deep, but aren't really a problem. They also grow quite big (picture 1 and 2) - I think that they are rarely this big in nature (probably about 5 years old); the single leaf arising from the tuber looks ridiculously small. I collected seed in the Pyrenees years ago and later also introduced from Scotland. I understand that there are different species in Southern Europe, so it could be a different species, but I've never seen a key to the genus...

I also have Bunium bulbocastanum (Great Pignut or Knollkarve in Norwegian; literally Tuberous Caraway) (picture 3 shows both pignuts)

Unfortunately, I'm one of those that get an unpleasant aftertaste if I eat raw pignuts of both species (not everyone does).
.

[cohan]

Yes, I have Pignut which has become a bit invasive in my garden - the tubers are difficult to dig out in garden soil as they sit quite deep, but aren't really a problem. They also grow quite big (picture 1 and 2) - I think that they are rarely this big in nature (probably about 5 years old); the single leaf arising from the tuber looks ridiculously small. I collected seed in the Pyrenees years ago and later also introduced from Scotland. I understand that there are different species in Southern Europe, so it could be a different species, but I've never seen a key to the genus...

I also have Bunium bulbocastanum (Great Pignut or Knollkarve in Norwegian; literally Tuberous Caraway) (picture 3 shows both pignuts)

Unfortunately, I'm one of those that get an unpleasant aftertaste if I eat raw pignuts of both species (not everyone does).
.

Very interesting, I'd like to try these.. you can eat them cooked as well as raw? Are they closely related to Caraway? That is an invasive here, having been planted by many European settlers.. though I haven't seen it much outside farmsteads/yards (we have it here on the acreage and it can really spread.. )

[stephenb]

Yes, you can also eat them cooked, but I was put off by the raw taste... Apart from being umbellifers, I don't think they are closely related - Trond will correct me if I'm wrong. I'll try to harvest seed later...

[RickR]

Lori, that Silene bolanthoides is really adorable now.  I didn't think much about it when you showed it with just one flower.  (I'm a little embarrassed.)  Maggi has that wonderful quote:

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and it may be necessary from time to time to give a stupid or misinformed beholder a black eye. - Miss Piggy

You can slap me in the face now (no black eye, please)...

[Todd Boland]

Looking forward to seeing that Silene in person.....BOLANthoides...almost my namesake!

[Lori S.]

There's a howling wind out there tonight, so I ended up deleting a lot of blurry photos...
These made the cut (I'm not that particular, I guess  ):

Verbascum atroviolaceum, a medium-height mullein that gets to about 20" in regular soil for me:
 

Ptilotrichum (Alyssum) spinosum:

[IMYoung]

Lori, Verbascum atroviolaceum... a new one to me.... is a super colour.


Rick.... good to see you can see the wisdom in Miss Piggy... it's not always easy to see past the BBQ ribs and the bacon!