General Forum

A few pretty things I saw on my way home this evening through the park...

Does anyone have any books they would specially recommend on the Flowers, Gardeners and Plant Collectors of North America? I have discovered people like Claude Barr and Lester Rowntree and have a few other titles garnered from AGS Book Sales (the ones that no-one wants anymore because they only have black and white illustrations! But they are still fascinating to read). Having been brought up on the famous names in British gardening it would be good to become a bit more cosmopolitan.

I was able to get out in my rock garden and take some pictures of what's in bloom (and not in bloom) today. For the most part things are way behind normal for this time of year due to the unusually cool wet spring. Here is a link to my photo page for today's pictures

http://imageevent.com/teita/rgmay132011

Jim Hatchett

At the moment, our FOGs group at The University of Western Ontario is preparing for its annual Plant Sale in two weeks time. While assigning the various plants their proper designation - annuals, perennials, house plants, etc. - the question came up about whether Campanula incurva is an annual - I would have just called it monocarpic but wonder if that is right or if that covers it. Or maybe it is a biennial? Could it be a monocarpic biennial or is that a "double negative". Anyway, can someone who knows for sure set us straight about this? Thanks very much. Fran

NARGS member Tim Ingram mentioned his interest in Lomatium, a North American genus of umbellifers.
See: http://nargs.org/smf/index.php?topic=662.0;topicseen

The plant family Apiaceae is huge, with 347 plant genera, with many species of interest for rock gardens, so let me start up this topic with links to another North American genus, Cymopterus.

2010-2011 has been an especially snowy winter for Summit County, Colorado. Up on Peak 7, at 10,000 feet elevation, where Klaus & I live and garden at Mountain View Experimental Gardens, the snow depth is between 3 and 4.5 feet! The calendar tells us spring arrived last month but our "Green Season" won't start until late May. What do we see in our garden now? How about Snowball Bush, Snowlover, Snow-in-Summer, Snow-on-the-Mountain and Snow "Drops" (not the plant -- actual snow flakes).

Managed to photograph these 3 'fellas' yesterday.

In the bush that surrounds our property a New Zealand fan tail --these insect eating birds tend to fly /flit very close in the hope of capturing a meal that may have been disturbed by human activity.

Flowering on my windowsill last week--it was cloudy, so it never opened fully...
Gymnocalycium baldianum, one of few red flowered species in the genus; 4inch/10cm pot..

This morning I read a very interesting article in the New York Times about this topic. It included a slide show of 12 plants that used to grow there but, because of the encroachment of civilization, are no longer evident there. These include some plants that are very rare anywhere, in my experience, like the Trailing Arbutus, Helonias bullata, a really lovely white milkweek and Cypripedium parviflora.

Love them or hate them, you cannot deny the beauty of intricately crafted milkweed blooms, often deliciously perfumed and beloved by butterflies. Some Asclepias are well known invasive weeds, many are course stalwart plants more suited to a wild prairie garden, and relatively few may gain admittance to a rock garden. The North American west holds a number of fascinating dwarf Asclepias species, most will be challenging to cultivate.