Image of the day - 2012

Trond, I'll try to remind you later for seed, too.  A friend gave me a Sorbus potoriifolia, which I was pretty excited about, but it didn't even make it through a first winter. :(

Winter has been uneventful here too, until last night when we received 6 inches of wet snow and freezing rain.  I don't like these ice storms.  We never, ever had them until the climate change of the last several years.  Happy to get the precipitation, though.  So now ya'll will have to suffer through some more winter pics...

The bendability of Chamaecyparis spp. (False cypress) always amazes me.  This arcing Chamaecyparis thyoides is really twelve feet high, and will spring back all by itself.

Ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa)

No damage from the storm at my house, except a couple  broken 3 inch branches on a River birch. 
Pinus strobus 'Wintergold'

It's been a soggy end to summer here - 4 inches of rain in 3 days.
The image of the day for me is this clump of Rhodophiala bifida just having "popped out" of the ground yesterday!

cheers
fermi

Fermi, that's amazing plant.  We were in Patagonia in January and seeing the rhodophiala in bloom was one of the many highlights of the trip.

Wow, look at all those buds :o.  Please show up again when more flowers are open.

Checked out this fine Amaryllid on Pacific Bulb Society wiki, and I see that it comes in a whole range of colors:
http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/Rhodophiala

Fermi wrote:

It's been a soggy end to summer here - 4 inches of rain in 3 days.
The image of the day for me is this clump of Rhodophiala bifida just having "popped out" of the ground yesterday!
[attachthumb=1]
cheers
fermi

I just ordered some seeds of this on the surplus distribution!  :D Does anyone know of any tricks or tips to germination?

McDonough wrote:

Wow, look at all those buds :o.  Please show up again when more flowers are open.

Mark,
when I got home in the evening a lot more had openned - so this pic was taken about 10 hours after the first!

Amy,
I got some seed from Santo in Argentina and sowed them at the end of spring and they started to germinate fairly quickly - but it was definitely frost-free by then! I sowed the seeds on top of a pot of well-drained potting-mix and then covered with coarse grit/fine gravel
See reply #26 here: http://www.srgc.org.uk/forum/index.php?topic=6490.15

cheers
fermi

RickR wrote:

Winter has been uneventful here too, until last night when we received 6 inches of wet snow and freezing rain.  I don't like these ice storms.  We never, ever had them until the climate change of the last several years.  Happy to get the precipitation, though.  So now ya'll will have to suffer through some more winter pics...
         

Well Rick, I don't suffer as long as it isn't my garden ;)

AmyO wrote:

I just ordered some seeds of this on the surplus distribution!  :D Does anyone know of any tricks or tips to germination?

Amy, I ordered seed from Chileflora and sowed right away. They germinated without any special treatment.

Fermi wrote:

It's been a soggy end to summer here - 4 inches of rain in 3 days.
The image of the day for me is this clump of Rhodophiala bifida just having "popped out" of the ground yesterday!
cheers
fermi

Fermi, I wish I had such clumps just popping out somewhere in my garden!

Fermi wrote:

Amy,
I got some seed from Santo in Argentina and sowed them at the end of spring and they started to germinate fairly quickly - but it was definitely frost-free by then! I sowed the seeds on top of a pot of well-drained potting-mix and then covered with coarse grit/fine gravel
See reply #26 here: http://www.srgc.org.uk/forum/index.php?topic=6490.15

cheers
fermi

Fantastic! thanks Fermi & Trond! And that is the exact way I sow all my seed with turkey grit on top....starting them at room temp. If no germination in a few weeks out to the screen porch they go!
We just got 6" of fluffy new snow and temps in the 20'sf. But tomorrow it's meant to go into the 40's so it won't last. YAY!! I'm done with snow for this year!

Heavy rain and strong wind brought down the top of the Cryptomeria Sciadopitys  :-[  the other day! In the shade of the trees the Corydalis solida is starting flowering. Crocus in the lawn!

