What do you see on your garden walks? 2012

I'll save seed of D. candida for you both.  In the wild here in Minnesota, both Dalea purpurea and D. candida remain at the general height of nearby plants.  I wonder if what you are seeing, Cohan, might be a species of verbena.  Typically in the  Minnesota wild, V. hastata and V. stricta flower above surrounding plants and most often with just one or two stalks.

Lori wrote:

 It [Dalea purpurea] is a much more impressive plant in cultivation than I've ever seen it in the grasslands around here.  Even in the very poor, dry clay along our fence, a plant will have hundreds of stems and form a full vase-shape, whereas in the wild, I see plants with three or four stems and often very small, button-like flowers. 

Ditto for both D. purpurea and D. candida in the wild here.

Tim wrote:

I am fascinated by the Dalea. I am trying a few of these from seed. The picture of purpurea looks a most distinctive legume which I have never seen cultivated in the UK.

Trond - we have had the same experience with the alstroemeria and unfortunately it seeded into an alpine bed nearby and I am forever pulling out shoots. The tubers go down a mile!

Tim, I'm not unhappy with the spreading Alstroemeria! It keeps other weeds away and where it grows it can't swamp anything special.

I have some Dalea seedlings going - hope they are still alive when I get home - it has been a tremendous slug summer I've heard >:(

Dalea purpurea came through the winter and flowered for the first time.  I look forward to its continued success in the garden.
It is, after all, a pea!

Lori wrote:

 
Great to hear that your D. purpurea plants have succeeded so far, Trond and Anne!  Trond, as seedlings, I imagine they might be vulnerable to slugs but as adults, with very tough (even woody at the base) stems and small, skinny leaves, surely the slugs could find more succulent things to eat?  ??? I hope you can get them past what would seem to be the most vulnerable stage.

Yes, thanks, Lori  ;) I hope too that they will survive the summer and the severe slug onslaught! I was home a couple of days ago and found several nasty slimey creeps around the pots although I have tried to place the pots out of reach.

Dark night of the rock gardeners soul. Tell me we aren't on target for a summer heat record in the northeast. Sunshine every day does make for a gorgeous summer however. I'm quite stingy with the hose but it is the only thing between these bright Phlox cultivars and severe dessication.

The south face of The Rock in high summer. The dark bun at upper left (north face) is a Daphne arbuscula much, much larger than a man's head. It may, indeed, qualify as gargantuan for the species! The white patches are lime dabbing. The second photo shows my most proud trough with Sedum pluricaule, a welcome August blooming alpine. I think that's a 'Jaqueline Verkade' spruce in there too, Selaginella densa covers the ground, a silver Saxifrage has seeded into the central chunk of Bighorn dolomite. It is a trough upon which all has been well for well over a decade.

One of a small number of choice small ferns currently here is this Chielanthes from the Rockies. The fronds are generally faced to the east and perpendicular to the north side of the adjacent rock. It seems a thinking fern.

Your rock work, Michael, is really awesome! Looks so good even this time of year.

I just got back from 4 days in Spokane, Washington...an awesome destination for rock gardeners. It is situated between the Palouse prairie (now pretty much wall to wall wheat and lentils, alas!) and the Idaho panhandle mountains. That prairie had to be one of America's natural wonders: in addition to dozens of rare endemics, it harbored some exotic fauna including a giant earthwork (up to a meter long!) which was thought to be extinct, but was recently rediscovered in a protected prairie remnant. And there is even some restoration going on...

But I digress! I shall post just a few pix I have also put on my blog: if you want more extensive commentary, check the blog: http://www.prairiebreak.blogspot.com/2012/08/spokane-visit.html

The first two pictures were taken in the garden Maralee Kowalsky and her husband John--here Maralee is next to her giant Salvia pachyphylla. The second picture is of a champion Origanum libanoticum in her garden as well. Although not technically "rock gardeners" they grow many rock plants very well.

3) Origanum laevigatum 'Pilgrim' at Manito Park in Spokane: I saw this in several gardens there, by far the showiest oregano for color effect. I had never seen it before. Now to get a start!
4) I was hosted two days by Alan Tower, a superb plantsman and nurseryman in Spokane who took me to Steptoe Butte, a remnant of wild vegetation surrounded by wheatfields. (you can see these in the background). Alan's nursery has a wealth of rare plants of all kinds (conifers and shrubs to all kinds of xeric, woodland and alpine plants).
5) Calochortus macrocarpus still blooming there
6) Gentiana oregana is a large flowered steppe cousin of the subalpine G. calycosa: I would love to grow this!
7) Heuchera cylindrica was still blooming prolifically on the Quartzite cliffs of Steptoe,
8) Eriogonum heracleoides was still in fresh bloom, although some were going over enough to get seed!
9) Alan had a magnificent specimen of Gypsophila aretioides on her rock garden: I have never seen a better grown specimen.
10) He has grown a number of unusual gentians from various Czech collectors, and he had many Gentiana striata in bloom--a plant I am not familiar with--from Gansu. Also lots of Gentiana szechenyi, several of which found their way back to Colorado, as well as what he called "Gentiana siphonantha" only it appeared to be compact and attractive. We shall see!

