What do you see on your garden walks? 2012

Tim, your gardens never cease to tantalize...

fleurbleue wrote:

Hoy, what is the name of your purple blue Impatiens ? A very nice one I did'nt know !

Yes, I thought that one was particularly nice, too.  As a point of information, Impatiens species apparently do not cross easily.  Just last Saturday, Nick Turland, from the Missouri Botanical Gardens and one of the speakers on the NARGS speaker tour, presented two talks at our Chapter meeting.  (He is also co-director of the Flora of China Project.)  He says impatiens are not promiscuous at all. 

I also had dinner with Nick that evening.  It was just him, one other Chapter member and me.  What a treat to have so much one on one time with such a man!  :o

fleurbleue wrote:

Hoy, what is the name of your purple blue Impatiens ? A very nice one I did'nt know !

Nicole, sorry, I have no name. Got seed from Chris Chadwell some years ago. Do you want seed?

cohan wrote:

Acorns? what kind do you have? I don't think many oaks are hardy here, but really I'd only want any that stay small- I don't want any more shade..lol

Cohan, no oak stays small here! Maybe except those that freeze back or are damaged by strong winds and tough weathers!

Your autumnal colors, Tim and Hoy, are enchanting. We have a little bit of fall color starting--and I expect it will accelerate this week when temps drop near freezing at night: there is even the possibility of snow. Typical Colorado weather! Meanwhile, there are lots of plants still blooming and even the annuals are glorious...

1) Bulbine abyssinica has been blooming all summer--and still has fresh flowers on it! This is a high Drakensberg collection and totally hardy.
2) This dwarf Chrysothamnus nauseosus is growing in the meadow just west of my house: that's my girlfriend, Jan, in the distance. This is thriving despite the hottest year on record, and one of the driest of recent summers. Probably seeded from my garden.
3) Crocus cancellatus (slightly out of focus)--one of my favorite autumn species.
4) Eriogonum allenii was still attractive, but since seed was beginning to fall, I harvested it right after I took this picture (you can see the edge of the seed bag on the left.) That's a good 3-4 months of bloom!
5) A miniature form of Harpochloa falx from High Country Gardens. A hardy South African grass.
6) I( think I posted a picture of this Muhly last time--but this is a better picture of it in the Rock Alpine Garden. The most spectacular ornamental grass we grow (Muhlenbergia reverchonii)
7) and 8) two pictures taken at different times and angles of my patch of Muhlenbergia torreyi, the Great Plains fairy ring muhly that forms huge fairy rings in the wild on slopes.
9) I have finally got a good yellow form of S. x jamensis to grow for me in my dry garden: this blooms for months and combines well with other xeriscape perennials and succulents.
10) A closeup of the pink Schizostylis coccinea--I believe 'Mrs. Hegarty', which I love. Wish it didn't need it so moist!

Panayoti, is the Schizostylis coccinea hardy for you?  I like the pink much better than the intense reds. The wandering curls of the three part stigma is quite interesting and attractive. 
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What do you get when you cross Melica ciliata with Bouteloua gracilis?
--- Harpochloa falx...  (at least that's what it looks like to me. ;))

Picea omorika 'Treblitzch' and same, taken from the other side with the fall color of a dwarf Balloon flower (Platycodon grandiflorus) and past their prime (!) flowers of Lespedeza bicolor.
       

The Yeddo Euonymus (Euonymus hamiltonianus var. sieboldianus), rivals the best euonymuses for fall fruit, in my opinion.  Very nice for inside the house, too.
       

Admittedly not the best pics here.  The green leafed American Smoke tree (Cotinus obavatus) makes its fall color change over from the deep maroon to bright orange-red.  The Ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa), at least in my yard, holds the old needles on the trunk form many years.  Other brown needles in the pic are normal fall senesence, as the needles only last for 2-4 years.
       

Forsythia mandshurica 'Vermont Sun' (Mandchurian Forsythia) has almost round leaves, uncharacteristic of the genus.  On the sunny side of the bush, yellow fall leaves get a red blush.
         

Rick, the Euonymus is a winner! Strangely my ponderosa pine doesn't hold its needles, they all fall once they're brown.

Very odd those Prunus leaves, Cohan - sort of rugose?
No frost here yet and I hope it is still a month to the first freezing temperatures as a lot of plants still are trying to flower (too much rain).

Your plants look spring fresh, Fran!
Is the Magnolia late or early :o

Just a few late bloomers although I found a couple of Primula japonica today. in bloom by the strean garden. 
The zauschneria has been blooming almost a month and is really lighting up the natural crevices on the back of the cliff.  The Heterotheca jonesii
just has a few blooms now but has been flowering all summer long.

