Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
General Subjects => Flowers and Foliage Now => Topic started by: cohan on May 11, 2009, 07:02:22 PM
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much of the same ground covered in last year's shots..
a few more petasites for Robin....
i think these are all
Petasites Sagittatus
which has prettier flowers than the other species here..
the first couple are on my property, the rest of these are on my uncle's farm which is connected to my acreage..just 2-3 minutes walk from my house
the ones on my place surprised me: growing on a mound of soil pushed up (many years ago) when the sewage lagoon was dug...it is surrounded by wettish areas, but the plants are growing right on top of the mound, which cant be wet....
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Cohan, Thank you for this early spring impressions!
Especially the last photo reminds me of landscape art.
Gerd
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Cohan, Thank you for this early spring impressions!
Especially the last photo reminds me of landscape art.
Gerd
thanks gerd :)
i take many photos, and there are lots of portraits of plants and flowers, also i think its very interesting to see some overviews of where the plants are growing, even when the shots aren't artistic ;) but the landscapes (and skyscapes!) which i take for purely aesthetic (vs informative) reasons, are probably even greater in number :)
as a painter also, i am very interested in shapes, patterns, textures, and above all light and contrast!
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much of the same ground covered in last year's shots..
a few more petasites for Robin....
i think these are all
Petasites Sagittatus
which has prettier flowers than the other species here..
the first couple are on my property, the rest of these are on my uncle's farm which is connected to my acreage..just 2-3 minutes walk from my house
the ones on my place surprised me: growing on a mound of soil pushed up (many years ago) when the sewage lagoon was dug...it is surrounded by wettish areas, but the plants are growing right on top of the mound, which cant be wet....
Thanks for posting the Petasites in your homeland and I love your dramatic sky meets landscapes.....what kind of medium do you paint in Cohan?
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tks, robin--over the years i have worked most in a combination of powdered tempera pigments with acrylic medium, then in more recent years (not so recent now..) watercolours, and more recently still, coloured pencil and oil pastel, etc...
havent done much at all of late, and trying to get organised to do more again...
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tks, robin--over the years i have worked most in a combination of powdered tempera pigments with acrylic medium, then in more recent years (not so recent now..) watercolours, and more recently still, coloured pencil and oil pastel, etc...
havent done much at all of late, and trying to get organised to do more again...
Sounds a challenging range of media - all so different - would love to see some of your work if and when you feel you would like to show it. Interpretation of a scene/subject is so personal and it would be great, for instance, to see one of your photos that inspired you to paint :)
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tks, robin, i'll try to dig up something that i have scanned.... i actually have barely started on landscapes, so not much to show there, though thats an area i want to experiment with; in the past have done more people/portraits, and a series of succulent plant close-ups a couple years ago, etc...
guess that will be offlist...
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Hi Cohan,
Great so see pics from your area of Canada, it all looks very early on in the season for you, what are your daytime temps like in May?
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Hi Cohan,
Great so see pics from your area of Canada, it all looks very early on in the season for you, what are your daytime temps like in May?
tks, chris--yes, it is early for us, anyway--in gardens (even more so in towns and cities) there could be early things flowering (we should probably be at least a few weeks behind lori, generally), but the natives are very cautious--even though we could have nice weather for many weeks by now, the natives know that there are likely to be some cold snaps through may!
'normal' for now is a high of 17C and a low of 4C, and we have had some temps above 20C already weeks ago, but overall its been a cool spring; we had higher than normal snowfall, which lasted longer than normal : the same day i was taking those pics, i saw a small snowbank in a shady area, where there must have been a deep drift--that is quite unusual!
the last several days have been mostly below 10C; next couple days supposed to hit 19-20, but then a high of 4 on monday, with possible snow! not at all unusual to get the odd snow up to end of may, though usually its nice between!
aspens are showing some green in some areas, and if we had some warm days, they'd burst out very quickly..
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Cheers Cohan, your spring weather really does fluctuate then!
