Image of the day

Here's one of my favorite plants, Agastache aurantiaca x rupestris. A few years back I grew both the burnt red-orange A. rupestris, and the bright orange A. aurantiaca.  Both species eventually died out but left behind hybrids of a lovely softer orange color.  I love the aromatic foliage, the aroma wafting every time I walk by and brush up against the foliage. The tubes of mellow orange flowers are so welcome late in the season, continuing into fall until cut back by frost.

Later in the day, I was photographing this plant again, in shaded light this time, and while snapping the second picture, could hear a loud whirring sound, a humming bird.  Just after snapping the picture, he turned and faced the camera directly between the lens and the subject Agastache raceme, as if looking into the camera, mere inches from my face... never have I been quite this close to a hummer.  Of course, with the annoying auto-focus-in-and-out action on my camera, which takes 2-3 seconds, I failed to get what would've been a great shot of a humming bird.  Each time I tried to snap a pic, he moved a few inches this way or that way, this sly devil was playing with me :D

The weather in North East Scotland is not very summery at the moment.... so the arrival of little bursts of "sunshine" like this bright golden flower of Crocus scharojanii is especially welcome  :)

Very sunshiny!

Do you grow it in a pot or inthe garden?

It's the colour of good egg yolks, isn't it? We grow it in a pot , sitting  (that is to say not plunged) in an outside open frame. We could give a cover to the frame if the weather was too awful.... but we seldom do that.

If you are interested in how we enjoy our plants ( whether in the garden or in frames or an unheated glasshouse) then there are links to eight years of Bulb Log Diaries by Ian for you to read (or search the index by Len Rhind!) here : http://www.srgc.org.uk/logs/index.php?log=bulb

In the glass houses and frames this is normally the "quietest" time of the year, with mostly dormant bulbs, so most of the plant growth is happening in the garden now.

Thanks for the link! I will enjoy it but have to wait till I get home and can use my broadband. I have only tasted some pages, my cellphone is to slow to be used as a modem to my laptop.

My pleasure....  I was thinking it would be a project for long Norwgian winter nights at the pc!  ;D ;)

Crocus scharojanii
Is this a very late spring blooming crocus, or a very early fall blooming one?

RickR wrote:

Crocus scharojanii
Is this a very late spring blooming crocus, or a very early fall blooming one?

Aha! That's a very good question, Rick!  I'd say it was an early fall..... but if I were in Australia, I might have a different viewpoint   :-\

Here is Tony Goode's take on this crocus from  his Crocus Pages on the SRGC Site:
http://www.srgc.org.uk/genera/logdir/2010Mar281269809277Crocus_scharojan...

You may also be interested in a very beautiful pale crocus, with scharojanii connections.... see here
http://www.srgc.org.uk/bulblog/log2004/190804/log.html

IMYoung wrote:

My pleasure....  I was thinking it would be a project for long Norwgian winter nights at the pc!  ;D ;)

That's right! I often use the winter nights to browse the net - or read garden journals. But I do not think the Scottish winter nights are much shorter?

McDonough wrote:

Here's one of my favorite plants, Agastache aurantiaca x rupestris. A few years back I grew both the burnt red-orange A. rupestris, and the bright orange A. aurantiaca.  Both species eventually died out but left behind hybrids of a lovely softer orange color.  I love the aromatic foliage, the aroma wafting every time I walk by and brush up against the foliage. The tubes of mellow orange flowers are so welcome late in the season, continuing into fall until cut back by frost.

Later in the day, I was photographing this plant again, in shaded light this time, and while snapping the second picture, could hear a loud whirring sound, a humming bird.  Just after snapping the picture, he turned and faced the camera directly between the lens and the subject Agastache raceme, as if looking into the camera, mere inches from my face... never have I been quite this close to a hummer.  Of course, with the annoying auto-focus-in-and-out action on my camera, which takes 2-3 seconds, I failed to get what would've been a great shot of a humming bird.  Each time I tried to snap a pic, he moved a few inches this way or that way, this sly devil was playing with me :D

I am sorry we don't have hummingbirds here. The nearest are two moths (Hemaris spp) with the same behavior. I was not aware of orange Agastache either. I like that color.

Lovely crocus Ian but I can't think about crocus in mid-summer!...there is something unnatural about that!

It's still Allium season, but then again, I always say that ;D  So, the Image of the Day, is of course... Allium.

The numerous hybrids of Allium nutans and senescens are coming into bloom, some of the colors looking a bit lighter due to the heat and drought this year, but still looking good nonetheless.  Here are a couple views.

Booker wrote:

A beautiful setting featuring Potentilla nitida rubra on a boulder edged waterfall ... near Falzarego in the Dolomites.