What a treat, PK!
Love the Oreganum and the calochortus, especially.
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Dark Night of the Soul is among my favorite poems, in Spanish or any translation I've read.  I liked your play on the words, Michael, though not at all the original meaning of the phrase! ;)  As usual, your gardens leave me envious, and I would love to see a close up of that trough...

My points go to the gentians . . and of course the Sagebrush Mariposa lily but not for food ;)

Bundraba, I can use some of the heat here, please! The weather forecast says warmer weather the next week - when I have to start working again :-\

Impressive Daphne, and a pretty fern!

Every day I take a stroll in the "garden" here in the subalpine zone. The meadow is a former pasture used when the farmers (or rather small boys) herded their livestock (mostly milking cows) to graze in summer. My father-in-law used to be a "cowboy" in summer when he was young. At that time the landscape was open with very few trees. Now birch and spruce march in and cover the previous pastures, only a few sheep try to keep the shrubs down but don't suffice. I try to manage a small plot near our cabin by mowing once every year in late fall. I have also introduced some native plants that had disappeared or occur naturally in similar areas. The flowering meadow is attractive to insects too!

Arnica montana is endangered in Norway due to disappearing pastures. Leucanthemum vulgare is common but this montane form is more delicate than the lowland form. Rosa majalis grows in the low alpine zone some places.

Solidago virgaurea is also very common. The lowland forms become 1m tall but the alpine forms have only a few flowers. Here they are inbetween those. Vicia cracca do spread but gives a nice colour. Cirsium heterophyllum is coarse and dominating but the flowers are very attractive for insects and the seeds are bird food in the autumn.

The Scarce Copper isn't scarce here but common. Here are both the male and the female. Hopefully we get a new generation next summer!

Hoy wrote:

Bundraba, I can use some of the heat here, please!

Careful what you ask for!

Is there anything you don't grow, Lori? I bet it is the same plant as your's: I believe G. siphonantha should be much bigger than that. But I am glad I got this little one! Boy, would I love to visit your garden, Lori: you really need to write it up for a book (or at least some articles in NARGS!)...

I love the copper butterflies in your Subalpine walk, Hoy! It looks so cool and inviting there--we have had a beastly hot summer, but at least a bit of rain the last few weeks (more than most areas in continental USA)...

I think I posted a pic of my current pride and joy, Silene plankii: it has a few more flowers, so I am adding that as a final flourish...

Hosta nigrescens, Buxus sempervirens 'Vardar Valley' amongst Hosta 'Vanilla Cream' and Hosta clausa var. clausa flowers.  I need an "iredescence" button in my photo imaging program.  The color is actually flat compared to real life.
       

Impatiens balfourii and Impatiens glandulifera(or is it glandulosa?)
       

Ruellia humilis in the garden and, if you don't mow your grass for a few weeks, sometimes you get a nice surprise...
       

Lori, I second Panayoti - you should write an article or two! You have lots of possible headings I would say, even " My successes and failures" could be interesting!

Rick, I like the flowers of your Hostas! I have not been very interested in that Genus - a lot of similar big-leaved slug-baits! But some have nice flowers too ;) Ruellia is lovely!

Panayoti, the colour of Silene plankii is vibrant! One I would love to have at my summerhouse  ;D

Two plants from the rockery at our summerhouse (it's all rocks here though): Orostachys iwarengi and Rosularia sedoides. They are very late this year.

This is what I have from seed labeled as Orostachys iwarenge from the NARGS seed ex.  I don't know if it will ever look like yours, Trond.  I wonder what it is...
              [attachthumb]

I have to agree, I don't really understand the hosta mania, either.  Although I do keep several around.  In fact, another one of my favorites is all green leaved, too:  Hosta 'Sparkling Beauty'.  Fairly (but not completely) slug resistant.
       

RickR wrote:

This is what I have from seed labeled as Orostachys iwarenge from the NARGS seed ex.  I don't know if it will ever look like yours, Trond.  I wonder what it is...
           
I have to agree, I don't really understand the hosta mania, either.  Although I do keep several around.  In fact, another one of my favorites is all green leaved, too:  Hosta 'Sparkling Beauty'.  Fairly (but not completely) slug resistant.

Have your tried your Orostachys outside?
'Sparkling beauty' is a beauty, indeed!  . . . . and somebody should start breeding Hostas for flowerpower, not leafpower!

Lori wrote:

I'm going to have to look out for more Rosularia - that one sure is attractive, Trond.