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Cheers Cohan, your spring weather really does fluctuate then!
sometimes more than others! this is nothing for the record books, probably, but nor is it exactly 'typical'- today was around 21C, tomorrow 20, and monday now -1C!!
perhaps the best comparison is to a relatively high altitude, (we are on a more or less level area, prob btwn 900-980m--i dont know exactly, but those are towns in each direction..) because we dont get really stable air masses built up for long, usually--even on hot summer days, a thunder storm can drop the temperature from 30C to 10 or 15 in a very short time;likewise, there is also commonly a significant drop at night-and single digit night temperatures in midsummer are not rare..
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Sorry but your weather sounds like it's 'Manic - Depressive'! I imagine the night time temps in particular could limit the species you otherwise might grow given the higher day time temps?
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Sorry but your weather sounds like it's 'Manic - Depressive'! I imagine the night time temps in particular could limit the species you otherwise might grow given the higher day time temps?
time will tell! lori is the closest grower i know of personally, and she is a couple hours away and different climate in several respects--so its all by guess and by golly ;) i'm not too worried, as i know many many things will grow well here--certainly, natives alone (if i could get them!!-besides locals) already provide a large variety, many of which are little grown... and i have high hopes for many high altitude species which likely are used to chilly nights :)
what i DONT intend to try here is the popular summering outdoors of very tender plants, such as the cacti and succulents i grow indoors--no point, season is too short and unreliable to bother acclimating for a few weeks...lol
now i'm out to get a few veg seeds in the ground before the snow forecast for tonight and tomorrow!
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to finish out the shots from that mother's day walk (may 10)
first, some mossy shots for robin...
sorry, no idea on names...
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final set for may 10..
our local cory
Corydalis aurea
a biennial, which is widespread, but not common or abundant locally; here, it seems to favour disturbed areas, in particular mounds of loose soil thrown up by the pocket gopher; i havent seen if along fields or roadsides,that i recall (doesnt mean it doesnt happen)..but despite being in widely scattered locations, they seem so able to find those gopher piles, it makes me wonder if there is some other connection to that species??
i went to look for them in a set of mounds where i saw them last year--the overwintering first year clumps, though tiny, are conspicuous in early spring when there is little green..
what a difference a year makes! the gopher piles--bare last year, mostly, were almost impossible to find with a year's growth of grass and weeds (this is in a semi natural forest edge area, but is also home to cattle, so there are forage weeds also)..in any case, i could find no corys there--i guess since they bloomed last year, those plants are dead, and new seedlings have not yet appeared, if its not too overgrown for them to do so.... luckily, a little farther on, i found one plant, still at the forest edge, still in a gopher mound... this year i really will find some little plants to try transplanting, and get some seeds later on as well!
behind the corys, a strip of forest, then what used to be a hayfield, now just grazed, but a favourite area with the small herd of cows, its grazed very closely, unlike much of the old bush/pasture which is much more overgrown than when i was a kid...
this tightly grazed land is good habitat for
Antennaria
we have several species, which i haven't sorted out yet--small, larger, very white, more green..in this field there are both white and pink flowered forms/species, plus a couple of different sizes..
flowering is later; this view just shows how they cohabit with grass and weeds (oh--its the little whitish rosettes...hiding amongst the grasses and dandelions), some areas really dense patches, other areas more loosely spread..this view covers a few feet...
Ribes
early leaves
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to finish out the shots from that mother's day walk (may 10)
first, some mossy shots for robin...
sorry, no idea on names...
Thanks Cohan for the photos you posted of moss and lichen - it certainly looks wet in the areas close to the forest! The CU's you took are great so you can see the structure more clearly - they are amazing....and I love your wild landscape shots too. :)
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boy, i am so far behind! many, many hundreds of photos, but no time to edit and post! pics of a couple short trips coming, including a trip into the mountains (500 shots there alone to go through!)
back to the farm, late may--hard to believe there was snow on the ground less than a month ago....now we have had temps in the high 20'sC, even though still frost many nights until a few days ago...
here are some
Corydalis aurea
a little tricky to find from one year to the next--being biennial, generally, they wont be found where they were flowering last year! they dont grow in deep shade, usually, but here not out in the open either, usually, it seems, just at the edge of woods, or in open woods; they seem to need disturbed soil, and have a strong correlation with patches of open soil turned up by pocket gophers, as in first shot...
last is presumably stinkweed
Thlaspi arvense
though, i wouldnt swear to have these cresses id'd properly; in any case, an agricultural and garden weed, but still nice to see flowers at the beginning of the season...lol
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Good to have you back Cohan, hope you've had a great time - sounds as if you've been snapping away and I look forward to seeing more of your photos ;)
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a few more from the same day..
