Re: Got the Blues

I used my blue poppy elsewhere and where I am now it is only a small, blue violet (Viola rupestris) in bloom. I am not sure my camera can capture it. Here the snow cover has just receded.

I managed to take a picture of the violet. It is only 3.5 cm high. It is growing in the sub-alpine zone in short grass.
PS! The penstemon seems to be a plant to search for!

Here's my version of Myosotis decumbens, a common native plant in the subalpine zone. The other is Ajuga pyramidalis, also common from the sea level to the lower alpine zone. The flowers are blue!

Skulski wrote:

It always seems to be offered in the NARGS seed ex from various donors (I am one  :)).  I'll check if I still have seeds from last year and could send them if so, Trond... not sure it would like your wet climate, but with enough drainage... ??

You know, when you read a seed list like NARGS's you get a wish list much too long! I try to find pictures of plants I don't know but haven't time to look for all. This forum open your eyes for new species.
When you speak of climate I have three places to put down plants and two of the places have dry climate, at least much drier than at home. So I would like to give it a try!
(I have looked at your weather here: http://www.yr.no/sted/Canada/Alberta/Calgary/time_for_time.html )

Moltkia petraea is one of my favorites.  I'd call it a sub-shrub.  The flowers are a good blue and last a long time.  It seems to be very cold hardy (Zone 4b/5a here, noone knows for sure anymore)

MMcD, NARGS Moderator:  Anne, I re-uploaded your image as it was curiously named "convolvulus compactus 012.JPG", surely a typo.

Hi Lori,
I'd rather grow from seed also, but if you have no luck I think that Harvey Wrightman has this in his catalog.
It gets better and better each year, a worthwhile investment.  My garden is very dry so I never worry about anything getting out of bounds, but I think this is really a sub-shrub and will behave itself.

Beautiful Moltkia Anne!  It is one of my favs too.  Mine is just starting to show buds.

Here are some of my current blues..the best is by far Gentiana angustifolia 'Frei', the others are Viola corsica and Viola cucullata.

Hi Todd, I agree that Gentiana angustifolia 'frei' is one of the best.  It definitely has staying power.  This year I'm trying G.angustifolia 'Iceberg' - do you know it? I heard from Cliff Booker that you were a long way from spring when he was there. This has just been a wierd winter with huge temperature swings and everything 3 weeks ahead of itself.

Another good one for the garden is Paederota bonarota. The blue is not as good in my garden as it is in nature but it's still a very nice color and an easy plant to grow.

When I see the pictures you all take I understand that I have to buy me a new camera. My old automatic simply won't focus of what I want!
I have not tried Moltkia before and Paederota is quite new to me. Is it a dry climate plant?

Anne, I have grown Iceberg...it is lovely but unfortunately it died this winter...heaved right out of the ground.  This has been one of the coldest springs on record for us.  Three days ago the temp finally reached above normal!  The trees are now flushing before my eyes.  Still have loads of daffs and tulips open...in fact, some tulips are still just green buds! The last place in North America to have tulips open....that is our claim to fame!

Paederota bonarota is from the Dolomites and is alpine, at least where I've seen it.  It starts at treeline and I don't really know how high it goes.  I've almost always seen it on limestone growing in crevices.  I have it planted in the tufa crevice garden where it seems to be permanent. It doesn't like hot and dry but survives it, perhaps because its toes are clinging to tufa. It is absolutely gorgeous in nature and pretty good in the garden, really worth growing. I'm attaching a picture of it growing in the Dolomites

Compared to some of the other plants shown, this one is a bit humble but a wonderful blue and easy to grow - Dracocephalum argunense.  The picture shows it growing next to the driveway where it is regularly plowed in the winter but comes through with a smile. It starts to bloom in June and continues to hard frost. If you like primary, it's great pared with Zinnia grandiflora.

I grow some Dracocephalum species here but none has started flowering yet.
Paederota bonarota is now on my expanding wish list!

