Plants flowering in the open rock garden.June '09

[Paddy Tobin]

Simon,

Your Penstemon palmeri has a very tidy arrangement of flowers, very beautiful.

Paddy

[Sinchets]

I agree, Paddy. The size of the flowers makes for a very densely packed flower spike.
Flowering just now:
Lallemantia canescens- not quite as compact as Loris's!
Monardella cinerea- a mere 'film' on the rock surface

[Lori S.]

Fabulous plants, Simon!  
I wonder why is it so hard to get a well-coloured P. whippleanus, i.e. the dark maroon/purple that one covets?  Or for that matter, to even get seeds from which the resulting plants actually key out to P. whippleanus?  (This species has been a source of frustration for me!  )

Simon, it appears your L. canescens is actually a lot more compact than mine, which have been buxom, sprawling things.
 

[Sinchets]

Lori, so your Lallemantia was being coy last year and this year has let itself go! 
Thanks for the info on P.whippleanus- when they opened u this year as F2 from the orginal plants I was surprised by the colour as I was sure they had been darker in the parent. I bought seeds of the dark form last year- so it will be interesting to see if they are.
Also from today;
Salvia recognita (JJA0847051)
Digitalis ferruginea (collected here near some railway lines)
Digitalis lutea

[Lori S.]

Sorry to be so unclear on the size of my L. canescens!  If anything, they have reduced a bit in size with time, but in their first blooming year, they were 3' tall and equally wide.  (I wondered how it was that this could be a "trough plant", as I'd seen it described.  )

Timing is all messed up here with the late spring... (not to mention two snowfalls on the weekend, ugghh!)
Penstemon nitidus is finally in bloom, but oddly enough, at the same time as many other penstemons are starting - most unusual.
Another native plant in the garden, Lithospermum ruderale.
My favourite thyme, and the earliest blooming here... Thymus neiceffii.

Penstemon nitidus x2
Lithospermum ruderale x2
Thymus neiceffii

[Sinchets]

Yes, a happy Lallematia would certainly need a large trough! Your Lithospermum is stunning, Lori. I have always wanted to grow some of the North American species. There are orange ones too aren't there?
Can't believe you had more snow- we are in a heat wave here- temps hit 40C a few days ago on the Danube.

[Lori S.]

I'll certainly collect seeds from the Lithospermum, when the time comes, Simon.

I think one of the most beautiful is Lithospermum canescens, which occurs through Saskatchewan and Manitoba; the photo is from the wild in southern Saskatchewan.

Hoary puccoon (Lithospermum canescens)


 

[Sinchets]

Wow, now that is a beautiful plant!

[Maggi Young]

Wow, now that is a beautiful plant!

Certainly is! I never saw it before.... or the previous  species, either.... a revelation, Lori, thanks! 

[Lesley Cox]

As always, more amazing plants, many unknown to me. I love the colour of Penstemon nitidus, what I would expect but a friend has a seedling from a "normal" batch, which is soft turquoise blue, utterly stunning.

[Magnar]

From the scree bed yesterday: Oxygraphis glacialis

[Lesley Cox]

Cliff will like that one Magnar. So do I.

[Sinchets]

Lovely Oxygraphis glacialis, Magnar. Is it from seed?
Flowering here:
Aster cf flaccidus (Vojtech Holubec)
Arenaria drypidea
Asyneuma linifolium ssp eximium

[ranunculus]

Cliff will like that one Magnar. So do I.

Oh how right you are, Lesley!  An absolute stunner, Magnar.  Congratulations.

[ranunculus]

This thread continues to attract some magnificent images of such tremendous plants.  Many thanks to ALL the contributors.