Glecoma hederacea
could have sworn there was n 'h' in glechoma! putting on a nice show still then and now--if you get close enough to see!
view of the area where the glecoma is growing..
a couple more views, the poplars just leafing out in late may,
Pyrola asarifolia
all these little evergreen things looked much better this spring, thanks to a snowcover that remained late-last year many were exposed from february on, long stretches exposed to drying winds and cold temps with no access to water yet, so they looked haggard by spring.
more mosses..
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Good to have you back Cohan, hope you've had a great time - sounds as if you've been snapping away and I look forward to seeing more of your photos ;)
thanks, robin--yes, busy capturing the flowers of the season! and even busier trying to get some gardenign done! still have been mostly working on veg gardens, and a couple other minor plantings, and taking care of stuff in pots that is waiting for beds,,hope to start working on rock gardens soon :)
i'll try to get lots more pics posted, and looking forward to getting caught up a bit on other people's great photos i know i have been missing...lol
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Glecoma hederacea
could have sworn there was n 'h' in glechoma!
I believe you were correct with that "h", Cohan......... the RHS plantfinder agrees, too...... Glechoma :D
Good to see your pix.... with or without letters!! ;D
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Glecoma hederacea
could have sworn there was n 'h' in glechoma!
I believe you were correct with that "h", Cohan......... the RHS plantfinder agrees, too...... Glechoma :D
Good to see your pix.... with or without letters!! ;D
thanks for the back-up on the spelling :) my local wildflower book must have adopted some kind of revisionist american spelling ;) the h goes back :)
off to work now, try to get some more pics ready soon..
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Nice to see you back Cohan with more interesting pictures for us.
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Nice to see you back Cohan with more interesting pictures for us.
thanks david :)
a while back i promised paddy ( i think!) some pics of local wild
Amelanchier alnifolia
(saskatoon berry) which grow wild all over here, including some large/old (for the species-large shrubs small trees, maybe 20 feet tall) ones in my yard....
here are a couple shots with some trunk detail..shots in full flower coming soon...
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okay, i have way too many pictures of
Viola adunca
but i cant resist it, and it grows all over my yard...
a couple of cute little presumed
Carex spp
i am really getting to like these near grasses...
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Super pics thanks, I could give that Corydalis aurea a home! Pyrola too, if my orchid obesession fades they are next on the list! :D
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a while back i promised paddy ( i think!) some pics of local wild
Amelanchier alnifolia
(saskatoon berry) which grow wild all over here, including some large/old (for the species-large shrubs small trees, maybe 20 feet tall) ones in my yard....
here are a couple shots with some trunk detail..shots in full flower coming soon...
What a trunk of a plant which I only saw as a shrub here (A. canadensis)! Never expected an Amalanchier of about 6 m! I am looking forward to the pics of the flowering trees!
- and thankyou for the superb violet pic!
Gerd
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Super pics thanks, I could give that Corydalis aurea a home! Pyrola too, if my orchid obesession fades they are next on the list! :D
i will be trying to get some seed from those corydalis--i did manage to find a few plants, so if you are interested...
pyrolas will be blooming soon, and we have 3 or 4 species..i could collect seed of those too, though i have read they are tricky to germinate out of habitat..
speaking of orchids, pics of calypso and corallorhiza coming soon, and more violas for gerd ;)
the amelanchier are nice in flower, plus a couple other small rosaceae trees..
