Image of the day - 2012

[Spiegel]

Many interesting Posts.  I first "met" Cliff Booker because of the wonderful pictures he was posting on the Scottish Forum of show plants.  Definitely a lurker, his picture of Ranunculus seguieri demanded a response.  I learned he was a very good friend of Alan Grainger, with whom I was corresponding and then met both of them for the first time in the Dolomites.  I admired Cliff's Show pictures long before I said so in print, which is probably true of many of us.
As far as greenhouse plants being "inferior" or "cheating" in any way - far from it.  My plants are garden-grown out of necessity, which in my climate is a definite limitation.  I would love an alpine house or "glass house" in which to try and grow plants I could never grow outside.  I say "try" because growing under glass is a skill set I don't possess.  I've seen Patagonian plants  grown in english greenhouses and was awestruck by their perfection.  Since many of these plants have only a passing contact with ground frost in nature, it's doubtful they could ever be found in my garden.  Probably though, if you were able to take a tour of long ago Plant Shows, you would discover that many of the plants shown in them have made their way into people's gardens.  Wasn't there a time when Lewisias were considered rare and considered to be very "difficult" to grow ?  That's probably true of many other plants which first came to people's attention as exhibits in a Plant Show and have now become part of many rock gardens.  True, we don't have many Plant Shows in my part of the country but I know very few people who have an alpine/greenhouse, and that seems to be cause and effect to a great extent.  I admire a well-grown plant (especially in the Fabaceae), no matter where or how it was grown, and truly love to see pictures of them.

[cohan]

. So my options (short of building/installing a tower) are only dial-up, or what I now use, mobile internet- basically dial-up on cell networks... fast at times, but very spotty other times, and I pay by the amount of data sent/received... I only enlarge photos on a good day...lo
Cohan, that's what I do when I am at my cabin or summerhouse! There I connect via my mobilephone which can be a slow experience at times At home I have fiberoptic connection (although I live in a rural part of the country) -  almost limitless speed . . . .  if I want to pay for it Now I have 25Mb per second (up- and download) Internet and TV and phone simultaneously.

Its not actually using a mobile phone, its a special 'stick' which goes in USB port of computer/laptop for internet connection, and uses cell/smart phone networks to connect.. it can be fast at times, but if there is a lot of usage by other people (on their phones, presumably) , or some kinds of bad weather than it can be slow or even impossible to connect..

[Booker]

Many thanks Anne,
A counterpoint to your very reasoned argument in favour of alpine houses/glass is that anyone fortunate enough to own a garden as beautiful and satisfying as yours wouldn't actually want an alpine house at all unless it could, in some way, be integrated naturally into the rockwork, the landscape, the very fabric of your garden.  Anything else would be a travesty in such glorious surroundings.

Apologies if this sounds like a mutual appreciation society ... but you haven't had the pleasure of strolling through Anne's domain!   

[Tim Ingram]

Cliff. Anne - could I be right in saying that alpine houses tend to go well with smaller gardens; bigger gardens often take too much time already to make and maintain than to also have a wonderful collection of plants under glass, unless you happen to be Peter Korn! I bet though that when lots of gardeners walk round friend's gardens it is that 'bit round the back' where the propagating goes on and there are lots of plants in pots which has a real attraction. After seeing that longed for plant in the garden, it is the excitement of taking away a little piece in a pot. That's why I also love the alpine nurseries so much - they carry this to its logical conclusion.

[Tim Ingram]

'The bit round the back'!

[Spiegel]

Cliff. Anne - could I be right in saying that alpine houses tend to go well with smaller gardens; bigger gardens often take too much time already to make and maintain than to also have a wonderful collection of plants under glass, unless you happen to be Peter Korn! I bet though that when lots of gardeners walk round friend's gardens it is that 'bit round the back' where the propagating goes on and there are lots of plants in pots which has a real attraction. After seeing that longed for plant in the garden, it is the excitement of taking away a little piece in a pot. That's why I also love the alpine nurseries so much - they carry this to its logical conclusion.

I don't know if that's true, Tim.  It seems that an alpine house where you could do seeds and cuttings would be an asset in any size garden.  It certainly seems true of gardens I've seen in England that the smaller the garden, the fuller the alpine house - plants taking every suare inch of space above and below the benches and blooming in profusion.

