Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
General Subjects => Flowers and Foliage Now => Topic started by: Gerdk on August 09, 2017, 06:53:55 PM
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Here is a question -
What does this plant really want to say?
a) I need a stick to climb on
b) help me - I need some water
;)
Gerd
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My problem with them, annual or perennial, is how to avoid red spider. No decent insecticides now.
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The house heating came on last night, the grass is too long and wet to cut, it is too cold and I picked these mushrooms from the garden 2 days ago. The largest is 5" across. They found their way through and around weed suppressing fabric that has been down ~3 year. Never seen these before here. Other fungi yes but not these.
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This is summer?????
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After 5 months that have been extremely dry here (we received about 5 cm of rain in the period March - July here, I must live on one of the driest spots of the country and it's the second time in 5 years that we have such strong local drought), dayly watering (thanks god I have taken my precautions when renovating the house and placed rainwater tank with a capacity of 30.000 liter) I do have a few plants flowering, not an easy task because the wet environment of the pots also attracts slugs that feast on my delicate plants :(
but anyway ...
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Begonia Cucullata is flowering. I received this one as a 'weed' in the pot of another plant, and this begonia has gone weedy in my pots. But a lovely plant that needs little care and is self sowing very strongly.
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Very happy to have some summer flowers on my Cautleya Spicata, in spring they are grazed to the ground by the slugs
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and my summer reliable bloomer Hedychium Coccineum
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A couple of views from the garden.
The first is of a bed with Dierama 'Merlin' and various varieties of Agapanthus in flower. The Geranium x magnificum were in flower much earlier. I am dissapointed with the backdrop in the photo which I'm hoping will eventually be blanked out by a Ceanothus.
The second photo is of my apple box 'theatre'.
It contains various dwarf conifers a row of dwarf hostas mainly the 'mouse' varieties, three 'ground cover' roses and a couple of Lithodora. Either end has a young clematis ready to climb over the top of the boxes and on the right is a tree heather and on the left is an upright hosta. The colour is provided by petunias.
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The apple box theatre is a super idea, Graham. Do you put different plants in at different times of year? I imagine it would look good with spring bulbs - especially ones which sometimes get battered by bad weather - retic irises, crocus, etc. The boxes offer some protection.
Where did you get your apple boxes?
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Hi Carolyn,
I built this last year mainly for my Pleiones but it didn't work for them and I then tried crocus this Spring but it wasn't great for them either as they all grew forward towards the light and they didn't look good. The boxes face East and perhaps don't get the length of sunlight that they would if they faced South. They lose the sun just after mid day. I decided to use the dwarf conifers as they are all prostrate and I thought they would look ok growing forwards and downwards. The same with the roses and Lithodora. I think I will just accept that there will be no colour in the winter but still have the conifers. I was surprised from the start how little rain gets into the boxes so regular watering is necessary.
The boxes were purchased from e-bay (there are a number of suppliers). Mine were imported from Poland. Very cheap and really low cost transport.
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Interesting. I wonder if cyclamen coum would do well for some winter colour?
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An out of season flower on Pulsatilla bungeana.
(https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4351/35865816813_d59e70056f_o_d.jpg)
Gloriosa superba
(https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4438/35840182204_35c5f5737a_o_d.jpg)
Petrocosmea coerulea
(https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4407/36675134255_9c239c757b_o_d.jpg)
(https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4407/36505708332_7fbeb4c7ac_b_d.jpg)
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We are finally removing part of our house. Now we will have more garden space! :D 8)
For the time, the garden is in chaos. Everything (including many plants) had to be moved away from this part of the house so there would be no accidental damage. Pots of plants are scattered throughout the garden until the removal is complete. We will have room for a formal rock garden. And more sunny places to plant! (most of the garden is shady.)
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Symphyotrichum spathulatum is in bloom throughout our garden. The flowers attract many beneficial insects, including butterflies and bees.
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Penstemon rydbergii var. oreocharis. This Pesntemon species does quite nicely in our garden. This little clump will have many flowers next spring.
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Eriogonum umbellatum var. smallianum. This variety is newly planted. It should form a nice low mat.
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Eriogonum elatum. From the eastern Sierra Nevada. This one is in a tub and should bloom next spring.
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A Stapelia Hirsuta in flower at the moment.