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Hi Cohan,
Yes please on the seed front! Yes I was thinking I would try germinating Pyrola on a terrestrial orchid style agar medium and see it they would grow on after that! I shall wait with anticipation for those orchid shots! Cheers. :D :D
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Hi Cohan,
Yes please on the seed front! Yes I was thinking I would try germinating Pyrola on a terrestrial orchid style agar medium and see it they would grow on after that! I shall wait with anticipation for those orchid shots! Cheers. :D :D
ok, chris, i will let you and others know when i find some seeds... the corys should produce good seed, though not so many plants around; pyrolas are EVERYWHERE though especially asarifolia ( i was raking grass and leaves from several overgrown spots near stumps in my yard, and was surprised to see pyrolas happily growing invisibly beneath all the debris!), and progressively fewer of other species.... similar to some other stoloniferous species, P asarifolia here seems to have far fewer flowers than bodies, and not sure how many seeds as i havent checked too carefully--but of the bazillions of plants, they must make a fair number...
we also have either or both of 'greenish flowered' and white flowered: P chlorantha/ellipticala, but relatively uncommon right here; others i see may or may not be considered pyrolas- 'one sided' (my book lists it now as orthilia secunda) is not rare, though not nearly as vigorous as asarifolia and less abundant yet, though still not rare, is moneses uniflora-- the one flowered wintergreen, the tiny charmer..
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Hey Cohan,
Wow, everywhere! Nice to have them as a yard weed!
I had a couple of species growing in a bog garden in the UK but had to leave them behind as they would not have surivived the treatment required to pass phytosanitary regulations for importing them to BG!
Happy botanising
Chris
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yes, a lawn purist would drop dead here immediately...lol
besides the dandelions and clover :( lots of violets,maianthemums and cornus canadensis are coming on now, tons of mertensia, geraniums just beginning, then around edges and trees, there are the honeysuckles, cornus, amelanchier, roses starting now, viburnum, ribes..all common natives, but lovely still..
i am photographing everything...lol
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still at the end of may, from my acreage, at the edge of the dry coniferous forest, where it blends into the wet willow area....
Rhododendron (Ledum) groenlandicum
and
Vaccinium vitis-idaea
these grow on mounds formed by old stumps, fallen logs, roots etc, so they are in moist spots, but raised up out of the really wet part, or at the bases of conifers (esp Vaccinium), where it can be very dry, but there are adjacent low spots that stay moist/wet..presumably they could have roots to the wet area?
interestingly, like the Pyrolas i mentioned before, these have looked MUCH better this year than last, especially Rhodo: last year snow cover was erratic after february, and exposed broadleaf evergreens looked rather distressed by the time there was finally full thaw; this year with much heavier snow until much later (May in some shady spots!) these plants stayed covered until nearer the time they could take up water; as a result, they suffered much less/no winter damage, and i see flower buds on some--i saw no flowers in my local Rhodo population last year..
Carex sp
notice the secondary flower structures halfway down the stalk--i think there are male and female parts involved here, very interesting...
Viola renifolia
cant resist those violets :)
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the most welcome green of the year--the first greening of the deciduous trees!
they are nearly all turned to the darker summer green already now..
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Viola renifolia
cant resist those violets :)
Thank you Cohan! There is no need to resist violets - especially this little gem! :)
Super focussed pic!
I also admire the beautiful picture of your first greening - here almost over!
Gerd
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thanks, gerd--yes, the greening is far advanced here too, as these pictures were several weeks old, and the spring being late here was very fast once it got started!
only grass in fields etc has been behind, as it has been a dry year, not as bad in my area as some other parts of the province (some areas have already lost crops or they did not even germinate, and grass is not growing at all for hay; lots of forest fires too, but far from here) but we are still MUCH drier than the last two years..
raining today, but it still wont be up to normal, probably..
as for focussing, i am lucky to have a camera that can go right up to subjects, and can focus and/or set light on a very small area..
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Wow, what a difference, Cohan, lovely shots of the green growth rush and the sweet little violet - what is your camera?