Lithodora diffusa 'Heavenly Blue' has become a popular plant here after introduction some years ago. My plant has crept into the street where it is regularly hit by cars!

Love all these blue things, once grew that Draco, must get it back one day, the Paederota really turns my head... one of those obscure names easily overlooked until one sees a photo (as they say, a photo is worth a... ;D), and what's not to like about the heavenly blue of Lithodora. 

This sunny hot days beckons me to be outdoors, and when I go outside from my basement door, the first thing I see are the blue globes of an extra fine form of Allium caeruleum "DBG Form" (Denver Botanic garden) that I received bubs of a few years back.  The flowers are sweet scented, and I caught a photo with a wasp (around these parts called "yellow jackets") feeding on the nectar (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_jacket).

Glad to see the Allium is blooming for you: It's been blooming here for a week or so and is hanging in there...

That Paederota is awesome, Ann! I've grown its yellow cousin (not very well) but never gotten the blue one. It reminds me a bit of a wonderful veronica I saw in Mongolia; I shall see if I can put my hands on its picture. It may be in the next NARGS bulletin come to think of it..never got a name for it: shoot!

Got back from a 2 week holiday to find these few 'blues' open....Globularia nudicaulis (I think), Veronica prostrata and Aquilegia flabellata 'Ministar'

Oooh, nice blue series Todd!

Globularia has never been a success for me. And the small Aquilegias disappear fast too.
Veronicas are better!

This one I obtained as V. integrifolia.

Nice Veronica Trond....I've made a note of it!

I have this one but mine does not look as good as the one we have in the BG...V. peduncularis 'Georgia Blue'

Todd wrote:

I have this one but mine does not look as good as the one we have in the BG...V. peduncularis 'Georgia Blue'

I grew this once, liked it very much, but lost it and much of the garden in my "garden is completely neglected" years when my two girls were young and life-demands were many.  Both this one, and V. integrifolia that Trond shows, are great looking veronicas.

I have Mertensia primuloides too. It is one of the few Mertensias that slugs don't eat. My seed wishlist is growing longer and longer. I definitely have to try blue penstemons again. Had some fine plants years ago but they disappeared ......

My M. primuloides is just about gone..too crowded out I'm afraid.

Lori, I may have caught up to you...my C. dasyanthera is in full bloom too.  Along with my Meconopsis and a Linum alpinum.

Todd, your new camera is showing it's fine capabilities again (and of course, the photographer's talents), really beautiful shots.

Thanks Mark!

Some more blues...Campanula barbata, Veronica fruticans and my own hybrid sino-siberian iris created by crossed I. chrysographes 'Dark Form' and I. bulleyana (a form wild-collected from the ACE expedition).

I'm reluctant to admit this, but after several years growing a couple Iris from seed, both species mentioned, including the ACE I. bulleyana, I just dug them up and threw them out.  Although looking at Todd's fine hybrid, perhaps I was rash in this decision.  But for me, the foliage-to-flower ratio was way too high on the foliage side, lots of big and messy foliage, retreating into greater semi-dormancy drying leaf messiness after flowering, and only a few less-than-exciting flowers.  Maybe they didn't like my climate or garden assignment too well, but they are history here now.  I'm going to stick with the small Iris.

Have you christened your pretty iris cross, Todd?

Mark, I am always reluctant to remove any plants. Even some weeds like annual geraniums and perennial Sonchus let I live - for some time. Yesterday we removed hoards of Galium aparine (seems to have many common names?) that I had left too long. (I like the leaves of that one!)

Lindelofia anchusoides, brief bloom or not, really has blue flowers!

Lori the ACE expedition was an American seed collection trip made to China sometime in the late 1990's.  Left-over seed were offered in the NARGS seed exchange.  A local member got 2 lovely Arisaema from that collection although she has yet to ID them.  I got I. bulleyana and a Spirea, the latter which is blooming for the first time this year.