[Fermi]

Tim,
I agree I love seeing the "workings" often more than the "finished product"!
 
An image I am always pleased to see is Cyclamen graecum in our rock garden - especially when it covers itself in flowers!
cheers
fermi

[RickR]

Holy Smokes, Fermi!!! 

That's a Grand Champion if I every saw one!

[Howey]

Something nice which has just finished blooming indoors for me is Ochna serrulata.  I gather this little woodie is rather scorned? in South Africa and Australia - almost a weed.  However, for me it is quite wonderful - both for its interesting yellow drop earring type flowers and the curious black and red seeds that follow.  It is small enough to plant outside in the rock garden in spring and then to repot in fall and bring indoors.  For me it is not very photogenic but it is a joy all year round.  And I believe it has flowered twice during the year.  Fran

Frances Howey
London, Ontario, Canada
Zone 5b

[cohan]

Fermi- brilliant!

Fran- I googled it- seems to have pretty flowers and fruit-- what conditions do you grow it in indoors? is it indoors all year? And how big is it?

[Lis Allison]

OK, I'm going to comment on the comments about comments.

Hmmmmm.

Fact is, while I admire most of the images posted, I don't think you want me clogging the forum with messages all saying 'Wow, gorgeous, gee whiz....' and so on. I love seeing them, but I don't feel the need to comment. Besides, once one person has said 'wow', I consider it said!

[McDonough]

Lis, here here, well said  

After 14" (35 cm) of snow last week (March 1-2), the first snow of our 2011-2012 winter, the precocious blooms of Colchicum kesselringii looked totally squashed when the snow and ice receded on the warm south side of my house where these are planted.  But today, with temperatures breaking an all time record for this date (3/8/2012) reaching 69 F (21 C), the flowers lifted up rejuvinated by unusual warmth.  The strikingly striped blooms have a light honey-like fragrance. 

I was sent bulbs of this fine miniature spring Colchicum, in two forms, from a friend in Seattle a couple years back.  I'm so pleased to have a bulb species that vies for "first bulb of late winter or early spring", blooming with snowdrops and proving resilient in adverse weather conditions.

No need to "wow" this message

[Booker]

OK, I'm going to comment on the comments about comments.

Hmmmmm.

Fact is, while I admire most of the images posted, I don't think you want me clogging the forum with messages all saying 'Wow, gorgeous, gee whiz....' and so on. I love seeing them, but I don't feel the need to comment. Besides, once one person has said 'wow', I consider it said!

I couldn't agree more, Lis ... some Facebook pages contain nothing more than the ubiquitous "Wows and Whoopees, etc. etc."
My original comments (and images) weren't posted to elicit any such flattery, but merely to illustrate how plants are exhibited on the show benches in the UK.  I simply remarked that one or two of the replies seemed to give the impression that 'show' plants weren't as 'difficult' or as 'in character' if they were grown for exhibition. In many instances nothing could be further from the truth.

[Howey]

Cohan - O.serrulata, probably foot and a half tall, is one of those you can keep indoors at room temperature and enough water to keep the soil fairly moist in winter and then either move the whole pot or else plant it outdoors when the weather warms up.  I move it around a bit in the house - when the sun is literally pouring in through the windows by my kitchen sink, that's where it goes so I can gaze at it will doing the dishes -or else it will stay under lights in the living room.  And when it is in flower I move it to a spot where people who come to the house can see and admire.  Haven't had any problem with bugs either - doesn't seem to need a lot of coddling but gives a great deal of satisfaction nonetheless.  With my lack of luck with many of the seeds I order, I'm beginning to concentrate on the ones that are most dependable - in the garden I can always count on Daphnes and Primroses - oh, I do keep trying a few of the tough ones, just in case I get lucky. Fran

Frances Howey
London, Ontario, Canada
Zone 5b

[Tim Ingram]

I remember Ian Young saying that the plants grow themselves and we just find ways of allowing them to do this as well as we can. Those seem very wise words. When you see plants grown really well at the Shows they just look 'right'. But for me the Shows really encourage growing more of them in the garden where many more species can be cultivated and propagated, and also many can be shown to be good garden plants too, and not just primadonnas. (The opposite is also true, viz: that great Cyclamen graecum of Fermi's. For me this will grow but hardly ever flowers in the garden, but does very well with the summer heat of the glasshouse).