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Wow, what a difference, Cohan, lovely shots of the green growth rush and the sweet little violet - what is your camera?
thanks, robin--and it already looks completely different again, things are overall very green now...
my camera is a panasonic DMC FZ18
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well, having become totally overwhelmed with the business of taking photos, especially over the summer flowering season, and secondarily getting those photos edited a bit, i got totally behind on this thread!
so what i will be doing now, is adding some sets of photos of particular sites or areas, rather than just going chronologically...
these are so far out of date now that i probably shouldnt be putting them in flowers and foliage now--perhaps the whole thing should be moved??
anyway, we are jumping back to early july, to a site just a couple of miles up the road-this is where the multicoloured castillejas were photographed, along with some other things that will go in other threads, mainly--anemones, delphiniums, etc...
i think for expediency, i wont comment too much on each photo, they should be labelled as to species, when/if i know; the view shots lead us down the road, with occasional glimpses of dramatic summer skies when i would look up from the flowers!
this is all private land, so i rarely ventured more than a few metres off the road; all farms, though there are some bits of forest that seem not to be grazed even, just left alone, at the moment;
the same shots, a bit larger, and a few more will be in my picasa album, which i'll add a link to at some point, or just ask...
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arriving at the castilleja site, an area at the side of the road, with young/open woods and grass/forbs at the edge of a more mature poplar/mixed forest;
likely this area was cleared in the not too distant past, and if left alone, the poplar saplings will grow in, shading/choking out many of the other plants; a lot of plants also grow right into the roadsides (what we call ditches here--all countryside roadsides) but that is a habitat of doubtful safety--the county has started a program of spraying for 'weeds' in roadsides--agricultural weeds do spread along the ditches to some extent, but if there is no organised program to remove them from fields and pastures (there is not), spraying ditches will accomplish nothing; another issue is keeping trees from encroaching on the roads and impeding visibility, as well as making it easier for wildlife to dart from cover in front of vehicles...thats valid, but is easily enough achieved with mowing annually, or even every couple of years..this spraying really bothers me, as these are crucial habitats for many species that become overgrown in wooded land, may not like grazing, etc.....
this is where the Castilleja miniata was growing with grasses, poplars, rose, spruce, geraniums, anemone, symphoricarpos etc etc; you can see its just off the gravel road
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some other plants in the area--
Aralia nudicaulis
this surprised me, i had previously only seen it farther west, in the edge of the foothills biome; i'll be going back for seeds for my woodland.. this is not as far out as the castilleja, rather, its within and up to the edge of the more mature woods behind..
Sisyrinchium presumably montanum
this was across the road, in a more open grassy area, the largest concentration of the species i have seen in my area; i was completely unable to find the plants later when i went back to look for seeds, as the grass had overgrown them...luckily i found seed at some other sites..
Anemone canadensis
densest in the open up to the edge of the road, but continuing into the edge of the open woods (more pics in another thread, not sure which yet ;)
Thalictrum probably venulosum
a common plant in open areas here; i guess this would be the male flowers...
Rosa acicularis
abundant and vigorous, in its peak at that time..
Rubus idaeus
so common its easily overlooked..
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last of this set (which was my first visit to the site, july 01)
some more land and sky scapes along the way...
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Lovely, Cohan.
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Lovely, Cohan.
thanks, paul :) glad you are on to enjoy it...
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Lovely moody cloudscapes, Cohan, and all so different....so many little gems in the grass - the Sisyrinchium is really cute :)
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Lovely moody cloudscapes, Cohan, and all so different....so many little gems in the grass - the Sisyrinchium is really cute :)
thanks, robin-- you may know Blue Eyed Grass is the common name of Sisyrinchium..appropriate enough... i think it should look really nice in a garden where you can really appreciate the tiny iris-like leaves,pretty flowers, and round seed capsules..
