Flowering now July 2007

[mark smyth]

I better do some catch up in this Flowering Now section - way too much swift watching over the last two months.

Annuals and Geraniums

a shrubby perennial daisy bush that is still without a name. In the winter it dies down to underground buds just below the surface. Masses of flowers from now to frosts

Corynephorus - A grass I wish I had. Photographed in Dublin Bots this week

Unknown Daphne suckering from the base of my 'Jacqueline Postill' - no scent

Dianthus 'Elizabethan' as it should be. The flowers shown last month were lacking the picotee edge

Dianthus 'Pudsey Prize- callizonus x alpinus - suddenly dead. Drowned most likley

Grindelia aka Gum Weed

Papaver corona-sancti stephani

Rhodohypoxis 'Kiwi Joy'

Unknown daisy in close up - same as the one above

[Gerdk]

Here are some pics made yesterday in my garden - including some of the autumn flowering species
 1.  Scilla autumnalis
 2. Cyclamen purpurascens
 3. Acis rosea (syn. Leucojum roseum) - outside!
 4. Alllium sikkimensis
 5. Pulicaria dysenterica - common fleabane, seeds collected in Cornwall
 6. Cardiandra alternifolia - Hydrangeaceae
 7. Platycrater arguta - Hydrangeaceae
 8. Desfountainia spinosa - Desfountainiaceae from Chile - not hardy here
 9. Alstroemeria aurea - seeds collected at Vocan Llaima/Chile
10. Malvastrum lateritium - Malvaceae - not hardy here

Gerd Knoche, Solingen
Germany - 33 ° C this moment

[Gerdk]

Here is the rest:

11. Geranium cinereum - white form from Gavarnie - Pyrenees
12. Lobelia species - from seeds collected in Tsitisikamma NP, South   Africa - not hardy
13. Silene keiskei var. akaisialpina

Gerd Knoche, Solingen

[mark smyth]

I too have Leucojum/Acis in flower. L/A autumnale

[Magnar]

Gerd and Mark, thanks for the pics both of you. It's fun to see all the different plants and flowers.

[Martin Baxendale]

Mark, the scentless white daphne suckering from the base of your D. bholua 'Jaqueline Postill' is probably D. longilobata, which is quite widely used as an understock for grafting daphnes. I'd pull it off if I were you.

[mark smyth]

Martin it's not quite at the base the stems are coming but from 1, 3 and 6 inches up. The grafts must have been poorly positioned. The new growth this year is already 18 inches 46cm

[Martin Baxendale]

Then I'd prune the shoots off as close to the main trunk as possible, otherwise they'll sap energy from the D. bholua. And watch out for new buds shooting from around the same areas - rub them off with your thumb as soon as they start to break into growth.

[Susan Band]

Here is a picture of Calochortus superbus making a brave effort to flower during all today's rain.
I have the label showing that it was sown in Nov 2001, it is growing along with every thing else in gritty open beds and was quite a surprise seeing it flowering, maybe last year's hot summer encouraged it.
I did grow a lot of different ones in the greenhouse at one time which did well but everything has now been chucked out into the open.
There is a new book going to be published about them in the summer and I have some seed waiting to be sown later on. Maybe there will be more interest these lovely plants.

susan

[Lesley Cox]

That's a really nice species Susan, lovely markings. I have some seedlings so looking forward to flowers. I find many are best among lowish shrubby things, like verbascums, in order to be supported. Otherwise they flop about. C. palmeri is a delicious pink but so tall and skinny it's impossible to place without support from something.

[Peter Maguire]

I said yesterday (over on the wildlife thread) that I would post some pictures from my recent visits to Lund and Copenhagen botanic gardens. Obviously with a visit in early July, many of the 'proper' alpines and woodland plants are over in these lowland gardens, but the following nearly qualify (all from Lund botanic garden, southern Sweden):

Morina longifolia - a tall plant of around 80-100cm, more suited for the herbaceous border and with leaves that look very similar to a thistle at first glance.
Acanthus mollis - similar size, softer leaves.
Agapanthus campanulatus group - they had clustered about 30 -40 large pots of this 1m tall bulb(?) in a group about 4m across, looked absolutely stunning
Two examples of what to do with your peat blocks. Those of us who were at the discussion weekend last year were shown various constructions with swedish peat blocks, none of which were used for bedding plants that I can recall.

Peter

[Peter Maguire]

More from Lund Botanic garden:

The Agapanthus display
Begonia foliosa var miniata - this won't be hardy, but they had a massive 2m tall specimen in a huge tub outside the greenhouses.
A rather nice Trycyrtis sp which didn't seem to have a label an one that I'm not familiar with.
Allium, again, I don't know the species, but they were naturalised in an area of long grass.

Peter

[Lesley Cox]

Thanks Peter. But it does seem like a terrible waste of peat blocks when I have cassiopes, phyllodaces, primulas and a hundred others BEGGING for such an environment - which I can't supply 

[Peter Maguire]

They have acres of the stuff; easy come, easy go....

[Peter Maguire]

And now some from Copenhagen Botanic garden:

Peat/Rhododendron bed - they don't seem to have a rock garden as such, although if I read the signs correctly at the entrance this was where it should be. It must have been magnificent in late May/early June.
Primula florindae to show the variation in colour.
Lilium candense.

Peter