Mark, the bulleyana I got is quite small.....only 45 cm tall with sparse foliage.  My hybrid is quite leafy but blooms are not shy!  It was my first cross done while working at the BG.  I have since created 25 or more hybrids, mostly sino-siberians which do very well in our climate.  I'll aim to get whole plant shots in the next week...right now I have only closeups.

Todd wrote:

Lori the ACE expedition was an American seed collection trip made to China sometime in the late 1990's.  Left-over seed were offered in the NARGS seed exchange.

Just a gentle correction Todd ... the ACE Expedition was organized by the Alpine Garden Society and visited China in 1994.  Surplus seed was subsequently offered to exchanges around the world.   There were a number of excellent introductions from the original seed.

http://www.alpinegardensociety.net/news/The+AGS+Expedition+to+China+Anni...

If I remember correctly, NARGS bought shares in the ACE expedition which gave them a percentage of the original seed disbursement. I don't think it was "leftover seed" since they were subscribers. They may also have come into some leftover seed, I don't recall.  I do remember our seed lot including wonderful androsaces and Chesneyas, unfortunately renamed Spongiocarpella and who knows what it's called now. At any rate, they were gorgeous peas from high screes.

I believe you are right Anne ... subscriptions were taken for the original expedition.  Todd mentioned the 'late 1990's', so I presumed he was referring to a subsequent distribution or garden seed produced from an original collection?

Skulski wrote:

Anne, on that note... and if you don't mind me asking... and diverting for a moment from the subject at hand...

I was asked a while back by an extremely accomplished local alpine gardener to inquire as to what conditions are required for growing Chesneya (formerly Gueldenstaedtia) to beyond the first leaf stage, or preferably, to flowering?

Would you happen to have any advice?

Lori, I got 100% germination from the Chesnya seed I received from the ACE expedition. The seeds were quite large and of course very hard. I recall using an exacto knife on them! Sounds harsh but it worked and I had large, healthy seedlings. Then we had a long drought period and I was unable to water my seedlings. They all died before I could actually get them into the garden. I  believe these are high scree plants and would probably like your conditions better than mine. The flowers are large and gorgeous but considering where they come from they would probably prefer a cooler summer and moisture. It would be worth any effort to get them growing and I hope you'll try.

Enough talk! I have to post a plant although it is not the bluest. Prunella grandiflora tolerates both dry and moist situations. Here it is in my seminatural rock bed. Not native to Norway but you find it in Sweden.

Thanks for clearing up the ACE situation Cliff and Anne.  I was obviously fuzzy on the details...all I really knew is that the seeds came from China!

Back to blues, here is my Iris chrysographes 'Dark Form' X I. bulleyana (from ACE)...Mark, you can see they are floriferous in my cool climate!

Looks a bit like Iris delavayi too...

Maybe I've proven delavayi is a hybrid! I know they think bulleyana might be.  They are a messed up group between chrysographes, delavayi and bulleyana....at least clarkeiis distincy...as for wilsonii vs. forrestii....another conundrum.

The Baptisia looks blue for me! I have tried it but not succeeded. Dracocephalum ruyschiana is a native of Norway but I have never seen it in the wild.

Two blue here. Geranium 'Rozanne' never seeds but flower nonstop for months! The other is a biennial, Jasione montana, extremely tolerant of dry acidic soil.
Mark, do you find the onion in the first picture?

Hoy wrote:

Mark, do you find the onion in the first picture?

Didn't notice the onion at first, but I believe I see the little pink few-flowered Allium mairei (syn. A. amabile) just starting to flower.  Watch out, this tiny allium is easily swamped by larger plants, even handsome blue ones ;)

McDonough wrote:

Didn't notice the onion at first, but I believe I see the little pink few-flowered Allium mairei (syn. A. amabile) just starting to flower.  Watch out, this tiny allium is easily swamped by larger plants, even handsome blue ones ;)

Thanks, Mark. I had completely forgotten both the plant and its name till I noticed the clump when I took the picture. Mistook it from grass at first. I will look after it now!