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Cohan I've been watching a programme about loggers from your area who harvest aspen in the depths of winter. Very hard working guys considering the extreme cold conditions
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Cohan I've been watching a programme about loggers from your area who harvest aspen in the depths of winter. Very hard working guys considering the extreme cold conditions
interesting, what were they using the aspen for? not that much good as lumber, too soft..maybe specialty uses..
fortunately the winter daytimes around/below -30C are not too common, though they happen, and lots of days below -10, -20C.. of course its windy days that are deadly and you really have to watch for frostbite of face, hands, feet; if its sunny and still, its not too bad even at lower temperatures..
once it gets really cold, machines and equipment can break down even faster than the humans ;)
actually, i'm going out now to do some harvesting of poplar and spruce that were blown down some weeks ago in the bush surrounding our place, for firewood..starting to get chilly now, though not real winter cold for some time, hopefully....but, sigh1 it is coming!
we were at 32C afew days ago, and today is sunny but chilly--probably less than 15, and much less in the shade..
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It's used for fine paper
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ah! yes, paper makes more sense...
we didn't get too far with our harvesting today, but it's a start! we'll go through a lot of wood over the winter, as that's almost our only heat in this house..
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we were talking about chinese calthas in another thread, and i came here to find pics of C palustris to compare: our form seems to have smoother or at least shinier leaves;
it seems i didn't post any this spring, so here are a couple-
first an early shot of buds and leaves-May 10, showing early foliage which can be quite purply;
second a couple of weeks later, another budding plant, showing leaf texture close up
third a patch in full bloom, in a shady area-sunny spot plants are more compact; leaves have lost the purple, but are still rather shiny..
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Those are very good Cohan. I like the dark leaves with the fat, yellow buds.
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Lesley,
It makes a good combination, doesn't it. I've never grown Caltha at all.
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thanks, paul and lesley--they are a favourite of mine, especially because they are one of the very first wildflowers here--usually in early may, late april in an exceptional year; the first ones poke up out of icey water just a few inches high,at a time when there isnt so much as green grass, so they are very very welcome;
but there are some in bloom for many weeks, with flowering plants reaching at least 30-40cms, probably more in the shade, and in shady places the leaves get quite large, taking on an almost tropical feel..i thought i had pics of that, but i didnt find them last night...
paul, i dont know about their heat tolerance, but they are plants of at least vernally wet places, so you'd probably need some kind of bog planter for them... i havent actually grown any yet, myself, but there is a nice shady patch of them among willows on my acreage, and many other spots on the farm, and along roadsides..
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Caltha palustris is actually very tolerant of regular garden conditions, with no extra moisture... perhaps surprisingly, given the conditions that they seem to be restricted to in the wild. They seem to be quite commonly grown across the prairies, so it seems they can take some heat... though the degree and duration of Australian heat may be something else again.
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Caltha palustris is actually very tolerant of regular garden conditions, with no extra moisture... perhaps surprisingly, given the conditions that they seem to be restricted to in the wild. They seem to be quite commonly grown across the prairies, so it seems they can take some heat... though the degree and duration of Australian heat may be something else again.
yes, probably nothing like the heat paul gets ;) not sure about his night cool down....
certainly here the calthas, and most other wetland plants, unless they grow only right in the water or right at the edge of it, can take dryish conditions in mid summer--in average years, nevermind extra dry ones-all but the deepest parts of sloughs here are totally dry in summer (though likely still moist a bit deeper down)..
some of the ericaceous things (ledum, vaccinium) here (by here i mean on our land) grow on raised hummocks in wettish areas, and often under spruce trees, so they can seem to be on very dry soil, but i bet they send roots down into the moister areas below/between the hummocks (old grown over rotten logs, bases of trees, raised areas beside old cattle trails)
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Yes, calthas will tolerate the general garden conditions as well as loving heaps of moisture. I find C. palustris even will take considerable drought once the thick roots have gone well down. Ideally though, they'd have a pool or streamside to grow in.
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Cohan, which native geraniums grow near you?
I was looking at your pics earlier today, the Sisyrinchium montanum are really cute.
They grow in my yard here and I dug some up in summer and planted in the garden. Some of them were growing into lovely little mounds before the frosts hit.
I was very happy with them.
