Re: Got the Blues

[Hoy]

Not the bluest and an annual too!
Gentiana campestris is an annual selfsowing in our meadow at the cabin in the mountains. The species is very variable, the tiniest plants have but one flower and the tallest have hundreds. It starts flowering in July and continue till October.
Here visited by Bombus hypnorum.

[Booker]

Certainly on the purple side of blue this beautiful little Meconopsis delavayi is one of my absolute favourites.  It flowered back in june and has now disappeared back under the compost ... building itself up for an even better display next summer ... hopefully!   

[Spiegel]

Beautiful plant, Cliff.
In bloom in the garden now in a trough - Oxytropis oreophila.  As the flowers fade they go through a period when they turn almost turquoise.  In our continued drought they are doing this in fast forward.

[Todd Boland]

Cliff, that Meconopsis has me drooling!

[Hoy]

I have never thought of looking at the flowers from behind, Cliff, and certainly not imagined the beauty of the reverse of a flower.

Anne, Oxytropis oreophila is a plant to desire! When I was a student I tried to collect all the native Fabaceae in Norway (about 70-80) and have ever since had an eye for pea plants.

[Booker]

Thanks folks,
Here is an image from a previous season ... from the front ...

MECONOPSIS DELAVAYI

[Spiegel]

I have never thought of looking at the flowers from behind, Cliff, and certainly not imagined the beauty of the reverse of a flower.

Anne, Oxytropis oreophila is a plant to desire! When I was a student I tried to collect all the native Fabaceae in Norway (about 70-80) and have ever since had an eye for pea plants.

/ Trond, I'd love to hear which of the peas you collected were the best candidates for the rock garden.  I grow as many peas as I can, and many of them are wonderful in the garden when some attention is paid to their requirements.

[David Sellars]

Here's something in bloom today in the garden.

Campanula scheuchzeri is easy to grow from seed and not fussy in the garden.  I have had trouble with other Campanulas mostly from slugs but this one seems slug-proof.  And it keeps on flowering!

[Hoy]

Trond, I'd love to hear which of the peas you collected were the best candidates for the rock garden.  I grow as many peas as I can, and many of them are wonderful in the garden when some attention is paid to their requirements.

I do not think it is many of the Norwegian pea plants which are usable as rock garden plants. Most of them are too big and/or too lax. Few, if any, are endemic her. I think many are circumpolar.
Sorry, I have no pictures of these plants.

The best , in my opinion, are
 - Astragalus alpinus. Some forms are quite good.
 - Astragalus norvegicus.
 - Oxytropis lapponica. Tolerates dry conditions better than the previous.
 - Oxytropis deflexa norvegica.
 - Oxytropis campestris sordida. The last two are rare in Norway.
 - Lotus corniculatus. Some forms are very floriferous and good rock plants.

For the moment I only grow Astragalus alpinus and Lotus corniculatus at our cabin.

[Todd Boland]

Nice campanula David...the saxes in the tufa are even nicer!  Never heard of that Campanula species...I do have the Phyteuma counterpart.  Only campanula still open here are a few rotundifolia and carpatica.

[David Sellars]

Todd:

We have seen Campanula scheuchzeri in the Alps and Pyrenees.  It is like C. rotundifolia except it is smaller and the leaves are narrow.  Here is one growing on a limestone boulder in the Pyrenees

[Booker]

A much better blue than the Meconopsis delavayi is this gorgeous little Aquilegia from the Dolomites.

AQUILEGIA EINSEINIANA

[McDonough]

A much better blue than the Meconopsis delavayi is this gorgeous little Aquilegia from the Dolomites.

AQUILEGIA EINSEINIANA

I grew this many many years ago, when I was in college... the seed from a wild source so I believe it was correct.  It was a very cute little plant.  I suspect that most seed in the various seedexes will not come true, as they all freely hybridize in the garden, so would look to find a wild collected seed offering again.  Cliff, if I may offer a name correction, I believe the species name is Aquilegia einseleana Fr.Schultz.  How tall is your plant, did you get seed from a wild source?

[McDonough]

Todd:

We have seen Campanula scheuchzeri in the Alps and Pyrenees.  It is like C. rotundifolia except it is smaller and the leaves are narrow.  Here is one growing on a limestone boulder in the Pyrenees

Beautiful plant in an austere setting! Just checked IPNI.ORG, and see that there are many subspecies as well.
http://www.ipni.org/ipni/advPlantNameSearch.do;jsessionid=08E89598A751E56C7B08D86D4C02B9C8?find_family=&find_genus=Campanula&find_species=scheuchzeri&find_infrafamily=&find_infragenus=&find_infraspecies=&find_authorAbbrev=&find_includePublicationAuthors=on&find_includePublicationAuthors=off&find_includeBasionymAuthors=on&find_includeBasionymAuthors=off&find_publicationTitle=&find_isAPNIRecord=on&find_isAPNIRecord=false&find_isGCIRecord=on&find_isGCIRecord=false&find_isIKRecord=on&find_isIKRecord=false&find_rankToReturn=all&output_format=normal&find_sortByFamily=on&find_sortByFamily=off&query_type=by_query&back_page=plantsearch

[Booker]

A much better blue than the Meconopsis delavayi is this gorgeous little Aquilegia from the Dolomites.

AQUILEGIA EINSELEANA

How tall is your plant, did you get seed from a wild source?

Sorry Mark, I must have given you the wrong impression.  The image was captured at Pragser Wildersee in the Dolomites (in July) and I don't actually grow this one ... but would like to!   There were quite a number of plants ranging from three inches high in cliff crevices to nine inches high in the open woods around the lake.  Your name correction is appreciated and has been amended above.
Another image ...