What do you see on your garden walks? 2012

The last ones from todays walk.

Tim wrote:

Some great plants Todd - oh that we could grow primulas like that! I particularly like the ranunculus and pulsatillas.

Trond I've never heard of making rhubarb soup? Rhubarb crumble is excellent though!

At home my mother made crumble,  soup or mesh (is it the right word? -  soup thickened with flour -). Now we use rhubarb as dessert soup with sugar and milk or as juice. Very nice in hot weather ;)

Todd, seems summer has arrived at your place - some plants of yours are more advanced than here!
Does the Ranunculus survive outdoors?

Krish, I should have noted that your introduction mentions your location. Frances; I found something like that miner's lettuce in my front garden this morning; an odd thing. This won't be the first time that some strange little weed has occurred in my garden. I sometimes think that variety spurs yet more variety; or, maybe it's something the birds want there? They watch, you know. We plant; they plant. We pull weeds; they root about too.

An advantage of heading up our Chapter plant sales committee: at the end of the sale, I decide what remaining plants are "worthy" of holding over to the next sale.  Often I will take the orphans home and grow them on through the summer or another year.  Like this Clematis integrifolia:
       

Any guesses as to what this is?
   

Bless its little heart, blooming in a little styrofoam cup!
Anemone multifida 'Annabella Deep Rose'
   

Penstemon hirsutus var. pygmaea
   

Howey wrote:

Attractive, to me, though a bit of a thug, is this Claytonia californica - Mine's Lettuce.  Not sure how it got into my garden.  Fran

Frances Howey
London, Ontario, Canada
Zone 5b

Is this a distinct species? It looks like Claytonia perfoliata.

Don't see it in the USDA Plants Database, but I've learned that there are different subspecies of C. perfoliata:

http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=CLPE

...and in FOA: http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=242415745

I grow a variegated form (picture).

But, why are there so few of the North American Claytonias which are in cultivation/ available as seed? The only ones I've managed to get are C. virginica and C. megarhiza.

It's a nice time in the gartden which is about to go blue with Moltkia petraea.  Some eriogonums in the crevice gardens are in bloom now.
I like the foliage as much as the flowers

Now that's talk'n to me! Dianthus alpinus from SPARQ/QARGS seed (photo1). The other is Potentilla thurberi, a rather large
plant for the alpine garden but the flower color has heart.

Photo2 is the Blue Mist Penstemon (P. virens).

Photo3; looks like a Chocolate Lily (Fritillaria Camschatensis); but I've planted everything else.

Photo4: Mr. Toad has made himself a nice, cozy toad-hole in the rather prickly 'Pic-Carlit' Fescue: smart toad!

Photo5: Saxifraga; There is Heuchera sanguinea in here and once there was a daisy (one of the Townsendias) that really made
this scene magic.

Photo6 is Geranium richardsonii; a native to North America.

Photo7: This is cute. It doesn't bloom much but cute when it does.

Photo8: Claret Cup.

Photo9: Saponaria rubra.

Keep walk'n!

RickR wrote:

An advantage of heading up our Chapter plant sales committee: at the end of the sale, I decide what remaining plants are "worthy" of holding over to the next sale.  Often I will take the orphans home and grow them on through the summer or another year.  Like this Clematis integrifolia:

Any guesses as to what this is?

Rick, can't understand that nobody wants these?? They hadn't been leftovers at our arrangement!
The unknown one reminds me of something I've seen - a Campanula?

...and alot of gems from Anne and Bundraba!

Hoy wrote:

Rick, can't understand that nobody wants these?? They hadn't been leftovers at our arrangement!

Actually, it was only the clematis pictured here that was a leftover, not the others.  A couple people brought several each, so there was quite a few to choose from.

Hoy wrote:

The unknown one reminds me of something I've seen - a Campanula?

You're the only brave guesser, Trond.
Its a fuzzy bunch of young Martagon lily buds!  (seed grown, of course. ;D)

Rick, how many people attend such Chapter plant sals?

A lily! You fooled me there, Rick!  But I have seen some campanula with similar leaves ;D And actually I have martagon lilies in my garden but can't remember that they are so hairy! - or should I say hoary ;) Do you know the flower colour?

So I was took a walk in the garden and caught a flash of color out of the corner of my eye.  ;)

Oh My, John!  There is a whole LOT going on there! :o :o :o
A "spot" of color is way too modest.  You could start a new thread on just that garden scene alone!  So the striking red-orange is... what?

Hoy wrote:

Rick, how many people attend such Chapter plant sals?

Ya know, I know we have kept count (or tried to) in the past, but I can't put my finger on it.  For the spring sale, I am thinking about 50 from the Chapter members plus whatever we can pull in from the public.  We hold it in a public park, but the shelter can't be seen from the connecting road or parking lot.

Hoy wrote:

A lily! You fooled me there, Rick!  But I have seen some campanula with similar leaves ;D And actually I have martagon lilies in my garden but can't remember that they are so hairy! - or should I say hoary ;) Do you know the flower colour?

Most martagon buds are not that fuzzy, although some are even more so.  Flower color on that one is a darker mauve-pink.  Here is the same one, four days later:
             

It will be first bloom for this martagon seedling this year:
             

Rick I assume you are asking about the orange in the bottom, center  of the first picture. The two orange spots of color.
If so, that is an orange red Echinocereus triglochidiatus. Here is a close up from a couple of years ago.

Cohan, the Geranium comes from the Bighorn Mountains quite a bit south of your area. So far all of the seedlings that pop up have been white and I'm wondering if it will cross with any of the other Geraniums in the garden.

John, Great stuff. I'm still trying to do that here!