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helen, i only have G richardsonii right here--i do have a pile of photos that will be an album, and they range from pure white to white with varying amounts of pink veins and staining, to quite pink, and i even photographed some with ragged petals;
this is very common here, it is self sown all over my yard from the wild, i will soon try semi/cultivating them to get some denser stands (although it is a rather open plant, and probably best in mixed stands) and concentrate some of the colour forms..
i sent kristl some seed of the typical types, in the raw form, so its yet to be seen what if anything she can get out of the batch, and i collected just a very few of the other forms that i will try myself..hopefully this coming year i will get more seed of all of them...
viscosissimum grows farther south, i havent seen it in person, and bicknellii is around somewhere, but i havent seen it either
sisyrinchium is another i have a bit of local seed of, and will try sowing, havent done it before...they are delightful plants and i think would be great in the garden where they could get closer attention...
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Cohan, I look forward to seeing your pics of G richardsonii, I have yet to see one myself.
I don't think there are any native geraniums around here.
My favourites of the wildflowers here are bluets, they charm me.
Do you have those ?
I've not tried the sisyrinchium from seed, it must be easy though as it comes up in the lawns ( which by the way are pretty much like your lawn) and veggie garden.
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Helen, I sent seeds of G. viscosissimum to the exchange, so you may be able to get some then if you want. (Unfortunately, I didn't keep any aside or I would send them.) It's a very nice garden plant.
My G. richardsonii have not yet been very impressive (would prefer more woodland-ish conditions, maybe), but there is certainly the potential... Yeo's book has a photo of it, so that speaks well of it.
We also have G. erianthum and G. carolinianum, both native.
If "bluets" are Houstonia(??), then they aren't native to the prairies or mountains here.
Sisyrinchium montanum is one of those plants that really takes to "captivity"... the ones in my yard are vastly better (very bushy, full plants; hundreds of flowers) than any I've seen in nature. I agree with Cohan - a delightful plant! Our native white one, S. septentrionale, is a pretty spindly little thing in the garden, as well as in the wild.
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Helen, I sent seeds of G. viscosissimum to the exchange, so you may be able to get some then if you want. (Unfortunately, I didn't keep any aside or I would send them.) It's a very nice garden plant.
My G. richardsonii have not yet been very impressive (would prefer more woodland-ish conditions, maybe), but there is certainly the potential... Yeo's book has a photo of it, so that speaks well of it.
We also have G. erianthum and G. carolinianum, both native.
If "bluets" are Houstonia(??), then they aren't native to the prairies or mountains here.
Sisyrinchium montanum is one of those plants that really takes to "captivity"... the ones in my yard are vastly better (very bushy, full plants; hundreds of flowers) than any I've seen in nature. I agree with Cohan - a delightful plant! Our native white one, S. septentrionale, is a pretty spindly little thing in the garden, as well as in the wild.
i will have to get some viscosissimum too, its a colour that is rare locally; i'm pretty sure some of the seed/plant vendors in alberta must have it;
i havent tried coddling the richardsonii, yet, it may be that it is always a bit sprawly, i've never seen it in a place without other vegetation that it scrambles through, or at least in grass; and while i have seen it in semi-open places, like roadsides, its still not too far from wooded edges, and growing with other things; in my yard, it grows i varied places such as the north side of a small shed, between my mom's house and a large spruce, at the base of old stumps, and even on my old overgrown rock garden..these are all shady to sun with part day shade;
i have never heard of those other species, lori, i will have to look them up...are they in the mountains farther south, or..?
as lori says, no houstonia, but we have Mertensia, which are called bluebells locally, as seen in this thread:
http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=3919.0
they bloom for a good part of the summer here..
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Yes, Cohan, it is probably possible to get G. visc... from ALCLA (where I got it long ago), or from a vendor of native plant seeds. On the other hand, if you are not participating in the seed exchange or have already made other choices, and are not in a rush, I could just send you some seeds late next summer.
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sure lori, we can see what happens by then--i have a long list of things i'd like to get seed of, but none of them at all urgent, considering how many seeds i already have to sow..lol
actually, the one thing maybe i feel a bit of urgency about is some of the hardy cacti i want to try, non-opuntioids in particular, which i think will be pretty slow from seed, so if i actually make any seed orders this year, it will likely include some of those (i did get a few from a friend in b.c., but no pediocactus which are some of my faves)..
i googled those other geraniums a bit, the erianthum looks like it might be quite nice, although the colour looks a bit close to himalayense which we have several good sized beds of! not my choice (not my colour), but it does give a good show....
have you seen it in person?
this reminds me, beavercreek's website has been down for some days at least...have you heard anything about them?
