May 2010 in the Northern Hemisphere

[wolfgang vorig]

Luc - your Arenarias are great plant's!

some pics today,

regards,    Wolfgang

[ichristie]

 A real treasure trove again some super pictures, I think the Arenaria looks like a brain. A few pictures from the garden the Iris is a lost lable any ideas? cheers Ian the Christie kind

[arisaema]

Tr grand Roseum dark leaf 2

I'm lost for words...

[Gerdk]

Some flowers from this weekend

1.+2. Viola canina alba - of Swedish origin - with special thanks to the sender
3. Viola clauseniana - an endemit originally from the western US
4.+5. Viola chelmea ssp. vratnicensis - a white flowering variant from
         Mt. Orjen/Montenegro
6.+7. Ranunculus cupreus from Crete - seems to be hardy here

Gerd

[daveyp1970]

Tr grand Roseum dark leaf 2

I'm lost for words...

same here incredible

[Lesley Cox]

Luc, I hope you haven't got false teeth. According to Reginald Farrer that name mustn't be spoken by people with false teeth. I think the form of Arenaria tetraquetra that we have here can't be v. granatensis as it is much looser than yours.

Ian, could your iris be I. humilis, or bloudowii or flavissima? Love P. maximowiczsii. Hoping mine may flower in the coming spring.

[Diane Whitehead]

Ian's trillium is spectacular.  I consulted one of my trillium books,
and Frederick Case says Trillium grandiflorum f roseum sometimes
seems to produce so much anthocyanine pigment that it floods into
the leaves.  However, this seems to happen best in Scotland.  Plants
from RBG Edinburgh that were moved to warmer climates lost their
deep colour.

[ichristie]

Hi all Lesley you could be correct I seem to remember Iris humilis thanks. The dark Trillium grand Roseum is the only plant to produce this dark pigment all the others have a dark tinge but none as good as this one. I thought perhaps the cold winter was what caused this but it is like this every year, cheers Ian the Christie kind.

[TheOnionMan]

Some flowers from this weekend

1.+2. Viola canina alba - of Swedish origin - with special thanks to the sender
3. Viola clauseniana - an endemit originally from the western US
4.+5. Viola chelmea ssp. vratnicensis - a white flowering variant from
         Mt. Orjen/Montenegro
Gerd

Gerd, I like all of the little violets you show... such cute plants.  Here's a native one that likes dry sunny areas, Viola palmata.  It has seeded into a bark mulch area that I use as a pseudo-nursery area or "holding area" for plants to be planted out.  It seeds about gently and pops up here and there, never a lot of it, but always welcome when I see the large size blue flowers among neatly dissected leaves.

[johanneshoeller]

Some Gentiana

[TheOnionMan]

Hans, are you going to tell us a little something about these four beautiful gentian color forms?

[johanneshoeller]

All these Gentiana are wild collected in the Austrian and Italian Alps!
Gentiana alpina alba
Gentiana clusii - the flowers are very red, more red than you can see!
Gentiana ?? - a very well growing form from the Alps; limestone
Gentiana angustifolia - looks like the so called "Iceberg"

[Gerdk]

Thank you Mark,
Viola palmata is one of my favirtes too - your plant is a fine specimen!

Gerd

[TheOnionMan]

Thanks Hans for the identify information, such beautiful gentians.

In bloom for a week or so, just approaching full flower now, is Triteleia grandiflora var. howellii, found in British Columbia and Washington State, Oregon, and California.  These long slender plants are a photographic challenge, but finally got a few decent photos yesterday... I think it liked the 92 F heat (33 C), and there were still air moments where these 24" (60 cm) wands could stand still for a few seconds.  The flowers are large and soft powder blue, never failing to bloom out in the garden each year.

http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=TRGRH

[Maggi Young]

I think it liked the 92 F heat (33 C)

Good grief, that's ridiculous.... you had more snow just about ten days ago, didn't you?  

That pale powder blue is a deliciously delicate colour.