Regarding my Yeddo Euonymus (Euonymus hamiltonianus var. seiboldii),it's kinda funny.  Yes, I think this is the best display ever, but not by that much.  However, earlier in the year I wondered what it would be like because there seemed to be less flowers than normal, and the flies that are attracted to them didn't seem to be out in droves like yesteryears.  (My neighbor nicknamed it the Fly Bush. :D)   This is what it looked like a week before.
         

From that it would seem pretty obvious that some photographic trickery went on to get the previous high in the sky pic of the fruit against the blue sky.  There's a story to that...
The giant shrub is near my lot line and the plant grows larger than I had ever anticipated.  These past two years I have had to cut it back by almost half (each year) to keep it from encroaching on the neighbor's and also doing some pruning to balance it a little on my side.  This drastic pruning seems to have spurred a lot of sucker growth that I am sure would continue into the neighbor's yard.  So yesterday I cut it all down and treated the stumps with triclopyr.  This is how I got that "high in the sky" photo:
         

There were about ten major stems coming from the base.

Trond, the provenance of the Pondersoa pine is the South Dakota Black Hills.  It's a disjunct population from the species' main distribution in and around the Rocky Mountains of North America.  Above eight feet it doesn't seem to be holding the dead needles on the trunk as well, and the branches have always dropped their dead needles.  Center stage in this pic is Styrax americanus (American Snowbell), but you can see the Pinus pondersoa in the background.  The yellow-turning brown to the right is an older Lespedeza bicolor, and underneath that is Thuja occidentalis 'Filiformis'.
         

Tim, that Forsythia mandshurica is the only forsythia I grow.  Unlike the other types that are hardy here, it stays quite tidy.  In fact, it has definitely seen better days for natural shapeliness.  The shrub is actually twelve years old, and experiences significant shade from a River birch.  I have only renewal pruned it once.  The species has a little fewer, but larger flowers and blooms two weeks earlier than intermedia cultivars.  Consequently, its bloom time overlaps with F. x intermedia, yet late frosts that will damage intermedias leave mandshurica unscathed.  This pic was taken in mid March 2012, but spring came 3 weeks early this season.
         

Swamp Azalea (R. viscosum); Rosularia pallida rings in the greening of the buns; Vaccinium corymbosum backs up a Gaylussacia from Deer Leap in Vermont.
                       

Autumn light through trees on my back line. It's been raining a lot lately but today was one of those perfectly humid, still, warm Autumn days when everything was just right for this gardener.

A walk down the rocky garden path.

Another good-doer Chrysanthemum; a late bloomer and Gentians responding to dampness after a dry summer. I hope this doesn't mean I won't see them in spring!
                                           

Mazatxotol! (Mazatlatl) That's what I presently dub the viscous, sweet, fizzy bright pink plok that these cactus pears are liable to soon become: Liquid laughter!

                                 Cheers!

Cohan, the geum you show: what are the dimensions?  It certainly is cute.

In Minnesota, Diervilla lonicera is rhizomatous, spreading underground, and grows up to 3ft.  I'm not sure it would be a good thing to have near a rock garden.

Rick, so when your Ponderosa pine does keep it's needles it shows a juvenile trait? Makes sense.

Cohan, interesting with all the different Prunuses. We have only two native ones here, P. padus and avium; the latter makes a huge tree.

Hoy wrote:

Rick, so when your Ponderosa pine does keep it's needles it shows a juvenile trait? Makes sense.

I see what you are thinking, Trond, but it's hard to believe a tree that I planted as a one foot, few year old seedling with no visible juvenile traits would suddenly change its mind.  In the first four feet of growth, it did not do this.  And, if it was a juvenile trait, wouldn't we expect it to be even more pronounced in the branches, rather than the main stem?  I have never seen juvenile foliage of Pinus ponderosa, but I would think it would be along the lines of Pinus pinaster, which are sold here in the complete juvenile stage as decorative little inside pine trees for Christmas time.

Rick, I didn't mean the monophyllic juvenile foliage as seen on those Xmas trees (we have them here too ;D) but as you say, any such trait if juvenile should expectedly affect the branches too.
BTW I have seen the native pine (P sylvestris) with monophyllic juvenile foliage up to a foot high - but you have to grow it under glass with perfectly controlled environment. The juvenile leaves are the same structure as you find as small scales at the base of the double (or more) needles of mature growth. This pair actually sits on a small twig. Each and every pair of needles also have meristematic cells between them when young and can produce a fullgrown branch if necessary like when a shoot is eaten by elks in spring ;D

Your "By the way" is very interesting, Trond.  I suppose then, that this is also what happens when pine candles are shortened in the spring to reduce annual growth, and new buds appear the same season.  I had never investigated exactly where the new bud begins life, and just assumed it was from either latent buds or the cambium.