Despite the heat and drought, everything looks so fresh and pristine, Rick!  A few hostas around here too, though I tend to think of them more and more as space-fillers (ones that are rather vulnerable to hail damage). 
I dunno, I think your plant could very well be Orostachys iwarenge... it doesn't look too dissimilar to this one (except that mine's a little hail-bruised):

Stachys minima:

Mother-of-thyme, Thymus serpyllum - I love seeing the bees enjoying it!

Showing, yet again, the rose 'Amsterdam' - what a knockout!

Dracocephalum grandiflorum:

Lori, I could send some pieces of R sedoides if you think it possible.

Here the thyme is done for the season - and almost all the bees disappeared. However bumblebees still hang around and visit everything in flower.

'Amsterdam' really is a stunner, Lori! My father would have loved to see it, he was a passionate rose grower in his elder days.

Tim, Emily McKenzie crocosmia is indeed elegant.  And as with everything in your gardens, so well placed!

Hoy wrote:

Have your tried your Orostachys outside?

This is a first year seedling for me. one of three in the same pot.  (The other two seemed to have disappeared.)  Time will tell if it is true to name.  Obviously, Lori grows Orostachys iwarenge outside, and I remember seeing a nice big patch of it in a pic on this forum from someone in Massachusetts (Peter, I think?).  I have grown another species many years ago, but it never produced any offsets, so when it bloomed, it was gone.

A word to the wise:
Back then, when a species died or I removed it and no longer grew it, I deleted it from my list of plants I kept on the Excel program.  And now I don't have a record of what it was.  I've gotten smarter now. ;D  First I just formatted a strkethrough the plant's name, but there got to be so many. :'(   So I created another book in the same file and labeled it "Past Plants".  So when a species dies or is removed, I simply transfer the data out of "Present Plants" to the new book: "Past plants".  I refer back to this old plant list more than I ever thought I would.

Lori wrote:

Despite the heat and drought, everything looks so fresh and pristine, Rick!  A few hostas around here too, though I tend to think of them more and more as space-fillers

Our severe drought here lasted from August 2011 through April 2012.  Since then, my area has had an abundance of rain, and even our normal seasonal drought period was much reduced.  Although, it has been very hot.  Those hosta are on the north side of the house, too.

Space-fillers is an apropos name.  Hostas have saved space in my garden for new and upcoming special plants several times.  The Hosta clausa var. clausa grows where nothing else will (except weeds and woody plants) in compacted clay gumbo (hence the moss). Incidentally, The hosta is rhizomatous, with flowers that never open(clausa).
             

After viewing the last few posts I realized I had to go out in the garden and hunt down a truly huge bun of Gypsophila aretioides. I found two! They aren't nearly as grand as that pictured from Alan Tower's garden (but I could always sneak them together) :o There's actually more here too; all from a start or two I acquired when I began seeking out alpine plants in the nineties. The second pictured had three flowers on it many years ago; a BIG event and it even, for a moment, became the mysterious Penstemonella aretioides which many Yahooed!, AOLed, and may have even Googled to no avail. Rock gardening is to be not all drudgery and dirge; laboring with heavy rocks and obstinate little plants, tirelessly under the hot sun. One must be light of heart! The first was posted previously but this is obviously the money shot.

Lewisia cotyledon beautifully set for summer and a hint of blue in Lycoris squamigera.

A low growing Phlox paniculata in hot pink/orange. It was a hand-me-down so I don't have a name. Is it 'Red Riding Hood'?

And here's another look at that trough. On the north side under the spruce is Saxifraga 'minutifolia' and little plastic piggies. Below is London Pride; just out of the photo is the tan line (ouch!). The second is a photo of a weird little Selaginella I found in the arid Uintah foothills growing among Ephedras and Echinocereus. I call it "cactus moss".

Bees like onions! -and the giant native Silphium perfoliatum.

The Crocosmias in my garden have not started showing buds yet this year :-\

Bundraba, those Lycoris are beautiful!

We went for a boat trip yesterday in the nice weather. Thought we should enjoy a flowering island due to enough rain this summer. But they have introduced sheep there too  >:(  :-X
Previously a few calves have grazed there, but a bunch of sheep eat it all!

Part of the island Jomfruland named Skadden: From left 1 &2, view west, 3 view east (Rick, this is Skagerak!).

Only a few, common plants survive the hard grazing: Hieracium peleteranum and Scleranthus perennis on drier ground, Matricaria maritima, Potentilla anserina and Sagina nodosa on moister ground.

Also the tiny Spergularia salina survive. Only one species benefits from the hard grazing, Senecio viscosus. The animals doesn't like it!