Cliff, are these Potentilla getting their roots right into the rock fissures? As I mentioned eleswhere about this plant, we find it has a tap root that heads for the other side of the planet and the situation of this rock perching specimen makes that look unlikely there, unless the rock has deep cracks. :-\

I grew Potentilla nitida in a trough for about 12 years, maybe longer. It bloomed once, with just a single flower, preferring instead to be (to quote plantsman George Schenk from his 1976 catalog) a "vegetable incubus".  So year upon year, all that appeared was the nice silvery foliage, until 3 years ago when I had the roof reshingled. I explained to the roofing contractor to take extra care to not trample foundation plantings, and to be careful in general, but failed to mention the obvious... don't step/walk/jump on/dance upon/or decimate the three old troughs that I made as a teenager some 36 years ago, these troughs roughly below the roof overhangs thus well within the bull-in-the-china-shop effect.  They didn't even mention the fact the trough had been smashed... I negotiated with them for some reparations, including the front foundation planting that looked like a herd of elephants roamed through, and they knocked off a measly $100 off the very big tab. Grrrrrr. >:(

Ditto, Cliff.  That's the way I see them, mostly on rock.

Gorgeous!  I kept mine alive for several years but eventually got shaded out...never did bloom very well.

Lori, you've certainly gotten higher up in the Rockies than I ever have...I haven't even seen trails that go this high!

I was In Glacier on the Highway to the Sun about 3 weeks ago...amazed how much snow was still in the area...essentially the only thing blooming were the glacier lilies.  I am still sorting through my 1000Plus pics from the 10 day trip to southern Alberta/northern Montana.  I will try to post some this evening.

As promised....Mount Logan photographed on July 20..still plenty of snow. And a close-up of Erythronium grandiflorum.

Stunning Cliff!

Lori, if you look closely at my picture you will see the green meadow has a tint of yellow...it was absolutely covered in glacier lilies.  I hiked over to see!

Simply breathtaking!  Nice shot of the alpine chough!

Todd, those meadows filled with glacier lilies are magnificent!

Your pictures are artistic, Cliff, you certainly have an eye for the motifs.

I assume that Trollius is acaulis or pumila.....is it blooming now?  If so, it is certainly a late bloom.

I cannot take credit for growing this one...its the spectacular Gentiana georgii.  It was growing in the fantastic garden of Stephanie Ferguson in Calgary.  Lori was kind enough to bring me to Stephanie's garden when I visited Calgary last month.  I see she will be speaking about her crevice garden at the WWSW in Sydney, BC this Feb.

Could almost have been cottongrass, Lori!

A few shots from Frog Lake ., Alpine county, CA. Elevation 8600'

Red Sierra heather, Phyllodoce breweri

Natural crevice garden located on a granite out cropping just along the north edge of the Lake, Linanthus pungens and Sedum lanceolatum

Eriogonum ovalifolium var. nivale and Sedum lanceolatum

Showy Jacobsladder, Polemonium pulcherrimum

Purshia tridentata, dwarfed by the alpine winds

Wet meadow at the north east corner of the lake with Iris missouriensis and buttercups in the foreground.

crevice alumroot, Heuchera micrantha,  living up to it's common name. Found growing from a crevice on a smooth north facing shear granite cliff.

I agree with Lori...beautiful images John!  I was also taken by the P. breweri.

Not too much going on at the moment but there's a nice Argemone sp. which has just come into bloom.  It's planted on a lean scree slope and apart from having a tendency to flop down the slope it's been a great plant.  It's growing with a number of astragalus sp and is never watered except by nature.  Also a picture of Astragalus utahensis which bloomed well in the spring but the foliage during our long drought has been sensational.  The last couple of days of rain hasn't helped the leaves.

I haven't commented on this thread for a while, but gee, every photo says SO much!!  Thank you all!

Weiser wrote:

A few shots from Frog Lake ., Alpine county, CA. Elevation 8600'

Red Sierra heather, Phyllodoce breweri
Natural crevice garden located on a granite out cropping just along the north edge of the Lake, Linanthus pungens and Sedum lanceolatum
Eriogonum ovalifolium var. nivale and Sedum lanceolatum
Showy Jacobsladder, Polemonium pulcherrimum
Purshia tridentata, dwarfed by the alpine winds
Wet meadow at the north east corner of the lake with Iris missouriensis and buttercups in the foreground.
crevice alumroot, Heuchera micrantha,  living up to it's common name. Found growing from a crevice on a smooth north facing shear granite cliff.

John, a very special series of images... nature makes some wonderful natural plant combinations and vignettes. such as that gorgeous Eriogonum and Sedum combo... nice.  I've encountered Iris missouriensis many times, but oh, how could one recreate that incredible setting of fallen silvered branches and trunks with the Iris rising through to mirror the sky and water... thanks for capturing these and sharing.  And the Phyllodoce, ooh la la!