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Is that one of the aromatic ones David?
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Not strongly scented but when you stick your nose in it you know it!
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Some of my favorite gray foliage species.
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Artemisia arbuscula ssp. arbuscula. It stays very low and compact. In the winter it looks dead, however I have to admit that I like the winter look. This is one of many native California Artemisia species we grow.
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Eriogonum wrightii var. subscaposum. This form is very compact. Seed from the Carson Pass region of Alpine County, California. The flowering stems got twisted-up when we moved the tub recently. :'( We also grow other forms of Eriogonum wrightii. They have been very easy to please in our garden.
Behind it is a small seedling of Packera cana. I thought that it died this past winter, however it came back strongly. Packera cana is a high elevation species from the Sierra Nevada.
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A few shots from around the garden today. The big news is that my seedling Nelumbo nucifera var. komarovii has bloomed for the first time![attachimg=1][attachimg=2]
Last year, we planted a drift of Matteucia struthiopteris beside Cercis canadensis 'Ruby Falls' (it had lost its lead a few years earlier) and here is the result in morning light
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In another area of the garden, Scutellaria baicalensis continues to crank out flowers. I now have a few seedlings from this one, wich will augment the clump[attachimg=4]
A final hit this season has been our small Peach tree. It has now been in the ground through three winters, planted in perhaps the worst soil on site. Last summer it produced three peaches which were halfway between a golf ball and tennis ball in size. This year there were almost 100 peaches... greedy me didn't thin them as much as I should have, (learned too late that peaches should be thinned to 6 inches apart on the branches - for best fruit size) but all are larger than tennis balls.[attachimg=5]
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Tigridia time in the garden. For the first time 3 colors of Tigridia Pavonia, and for the very first time Tigridia Vanhouttei is flowering. One must be on the lookout to find this one in flower, the flowers are very small and don't have spectacular colours as the Pavonia.
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This is Cobaea pringlei - it is a perennial climber and perhaps hardy here (7b) - I have to test it.
Gerd
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A few shots from around the garden today. The big news is that my seedling Nelumbo nucifera var. komarovii has bloomed for the first time!
Very nice! Lotus flowers are so spectacular. Have you tried our native Nelumbo lutea?
Last year I grew a seedling out of curiosity - then gifted it away, no pond to keep it.
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Hi Gabriela, I've been tempted to try Nelumbo lutea... a bit hesitant because to date, our choice of plants for the edges of our ponds have been over enthusiastic growers. I suspect both species of Nelumbo will be similar.
When we dug the two ponds in 2010, we envisioned nice water gardens. Now, I have to routinely get into chest waders, and take a rake to root out excessive growth of Sagittaria latifolia, Alisma subcordatum, and Mentha aquatica.
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Hi Gabriela, I've been tempted to try Nelumbo lutea... a bit hesitant because to date, our choice of plants for the edges of our ponds have been over enthusiastic growers. I suspect both species of Nelumbo will be similar.
When we dug the two ponds in 2010, we envisioned nice water gardens. Now, I have to routinely get into chest waders, and take a rake to root out excessive growth of Sagittaria latifolia, Alisma subcordatum, and Mentha aquatica.
What you describe here I've seen in other gardens with ponds Gordon. So, when I first saw the pond forumist Robert Pavlis has I couldn't believe it! It is a natural pond, with no filters, pumps and the likes, no invasive species, everything grows and lives in perfect harmony. Hard to believe I know, but it's true.
I do not intend to do advertising here but he also wrote a book about building ponds; as well, he can be contacted for advice, which he always gladly provides :)
http://www.buildingnaturalponds.com/ (http://www.buildingnaturalponds.com/)
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What you describe here I've seen in other gardens with ponds Gordon. So, when I first saw the pond forumist Robert Pavlis has I couldn't believe it! It is a natural pond, with no filters, pumps and the likes, no invasive species, everything grows and lives in perfect harmony. Hard to believe I know, but it's true.
I do not intend to do advertising here but he also wrote a book about building ponds; as well, he can be contacted for advice, which he always gladly provides :)
http://www.buildingnaturalponds.com/ (http://www.buildingnaturalponds.com/)
The talents of SRGC forumists are pretty much endless! http://www.robertpavlis.com/ (http://www.robertpavlis.com/)
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Cyclamen graecum
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Cyclamen hederifolium out in the garden.