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Lori, thanks for the info, for some reason I had it in my head that G.viscosissimum was a huge sprawley plant.
If it is a good garden plant I will track some down for sure.
I have seen the pic of G. richardsonii in Yeo's book ( yep I finally bought it), I particularly like white geraniums so am interested in getting some richardsonii seed.
I haven't seen any listed on the seed exchanges this year, I did order some erianthum seed though.
Yes, the bluets I mentioned are Houstonia. They always make me smile when I see them flowering away.
Cohan, thanks for the Mertensia link. I love blue flowers.
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we've been having some picturesque winter weather-it isn't always, sometimes just enough snow to be messy, and everything looking dead and drab..
from around christmastime, we have had several days of hoar frost, and regular snow since early december, without warm enough weather or long enough for it to melt/settle or even fully fall off of trees, so it's been a real winter wonderland!
i posted some pics already in 'images of the arty kind', but here are some more;
most of these are right around my house, or slightly farther back on our 6acres, some looking through the edge of the trees toward the neighbours, or on the roadway/down the road..
as usual larger pics, and in this case, many many more! at picasa
http://picasaweb.google.ca/cactuscactus
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more shots from the same day..
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Cohan, you certainly have captured picturesque moments around your home - the hoar frost shots are quite exceptional, I love them, like frosty candy floss :D
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Cohan, you certainly have captured picturesque moments around your home - the hoar frost shots are quite exceptional, I love them, like frosty candy floss :D
thanks robin--the frost is quite common here, but this was heavier than usual, and went for several days without ever really clearing up; in fact, in sheltered spots, i think some of it is still there!
i think i need to delete a few of these shots to fit some in from other days...lol
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still from that series of frosty days, these from dec 28 on my drive to work..
mountain views are zoom shots--the mountains are visible from here looking west, rather low on the horizon..
the full album is here:
http://picasaweb.google.ca/cactuscactus/December28B2009#
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Magic, much nicer than our inch of snow and grey cloud
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Cohan, I think you need to change into something warmer ;)
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thanks, martin-the frost is the most beautiful thing in winter, with many moments hard to capture:
flakes of ice crystal fluttering to ground in the sunshine sparkling like diamonds
a layer of crystals on top of the snow glittering and winking..
of course we do have blechy days too, and i leave the camera packed away then..lol
maggie--luckily its much warmer now...lol--should be around +6 today, and sunny :)
more shots from the next day, around my yard.....
full album at:
http://picasaweb.google.ca/cactuscactus/December292009#
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the last of 09-dec 31,a gloomy day, rendering the images almost purely black and white, around my acreage, (first pic looking in the driveway, toward our old house awaiting demolition) and just looking into the main farm just beyond in a couple of shots (8,9)
full album:
http://picasaweb.google.ca/cactuscactus/December312009#
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Narnia! Is there a wicked witch living in the forest on a sled too? :o
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Marvellous pics, Cohan, even though I am so sick of winter, I can't deny its beauty.
I particularly like the second from the bottom pic.
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Narnia! Is there a wicked witch living in the forest on a sled too? :o
lol--boy i hope not! i thought the reports of bears and cougars about 30km away were quite enough!
its funny, during that weather, its easy to imagine a world where its winter forever! of course those trees would start to fall unless totally frozen in place..lol
today i should go out and take some photos of the extent of the snow melt in the forest...
thanks, helen- i loved the lighting in that shot too-i'm a firm believer that one should carry around a camera as much as possible, or it would work just as well to pretend you have one: looking around everywhere you go for good shots can make you appreciate the beauty all around you every day; even in downtown toronto i did this-the clouds and sun interacting with the treetops and the skyscrapers-magic! much better than staying mired in the traffic....