Looks like you lost half of the Japanese Umbrella pine (Sciadopitys verticillata).  That is even worse!!  :'( 

Sciadopitys may or may not be easy to root from cuttings (it depends on the clone), but you have lots of material to work with!  Why not give it a try?  Best time to take cuttings in zone 6-7: Feb-March and July-August.  3000ppm IBA.  There is a negative correlation between resin exudate and rooting success.  So, soak the base of the cuttings in water for 24-48 hours to remove most of it.  The highest rooting percentages corresponds with the lowest internal levels of resin. (Dirr and Heuser, Jr. - The Reference Manual of Woody Plant Propagation).

Your snowdrops are bigger than your crocus!

Hoy wrote:

Heavy rain and strong wind brought down the top of the Cryptomeria the other day! In the shade of the trees the Corydalis solida is starting flowering. Crocus in the lawn!

How heartbreaking for you Trond! Lori is right!! Give cuttings a try!

Your sweeps of crocus and snowdrops are gorgeous! I should be seeing something like that I hope tomorrow when I head down to Massachusetts for a NARGS meeting at the Berkshire Botanic Gardens. Taking the camera!  ;)

RickR wrote:

Looks like you lost half of the Japanese Umbrella pine (Sciadopitys verticillata).  That is even worse!!  :'( 

Sciadopitys may or may not be easy to root from cuttings (it depends on the clone), but you have lots of material to work with!  Why not give it a try?  Best time to take cuttings in zone 6-7: Feb-March and July-August.  3000ppm IBA.  There is a negative correlation between resin exudate and rooting success.  So, soak the base of the cuttings in water for 24-48 hours to remove most of it.  The highest rooting percentages corresponds with the lowest internal levels of resin. (Dirr and Heuser, Jr. - The Reference Manual of Woody Plant Propagation).

Your snowdrops are bigger than your crocus!

Rick, I have 3 or 4 of those umbrella pines (of course! Not a Cryptomeria; I know that :-[ :-[)  but i'll try to root some cuttings for fun. They are rather nice trees and easy growers here.
And Rick, you mean my crocuses are smaller than my snowdrops! Some actually are - I have a few rather bigflowered snowdrops and the young C tommasinianus (first flowers on seedlings) have rather small flowers.

AmyO wrote:

How heartbreaking for you Trond! Lori is right!! Give cuttings a try!

Your sweeps of crocus and snowdrops are gorgeous! I should be seeing something like that I hope tomorrow when I head down to Massachusetts for a NARGS meeting at the Berkshire Botanic Gardens. Taking the camera!  ;)

Amy, unfortunately my camera lens is broken so the pictures I get are bad.
Regarding the lost top of the tree it is both bad and good. The good thing is it threw a lot of shade - and now we are getting more sun for some years ;)

Even though I am situated smack dab in the middle of a Megalopolis of nearly 4 million people (the greater Front Range Denver metroplex) I have had deer in my yard most nights for most of the last year...their little pellets are annoyingly in my gravel paths rather than on the garden where they might to better, and my tulips and even crocuses are being nibbled as they emerge: NOT amusing! But so far the iris have been doing OK...I had to post I. winogradowii, which has bloomed for me the very first time: hope it persists!

I have Iris winogradowii seed, from this year's NARGS seed ex, stratifying right now.  I hope they do well.  Yours, PK, is what I am hoping for in the future.  A most excellently grown plant!

Pix, Tim! We want pix from those amazing British shows...the ultimate Plant porn (albeit soft core)...

Kelaidis wrote:

Pix, Tim! We want pix from those amazing British shows...the ultimate Plant porn (albeit soft core)...

Hi Panayoti,
I must say that in the past I have posted a number of images of AGS/SRGC show plants on this forum (usually in the 'Image of the Day' section) and have been slightly underwhelmed by the reaction from some fellow members. It appears that some NARGS members are suspicious that the majority of our show plants are cosseted under glass and are, in some way, less worthy of respect because of this?
I usually post a lot of show images on the SRGC forum and would be very happy to post them here as well if I felt they were welcomed.

Ya know, I don't even remember ever making a snowman...
We were much too busy building snow forts, sliding trails and sliding and having snowball fights.  ;D  When I was growing up, our 4 acre lot had the best sledding hills in the neighborhood. 8)  We were snow fun central!

But the kid in us all never dies.  I am almost 53 now, and if the snow was right, I'd be out there building an igloo again.  (The last time was about 8 years ago.)

Booker wrote:

I must say that in the past I have posted a number of images of AGS/SRGC show plants on this forum (usually in the 'Image of the Day' section) and have been slightly underwhelmed by the reaction from some fellow members. It appears that some NARGS members are suspicious that the majority of our show plants are cosseted under glass and are, in some way, less worthy of respect because of this?

There is no denying that the American Rock gardening culture in general is different than the European "style".  And yes, I would say that in comparison to rock gardeners across the pond, interest in show plants is much less of a focus in America.  But as evidenced by PK’s comment, we’re not all shaped from the same cookie cutter, just as the aforementioned European "style" does not accurately label all European rock gardeners.  Add to that the fact that the NARGS forum traffic is around one-fifteenth that of the SRGC forum, and with even less regular contributors. I think it is difficult (to say the least) to judge a post’s “worthiness” by the number of replies it generates here, compared to the SRGC forum.

As for myself, I tend not to post unless I have something to say beyond the goes without saying “beautiful”, “fantastic” and “awesome”.    I guess I should fix that. 

I am a little confused because I do think that the majority of European show plants (at least the excellent ones shown on the forums) are grown under glass.  (Please correct me if I am wrong!)  But I have never thought them unworthy.  It is true that there are less responses on this forum.  Interpolating from this that a post is unwelcome is an embarrassment on our part here. :-[

Tim wrote:

... But who can resist a beautiful plant in a pot? It is like a beautiful woman! (or am I not allowed to say that?).

Well Tim, you've certainly taken Adonis out of the equation!!!  :D :D

Tim and Cliff and any other show plant poster-please keep those wonderful, inspiring images coming---Thanks

Lori wrote:

Cohan, in the face of yet another impending snowfall, I choose to live in climate denial, and will instead post late-April photos of Pulsatilla campanella as my Photo of the Day offering!  :D :D

Lori...I'm so glad you posted the Pulsatilla campanella photos as I planted a couple seedlings out into my teeny rock garden last year. I so love the look of this one and the nice blue color of it. I'm keeping my fingers crossed it made it through this wierd winter!  ???

While we are still on the subject, sort of, regarding gauging popularity by number of responses: I'd like to also point out it's ineptness with respect to number of photo views, compared to the SRGC forum.  

Note that the NARGS thumbnails are larger than SRGC's.  It's not a trick with the dark background of the forum.  The thumbnails are more detailed already, and a viewer isn't so "forced" to click on the pic to expand the view.  I have to say that I have enlarged many of the smaller SRGC thumbnails, only to find that the real photo is not what I thought it was in the thumbnail!  I can't say that has ever happened with the larger NARGS thumbnails.

Consider also that the USA is not very well connect to the web compare to most other developed countries.  Oodles of rural communities have no other way to connect but by slow dial up service and the land line telephone.  I am sure we all remember being on a slow web connection at some time, and forgoing opening pages or photos because it just takes too long.  I suspect that this contributed to the decision by the NARGS forum administrators to make the thumbnails larger: so that forumists are not compelled to enlarge the photo to see some detail.  

cohan wrote:

On the last point- I think Canada has pretty good rates of internet connectedness, and I think even in many small towns high speed internet is available-- Alberta has wireless available even in many rural areas.. however, none of that does me any good, since we have too many trees around for satellite or wireless connection!... 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...lol

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 ;D Now I have 25Mb per second (up- and download) Internet and TV and phone simultaneously.

Cliff, I look at and enjoy your and others pictures from the show bench although I don't comment always. Show plants belong to another world - more like art than gardening but that doesn't mean I don't appreciatethe pictures. It's more that I get speechless :o

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.

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!  :D

Tim wrote:

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.

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

Holy Smokes, Fermi!!!  :o :o :o

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

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 ;)