It looks like a 38C - 40C day today.
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We keep dormant bulbs in the garage over winter. Today suddenly spotted that Ipheion/Tristagma Alberto Castille is 6 inches tall. What's happening :o
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From time to time I have my fingers itching to add new plants to my garden. So, this January I purchased some seeds of Paulownia on E-bay and have sown them as soon as they arrived so they get a decent cold stratification. A prior attempt to sow Paulownia without stratification and covered with some sand had failed - I also learned they need light to germinate. I hoped to have more success this time. I sowed 4 species of Paulownia, only 2 germinated. But, I'm more than rewarded with this attempt. Although at the very start they are slow growers, once they get a certain size - and after pricking them out into decent sized pots - they really start to grow very fast - right now you can even see them growing from one day to the next. I would have been very happy to have one tree to plant somewhere, but I couldn't just throw away all those nice seedlings, so I have almost 20 of them.
Another funny coincidence is that I reused pots where I had sown Dietes seeds 4 year ago, however they never germinated. That was untill now, apparently the cold wet stratification finally triggered the Dietes seeds to germinate also. So I have pots with seedlings of Dietes growing between the Paulownia seedlings.
And for the record, the fluffy foliage just behind the big leaves of Paulownia (Elongata on the pic) is Eucalyptus Pulchella - I also wanted to start a small Tasmanien corner. These were sown at the same time & under the same conditions as the Paulownia seeds. And of these too I have (too) many to plant out. And they are really ready for planting out now before the roots get potbound.
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With Autumn now on our NH doorsteps there is still some colour in the garden. I don't usually go for bedding plants but the quadrant below now covered with bedding Lobelia hadn't been dug over for many years and had become very compacted and full of Chionodoxa luciliae. So, in the very early part of the Summer, I dug out all the Chionodoxa (over a bucket-full), gave the soil a good turnover, mixed it with composted bark and edged the reduced-sized quadrant with some spare stone (scrounged from a neighbour!) But, what to do with the Chionodoxa? Well, I excavated a good barrow-full of soil, tipped the bulbs from the bucket into it, spread them around a bit with my fingers and filled the hole back in. Spring next year will show if this was successful but at least I hope the stone edging will 'tame' them a bit.
It being early Summer it took a bit of thinking what to plant in the newly bare soil but a visit to a local semi-wholesale nursery bought me a couple of trays of bedding Lobelia and a couple more of pink Geraniums (all for a Fiver) filled the space nicely. Backing these is a nice patch of Crocosmia solfatare and on the far right a patch of Tulbaghia violacea.
On the other side of the garden a patch of an unknown Zantedeschia that always looks a treat at this time of tear.
The trough (plastic, sorry!) has, amongst other things a couple of patches of Cyananthus microphyllus x lobatus 'Sherrifs'. I'm very happy with these as I have significantly failed twice with straight C. microphyllus in exactly the same place.
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We keep dormant bulbs in the garage over winter. Today suddenly spotted that Ipheion/Tristagma Alberto Castille is 6 inches tall. What's happening :o
Mine are in pots outside all year. The tallest Ipheon have leaves almost a foot long at present.
Collected the first seed from Acis autumnalis today just as the last flowers are going over.
Collecting seed of Galtonia candicans. A friend bought this as upside-down snowdrop recently ??????
Colchicum autumnale album and an unknown hybrid in full flower for some time now.
Tricyrtis macrantha ssp macranthopsis in flower.
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With Autumn now on our NH doorsteps there is still some colour in the garden. I don't usually go for bedding plants but the quadrant below now covered with bedding Lobelia hadn't been dug over for many years and had become very compacted and full of Chionodoxa luciliae. So, in the very early part of the Summer, I dug out all the Chionodoxa (over a bucket-full), gave the soil a good turnover, mixed it with composted bark and edged the reduced-sized quadrant with some spare stone (scrounged from a neighbour!) But, what to do with the Chionodoxa? Well, I excavated a good barrow-full of soil, tipped the bulbs from the bucket into it, spread them around a bit with my fingers and filled the hole back in. Spring next year will show if this was successful but at least I hope the stone edging will 'tame' them a bit.
... and here it is today
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Isn't it great when a plan comes together Cheery little things, are they not?