My goodness, I am hopelessly behind... been wanting to respond to this topic numeropus times, and I do enjoy seeing everyone's fine plants and garden views (I like the toad pic). After nearly 3 weeks of traveling and cramming for various"events" at work, I have a breather here on a holiday weekend (Memorial Day here in the USA).

Here are three view of a trough at the end of my driveway, backed up by a garden shed.  The winter-tiny foliage of Alyssum oxycarpum gives away to a small billowing cloud of yellow flower.  I didn't notice last year, but today I noticed an unusual characteristic of this species, the flowers stink.  When I kneeled down to take photographs, I detected the smell of skunk, and I thought to myself "oh no, there might be a skunk moved in under my garden shed", but then realized it was the Alyssum!  What an unusual mal-aroma for an Alyssum to have!  Next to it, in the neighboring trough, is Delosperma 'Tiffindell', now in its third year (seems perfectly hardy).  In the last photo, I show a close-up of two plants near the Alyssum, Globularia repens 'Nana' on the left (from Wrightman's Alpines ), the most minute and concise leaves which are near shiny black all winter, but no flowers this year (only 2 flowers last year), although I would grow it just for the foliage, and Erigeron scopulinus in the center (from Peter George), making a dense mat, but also no flowers this year, only a smattering of flowers last year.

Monday morning greetings of Soapworts and Golden Heathers! The same Golden Heather; Hudsonia ericoides was photographed two days in a row. It will flame out quickly; new flowers each day falling apart before tea time.

I had this thought about the birds, and this one in particular as it is so elegantly colored, that they come to this garden to die (to breed, to steal berries, and to generally pester me); but; perhaps, simply, a cat got it.

It's kinda funny how the wind can whip around the Pulsatilla turczaninovii flowers and rearrange them permanently, until the next group of gales from a different direction rearranges them again.  Almost like an Obedient plant's flowers, except they don't obey me!  Your specimen, Lori, if the coloring is right on my screen, looks intermediary between my most blue flowered plant and a steel gray-blue that I used to have.  (That one mysteriously died.)

Are you sure that is Alchemilla alpina?
Usually with a silver edge, aren't the leaves supposed to be palmately compound and not so heavily toothed?

Wonderful pictures, Lori.  Does the Myosotis decumbens stay small for you?

Lori wrote:

Catching up, yet again...

More Pulsatilla turczaninovii - I know I keep showing this one but it is fabulous!  Thank you for the seeds years ago, Rick!

Lori, you have loads of gems and interesting plants! But I agree, P turczaninovii certainly is fabulous! Is it possible to ask for seed if you have some to offer later?

Surprisingly not flattened by the 3+ inches of rain we have had in the last few days, Allium moly:
             

Phyteuma orbiculare.  Each flower is always subtended by one very long single bract.  
       

A species Hemerocallis.I hadn't noticed before the small white protuberances at the end of the sepals that point forward.  How odd...
             

Not a photo worthy of discussion, but I thought I had gotten rid of Penstemon pinifolius 'Mersea Yellow'. It is growing better now than when I tried to grow it!  Second Pic: Pentemon whippleanus (thanks for the seed, Lori!)
       

Clematis integrifolia
             

Tim wrote:

Rick - is there much variation in Penstemon pinifolius grown in the US?

I nave no idea. 

I have the species, too, growing right next to Mersea Yellow, and it does better, but not by a lot.

Tim, I like your flowering lawn too! I have just mowed mine - first time this season  ;)
I also like the Onosma! If it is short lived, does it produce seed?

Rick, surprisingly I could do with some rain! It has been very dry here for some weeks - a dry (cold) wind from north suck the moisture out of everything and the layer of soil is thin.
Both Penstemons are nice. I have started trying new species now  :)

Here are some of my peonies flowering now.

P rockii, delavayi and delavayi lutea, all from seed.

A few more: lactiflora(?), mlokosewitschii and obovata(?).

A walk in 'Cactus Park': Photo1: the green leafy thing just above Cerastium tomentosum is Campanula glomerata (which will bloom) growing through Phlox subulata which is past blooming. By now you may be thinking: thugs! But, this; bottom and right planting (The gravel area is newer); has looked pretty much just like this for ten years or more. The Plants are kept in check by furrowing between the mats. Apparently, The Campanula just runs around in there without too much malicious intent. At left is Stephanandra, which could be a problem soon if the scene is not to go much scaled upward!
And, at right there is a Teucrium (not yet blooming) which is dangerously welded into place. Can I trust it to be as nice as the Campanula as it swiftly eats ground?

At the bottom of photo2 is Sphaeralcea coccinea.

At the bottom of photo3 is Artemisia stelleriana; at the top is a bridal veil Spirea, the only plant in the photo that came with the house when I bought it many years ago.

In photo4 is Erigeron flagellaris and one of those rather fast Artemisias. The Colchicum will senesce in a not unpleasant way.

John; your "little spot of color" noted here. But the palette will be different and there won't be any Chollas.

At bottom of photo6 are the remnants of an ancient and formerly huge Astragalus angustifolius. Just up is a good Eriogonum from Abajo Peak in Utah; they don't all bloom like this and winter burn is an issue in the Northeast; but big bearded Iris do great in my garden not withstanding that these were photographed just before the storm!

To make short the story, this Iris was being extirpated from its former home as ugly. So here lives ugly (photo7).

Photo8 is an old planting of Allium moly, 'Tiny Rubies' Dianthus, Sedum aizoon (?), and Polypodium vulgare.

Here's a couple from 'The Rock': Soapworts and Allysum oxycarpum. Mark; you may want to check your shed (carefully) these A. o. don't smell like skunk!

Photo10; Convolvulus boissieri blossoms only last for a day, but I've seen this plant fairly covered with them. It will even set seeds here.