Spiegel wrote:

Not too much going on at the moment but there's a nice Argemone sp. which has just come into bloom.  It's planted on a lean scree slope and apart from having a tendency to flop down the slope it's been a great plant.  It's growing with a number of astragalus sp and is never watered except by nature.  Also a picture of Astragalus utahensis which bloomed well in the spring but the foliage during our long drought has been sensational.  The last couple of days of rain hasn't helped the leaves.

Catching up after having house guests for a week.  Anne, Astragalus utahensis is looking great there, handsome tight growth and foliage, worth growing even for the foliage alone.

Cliff Booker's photographic essay on the Ness Gardens on the Wirral in north-west England (Cheshire) has been moved to the topic "Garden Visits - what inspires you!
http://nargs.org/smf/index.php?topic=373.msg3932#msg3932

Since you removed Cliff's pictures there is space for me! My garden is not tidy but a jungle.

The first picture shows a little piece of the thicket of Aconitum lycoctonum vulparia completely blocking the path.
This Phytolacca is growing in the thicket too getting bigger and bigger each year. I presumed it was P. americana, but it is not looking like it -any suggestions?

Hoy wrote:

Since you removed Cliff's pictures there is space for me! My garden is not tidy but a jungle.

The first picture shows a little piece of the thicket of Aconitum lycoctonum vulparia completely blocking the path.
This Phytolacca is growing in the thicket too getting bigger and bigger each year. I presumed it was P. americana, but it is not looking like it -any suggestions?

Trond, the Aconitum is most attractive, but I see a theme with your paired plant selections... poison! Both are poisonous plants, as a number of garden plants are, but I want to give special attention to Pokeweed or Phytolacca.  I don't know if your plant is Phytolacca americana or a different species, there are a number of species, and there is even a popularly grown ornamental yellow variegated form of P. americana, but please BE WARNED, this plant is highly toxic in many ways.

The paradox of the plants famed toxicity, is the plant's equally famed (or infamous) herbal and medicinal uses.  Do a goodle search, and the information is quite dire, yet some of the herbal pages are possibly rather dangerous in their misleading favorable outlook on the herbal uses of this plant, playing down the deadly toxic possibilities. 

A few years back, I found out the hard way about one such toxic effect of this plant while clearing an area of land for a new garden, and pulling out these weeds, often the stems snap off midway because the carrot-like roots are so difficult to pull out.  If the juicy liquid from broken stems and branches gets on your skin, you can get a terrible reaction, far worse than poison ivy, which huge oozing blisters.  Heaven forbid any of the juice gets into one's eyes.  Only found this out after the outbreak then doing internet research on this plant.  My whole right arm was terribly affected, had to wrap my entire arm in bandages for over a month, changing the dressing 5-6 times a day; the skin looked like a 3rd degree burn, but eventually healed. Lots of web sites for pets and livestock, and horses, also point to the severe blistering effect from the juices, obviously very severe or fatal if ingested, both by animals and humans.

Birds eat the berries, and this dang thing comes up everywhere here... I mean everywhere, I am forever pulling out Pokeweed seedlings, still being careful not to rupture the plant tissues, and even so, I got a few small blisters on my fingers this summer.  The long drooping clusters of succulent berries can be enticing to people, particularly children, but in reality they are poison.  Think I'll go out and spray some plants coming up near my woodland edge with poison-ivy killer... it works on Phytolacca too.  A few links:

http://cal.vet.upenn.edu/projects/poison/agbook/phytolac.htm#Phytolac
Sensitive individuals should handle pokeweed with gloves. Root preparations have been used as a folk-medicinal, a practice than can be dangerous.

Pokeweed is a double-edged sword. While it appears to have healing properties, Foster and Duke in their field guide to medicinal plants warn in bold type that all parts of the plant are poisonous, and that plant juices “can cause dermatitis and even damage chromosomes.” (Foster and Duke, p.56) The American Cancer Society recommends thoroughly cooking the young leaves (known commonly as “poke salad”) to reduce its toxicity and goes on to warn: “The effects of eating the uncooked or improperly prepared pokeweed can include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal cramps, headaches, blurred vision, confusion, dermatitis, dizziness, and weakness. Convulsions, low blood pressure, rapid heartbeat, heart block, and death may occur. Animals can also die from eating pokeweed.  :o :o :o

http://ontariowildflowers.com/mondaygarden/article.php?id=132

Thanks Mark for the warning!
I knew however, that it is toxic but not that it was that dangerous! I have no intention eating anything of it!
Many plants are illegal to grow in Norway but not this one (no pokeweeds are native here).

I have had such blisters myself from handling Euphorbia palustris and Angelica archangelica especially if it is strong sunshine (the skin gets sensitive to sun when you have sap on first).
Heracleum species also give blisters and some of them are banned here.