A few more pictures of "my other garden" in the Dolomites.  Joe and I spent a day with Cliff and Sue Booker, introducing them to one of our favorite hikes.  We came to an area of limestone rubble which was the habitat for hundreds of Papaver rhaeticum.  The typical color is a brilliant yellow which fades towards orange as it goes over.  This day we found some white ones and some pale yellow, definitely not typical, and an exciting find.  If you see an area with many of the same plant, you can often find one or two that are different.  I can remember a few years ago finding a white Linaria alpina when hiking with Elisabeth and Rod Zander, an exciting find that I've never been able to duplicate, and many years ago seeing a white Oxytropis podocarpa
when hiking with Panayoti.  (Unfortunately, all those pictures are slides.)  As you can see, we've been so lucky to have wonderful hiking companions. 

Lori, in my early rock gardening days I thought that Papaver rhaeticum and Gentiana verna would be a brilliant primary color combination.  I would have had a red in there a well but couldn't think of one that would look well with the other two.  So I grew them from seed and put several seedlings in the scree together.  They came through the winter fine and in the spring they made a glorious combination, one that would probably make the lovers of subtlety in the garden shrink in horror.  I enjoyed them immensely and in my rock gardening innocence was absolutely stunned when they did not reappear the  next spring after a very cold and almost snowless winter.  Isn't it amazing the things you will try as a newbie when you're not overburdened with much knowledge.

I have always loved poppies and many, many years ago I had a very large patch with poppies. Only when the flowers were spent I realized they were opium poppies that are forbidden to grow here ;D

Unfortunately I have never managed to grow poppies from mountain areas more than a year or two  :-\

Lori, your garden is like the Jar of Zarephat: It never ends producing!

I like your "colourful mess", mine is also a mess but not colourful!

Lori wrote:

Great scenes, Michael - now yours is a garden that just won't quit!

That's part the fun; it doesn't quit! Well there can be a period, and two winters ago was a good example, and because a lot of the "structure" is new, when it does quit. We had so much snow here that even the tallest of my Rhodies was completely buried. The garden was a white desert flat as a pancake for weeks!

I remember that winter with great fondness.  The snow was so deep the deer couldn't manuever and the garden was trackless for a long time.  Then last year we went to the other extreme and had no snow except for October.

Love your delphinium masses, Lori! Amazing how much bright color you have. We have more muted colors this time of year, but still, lots is blooming. Your Dianthus knappii is not nearly as bright a yellow as ours. I am very fond of this, and have it in several spots. There seems to be a more compact straing being sold recently. We mostly have pale clematis blooming this time of year--except for some re-bloom on the integrifolias. Our summer has not felt short at all: we have had 30 days over 90F, and no end in sight--interspersed mercifully with a few days in the 80's....

I had Matt Mattus, a great plantsman from Massachusetts visiting this week and we drove around looking at things: a few of the sites on our garden drives are posted here...

1) Cylindropuntia 'Golden Lion': a magnificent cholla growing at Timberline Gardens in Arvada
2) Opuntia 'Chocolate Princess'--and amazing everblooming cactus hybrid produced by Kelly Grummons, one of the owners of Timberline. Incredible dark color now, and even darker in winter!
3) Euphorbia clavarioides at Kelly's--a nice clump that has been through several subzero winters already...
4) -6) various shots of Salvia penstemonoides, one of the rarest (and hardest to photograph) native Salvias...with dark purple flowers...
7)-8) Gentiana paradoxa x septemfida, bringing a lot of color into my garden this time of year...
9) Veratrum formosanum, a wonderful miniature with black flowers that seems to settle down and last a while in the garden. Either you love this.....or you don't
10) Here's Matt Mattus behind the champion clump of Ipomoea leptophylla, spitefully blooming next door instead of MY garden...harrrumph.

Beautiful day outside: time to go garden!

Lori, the light sky-blue Delphiniums are my favorite and to have them juxtaposed with a bright rose is wonderful! You go girl!

It's been raining a lot lately and myriad birds nest fungi have appeared in the garden!

It worked! Peaches(Prunus persica 'Reliance') in zone 4!

A Sclerocactus glaucus I recently purchased and Christmas in August.
 

Hexastylis minor from the Southeast and Oxalis decaphylla (?) from the Southwest.
 

Potentilla tridentata and Bigelow sedge reminding me that I haven't been to the alpine in quite a while; and my portly Yucca glauca in morning light.
 

cohan wrote:

Trond- hope nothing to precious was lost on that island? I've thought fondly of the idea of getting some sheep, goats or even miniature cows or horses to take the place of the lawnmower here, but it would involve a lot of fencing around garden areas and months of feeding when there's no grass...lol

I don't think anything rare have disappeared due to grazing, not at this spot anyway. But I believe a rare plant (Trifolium fragiferum) has disappeared from another place on the island. Moreover, as it is a popular place for tourists at the sandy beaches on the leeward side, many interesting plants have disappeared or become rare. Eryngium maritimum for instance, I haven't seen it since childhood. People remove it from the beach as it is too thorny!

From Wikipedia: