| Author |
Message |
Margaret Young (Myoung)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, July 01, 2003 - 8:44 pm: |    |
A new month and a plant that is not new, but not too well known.
Bruckenthalia spiculifolia is a member of the family ericaceae from the northern Balkan area. Only around 15cm high, in leaf the plant looks like any Erica, but the flower clusters are smaller and daintier. I am surprised that this little eric is not more widely grown, since it flowers so well at this time of year. |
Luit VanDelft (Lvandelft)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, July 03, 2003 - 7:48 pm: | |
I never got enthusiastic about Tulbaghia until I saw this one at the weekly flowershow
in Lisse, NL.
But this one I would like to grow!
Until now I only saw , though richflowering, untidy plants. We might not have the right climate for Tulbaghia?
This Tulbaghia leucantha forms a nice compact plant.
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Sam England (Sengland)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, July 04, 2003 - 10:57 am: | |
I am a new member.
Has anyone got any idea what alpines/rock plants I will be able to see in Sout uist this year. I am on the lookout for a sundew!!!
please reply ASAP |
Anthony Darby (Adarby)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, July 04, 2003 - 11:45 pm: | |
Here is a photo of Gentiana prolata taken after watering today, the hottest day of the year so far with 25C.
 |
Anthony Darby (Adarby)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, July 05, 2003 - 3:53 pm: | |
Here's a dainty little campanula that has been flowering at the top of a low wall since 1988.
Campanula scheuchzeri from the Italian Alps. |
Margaret Young (Myoung)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, July 05, 2003 - 9:26 pm: | |
Hello, Sam. I'm jealous that you are off to South Uist on holiday. Ian keeps me here in Aberdeen, scrubbing pots all July. It's all I can do to escape for an hour or two to watch the Tour de France on TV! But that isn't what I was meaning to tell you... I would think that you will be sure to find sundews on Uist. Also lots of orchids, campanulas and pinguicolas(butterworts) In fact I would imagine that you will be kept pretty busy listing all the flowers you DO find! Have a great time, and remember, if you go swimming, the water is freezing!! Margaret, pot assistant and cycling fan! |
Anthony Darby (Adarby)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, July 06, 2003 - 6:52 pm: | |
Hello Margaret. You must be a (re)cycling fan with all those pots being scrubbed for further use! Here's a thug of a plant that, like mint, should have been contained in a pot: Wahlenbergia gloriosa. It spreads rhizomatously throughout the rockery and has survived down to -15C despite being Australian and ** rated!
 |
Margaret Young (Myoung)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, July 06, 2003 - 9:27 pm: | |
Anthony, re-cycling used to be our family business, old habits die hard! Is that Allium prattii in the background of the Wahlenbergia pic? Though it will seed around a bit, it won't become the "thug" that you term the Wahlenbergia. You would wonder, wouldn't you, how often we gardeners are taken in by some pretty, dainty plant that all too soon is attempting a hostile takeover of our premises??
I console myself with the idea that when I am too frail to referee the plants properly, the garden will still be attractive, if quite wild, because of the beautiful thugs around! Luit was warning about Geranium sanguineum earlier (June) but here I think we will disappear under a jungle of Tropaeolum speciosum. We are pulling it up left, right and centre. We can't dig it out because of the density of planting, it would mean too much disruption and damage to everything else, so we just try to subdue it somewhat! I'll take a photo tomorrow of it looking lovely, and fairly innocent, in one of the spots where we tolerate it, and post it on the Forum.
Cheers,
Margaret.
|
Anthony Darby (Adarby)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, July 07, 2003 - 10:08 am: | |
Hi Margaret
The plant in the background and out of focus is Sedum album.I use it as a foodplant for the European alpine butterfly Parnassius apollo which I breed in the greenhouse. The larvae feed in full sun from late March to May.
Regards
Anthony |
Sam England (Sengland)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, July 07, 2003 - 12:58 pm: | |
Hi, Margret,
I am looking forward to gong to S.Uit, we are going late august/early september. I am hoping to find a sundew, saxifrages and possiple a common sedum! They may ave already gone to seed but I have a new digtal camera so I can tack photographs of their habitat so I can recreate It in my rock garden. Happy Scrubbing, Sam
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Luit VanDelft (Lvandelft)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, July 07, 2003 - 9:28 pm: | |
After reading about those weedy Tropaeolum or
rhizomatous Wahlenbergia I might have a solution
and show a plant for the “alpine-zoo” which is attractive for neighbour’s cat.
This beautyful flowering little shrub does really stink, but seems to attract cats ours does not know about it
They break of smal parts and trample on the other plants around it. I keep it in a 20 liter container and after flowering I remove it out of sight.
Normally I would say don’t plant it in the rockgarden but in this case ……?
If Tour de France is going on like this, Margaret will soon have more time to scrub the pots. Seems difficult to cycle upright these days?
Cheers!
|
Anthony Darby (Adarby)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, July 07, 2003 - 11:22 pm: | |
Nice plant Luit (Teucrium marum - no I'm not clever, but my computer is). Must get some to put in my neighbour's garden and see if it keeps the cats out of mine! |
Luit VanDelft (Lvandelft)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, July 08, 2003 - 11:40 am: | |
Sorry Anthony, think I forgot to write the name of Teucrium marum under the pictures.
I hope your Mouse did not hurt itself by catching the name of my ‘Cat-mint’?
|
Margaret Young (Myoung)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, July 08, 2003 - 6:26 pm: | |
Dear me, Le Tour was so exciting yesterday I forgot that I meant to post this Tropaeolum speciosum picture!
I would like lots of plants that ward off cats, since we are very fond of these little chaps in the garden...
This young blackbird is very tame and follows us around, waiting for treats of bugs that we might find for it! |
Bobmackie
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, July 08, 2003 - 7:42 pm: | |
what took the tail of the bird? |
J.I. Young (Iyoung)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, July 08, 2003 - 8:40 pm: | |
Bob, it is only a baby not long out of the nest, it has not grown a tail yet.
Ian
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bobmackie
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, July 09, 2003 - 7:47 am: | |
Thank you for the update.This was my attempt to get into the system. I still have to sus how to post a photo. |
Anthony Darby (Adarby)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, July 09, 2003 - 8:57 pm: | |
Got my knees wet photographing this Marsh Willowherb in a bog over the back of the Lawers Dam today (Ben Lawers, Perthshire, Scotland).
Marsh Willowherb (Epilobium palustre) |
Luit VanDelft (Lvandelft)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, July 13, 2003 - 7:47 pm: | |
This Campanula zoysii flowered this year for the
first time with me.
I tried this high alpineplant several times but was never
lucky and I believe the success is depending partly
on buying a good healthy and tough grown plant.
This was grown up all summer outside last year
in a 5 cm. pot when I bought it and I was amazed
about so many flowers.
Often these ‘difficult’ plants are sold as too small,
halfgrown goodlooking (i.e. fat) plants cultivated in the
glasshouse with too much fertilizers, predestined to die soon.
|
Anthony Darby (Adarby)
Rating: 
Votes: 1 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, July 13, 2003 - 8:42 pm: | |
Here's a close up of the pink dandelion which is out now. My clumps are much more floriferous this year, so not as untidy.
Pink dandelion (Crepis incana) |
J.Ian Young (Iyoung)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, July 14, 2003 - 6:27 pm: | |
We first got Campanula nitida alba about 25 years ago at Jack Drakes and we were surprised, to say the least, when the seed which we carefully collected and grew on produced plants like this.
The flowers varied in colour.
After much reading and research we found out that Campanula nitida is just a form of Campanula persicifolia with a resesive gene that makes it dwarf. One in every thousand or so produces the dwarf form.
This can also come in shades of blue and white but the stature and the foliage suggest a completely different species. Had we not been raising these plants from our ouwn seed for 25years I would be hard to convince. |
Margaret Young (Myoung)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, July 15, 2003 - 8:34 pm: | |
Not everyone's idea of an alpine, but I believe they grow well at some altitude in Afghanistan!
This very fancy double Papaver somniferum has come up in a neglected pot..
All the others seeding about the garden are a single flower,pale pink, so this is quite a change. |
Anthony Darby (Adarby)
Rating:
Votes: 1 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, July 16, 2003 - 2:30 pm: | |
This parasitic plant didn't bloom last year, having been planted as seed in 1999, and blooming the following two years.
Ivy broomrape (Orobanche hederae) |
Margaret Young (Myoung)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, July 16, 2003 - 7:34 pm: | |
You cheer me up, Anthony, with your Orobanche... I like these plants, and others of the kind, Pedicularis etc. but we have never had too much success in getting them established. Now I see your plant happy in Dunblane, I'll be looking to try some Orobanche seed if it appears in next year's Seed exchange! I believe that David and Stella Rankin are having success with some rather lovely Chinese pedicularis which make our native species look a bit puny! You have reminded me to check their List!! |
Margaret Young (Myoung)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, July 16, 2003 - 7:46 pm: | |
Anthony sent me this pic of a double pink Poppy that seeds around his garden. This is the same colour as the "ordinary" singles that we have here.
 |
Luit VanDelft (Lvandelft)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, July 17, 2003 - 10:20 pm: | |
Hello Margaret, about these Campanula persicifolia f. nitida alba
in your garden I wonder if you also tried to get seed from the good blue form (the one on the picture seems to me a dwarf seedling?)
My question raised with me because there are several (blue)colored types. The best ones are dark blue and more difficult to propagate than the white one. They also set lesser seed (my observations)
It might be interesting to know that about 15 years ago a swiss nursery micro-propagated and distributed (on the Continent) a bigger quantity
of the blue form.
Alas, this was not a good blue form and easier to propagate, so I noticed that the good forms are scarce nowadays in the nurseries.
|
Lvan Delft
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, July 17, 2003 - 10:29 pm: | |
I am afraid I adressed my questions about the Campanula to Margaret instead of Ian,who actually wrote the article, but I think both of you will read it. Greetings, Luit |
J.Ian Young (Iyoung)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, July 18, 2003 - 6:36 pm: | |
Hi Luit the blue Campanula persicifolia f. nitida in the picture is 17cms tall unlike the other picture which shows a white Campanula persicifolia which is 1m plus tall. We do not have nitida alba at the moment but I am sure that it will re-appear from seed as it has done in the past. We do not collect the seed nowadays but let it do its own thing and we then weed out the ones that put themselves where we do not want them. It is very obvious even at a very early stage to tell the dwarf nitida from the species. We have in the distant past propagated them sucessfully by cuttings.
Greetings Ian |
Margaret Young (Myoung)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, July 22, 2003 - 7:00 pm: | |
Some of the best blue flowers are Gentians and it is great that we can have these in the garden in Summer, as well as in Spring and Autumn. My first picture is Gentiana septemfida. I like the "bearded" effect of the flowers.
This next picture is of a smaller gentian altogether.
It is hard to see the relative size of the plants here but the G. septemfida has sprays of flowers that are about 25cm plus long and heads of 12cm with many flowers. The second,(which we cannot remember the name of!!) is about half that size of plant but has as big a show of flowers. It has more flowers out at one time than its' cousin, and has a very dainty appearance. The flowers are a paler blue.
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Geoff Hill
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, July 27, 2003 - 6:37 am: | |
Hi Margaret.
I think that this may be G. affinis. I would send you a picture of one of my plants but I haven't a digital camera. |
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