Yes, Rick. All buds are formed in leaf axils by meristematic cells originating from the apical meristem. The (vascular) cambium is a lateral meristem producing secondary growth of vascular bundles etc.
The scales of the young pine candles are modified leaves and as such have meristematic cells at their "foot". These cells produce the bundle of needles on a short twig - and this twig has when young meristematic cells able to produce a new (latent) bud. It is easy to see if you take a closer look ;)

Thanks, Trond.  Always interesting to hear the back-story on things.  
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Late flowering materials always tend to surprise me.  I look at the buds and I think there will never be enough time to bloom, but then, there they are.  Such a plant, this Aconitum sp.  Usually a darker purple shade, It is much lighter this season, I think due to our late drought.  But I like the green tones this year.
       

And I keep saying how beautiful bulbs can be...
Lilium 'Super Tsing', Lilium Gluhwein®, Lilium 'Zeus'
       

Anemone hupehensis 'Pretty Lady Emily' probably won't survive here, but I have to try.  Emily was my Mom's name, and in her elder years she was often described with the words: pretty lady.
   

Dianthus callizonus puts out its last flower for the season.
   

Another one from Rowe Mesa in New Mexico; a vigorous woody stemmed daisy about 30 cm. tall. Looks very Heterotheca like.
It does not set viable seed but I was able to break off a chunk of the caudex to perpetuate it.

Allium thunbergii is among the last to bloom before cold weather. Crocus speciosus is another. These are on the flat but
they really do better in a warm raised bed here.
   

Escobaria vivipara fruit will turn a darker red soon.

Areneria alfacariense is a slow growing gem

These three were taken locally: a scant taste of Aster variety in our region: A Pellaea sp.! on Split Rock preserve. I
can't recall ever having seen this genus here despite years of rambling about. Really quite exciting indeed what an any-
old-day hike can bring to light: Adirondacks from Clark Road; first frost last night here; just a touch of snow on the high peaks.
   

Michael, I'm wondering if your heterotheca-like plant could be Heterotheca villosa?  I couldn't tell from the picture if the stems and leaves were hairy.  H. villosa is about 12" tall and multi stemmed and almost bushy looking.  I grew it once from seed and I recall it being extremely floriferous.  A nice plant but H. jonesii works much better for me, perfect size for the crevice gardens.

A wedge of warm air from the south in advance of a cold front had bees, flies, wasps, and butterflies all getting a last
taste of summer at the onion; busy plant! Sedum sieboldii is another last bloomer some years struggling on into the snow
but it looks like easy going this year.
   

A third Orostachys in my garden.

Black Bear sighting! And, Mr. Mole is taking control!
   

I wish my Allium thunbergii 'Ozawas' would bloom like that.  It will be another two or three weeks before it begins.  But Allium thunbergii f. album, given to me by a fine forumist here, is blooming nicely.
             

Chosen for its drought tolerance and outstanding fall color, Cotinus obovatus has been in fall color since the third week of September.  This pic taken yesterday  :o.
             

Aster ericoides 'Snow Flurries' is actually past its prime, but sitll lasts and lasts.  Second pic with some friends: Lilium 'Black Beauty', Hylotelephium 'Herbstfreude' (Autumn Joy), and the silver seed spires of Echium russicum.
       

Obviously still a lot of interesting plants on the northern half of the globe!

Love those cyclamen at the base, too, Tim.  The leaves are so vivid!

Cotinus coggygria has poor fall color here.  Some cultivars have none.  Cotinus obovatus is susceptible to verticillium wilt, and a couple years ago in a wet summer my tree had a bout with it, but recovered well.  I had removed about a fourth of the tree.  Verticillium wilt is very prevalent in my area.  I don't even try to grow Asian maples anymore.  The American Smoke tree grows in a very dry part of the yard, so I wonder if the fungus just isn't normally there.

The snow didn't last long Lori? Still some colours in your garden!  My 'Waterlily' colchiums are totally flattened due to heavy rain :-\

Cohan, that kind of weather change is rare here where I live at the coast - now we have had 8-12C for weeks, mostly rain but a few days with some sun. However, in the mountains and inland it is not uncommon although +18 would be something to write about!

Snow-covered trees have their charm too  ;)

While walking around the gardens at Rocky Dale Gardens where I work I took a few shots of 'Deer Leap' the cliffs overlooking the gardens, when it started to sprinkle. The sun then peeped out and presented me with the most gorgeous rainbow!

Looks like a beautiful place to work, Amy, both with and without rainbows!