Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
General Subjects => Flowers and Foliage Now => Topic started by: cohan on August 31, 2009, 05:10:14 AM
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some time ago, and on another forum, i promised some pictures of Castilleja,
these are from a site just up the road from me, rather rich, florally --i will post some general views and other random flowers in Alberta Wanderings, tentatively, to see if there is any interest... as well as slightly more comprehensive albums with slightly larger images, on picasa, for anyone with a particular interest in these...
i presume these to be Castilleja miniata, since that is the only species i know to be in my area. it's fairly common around here, in a range of colours, but i have never come across a population as varied as this! these plants are on the open edge of a poplar/mixed forest, just off a gravel secondary road; the main population is in an area maybe 10 metres deep, and 50 metres long, to take a wild guess! the various colours grow right beside one another...
there are two visits represented here, July 01 and July 22, 2009.
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Beautiful, Cohan. Interesting range of colours.
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thanks, paul--really, this is too many photos, i guess, but the whole point is to show how much variation there is--and of course no two castilleja flowers are the same in form, even if they are the same colour(s)..
my favourites are the real red at the very end, and some of the very light (not quite whites), and the mixed colours--one or two of those would be about right at christmas!
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last set of these, including a couple of not so great critter shots (cropped from the larger images, and enhanced a bit)--- i am no longer surprised to see all sorts of fauna lurking in flowers and foliage when i see them enlarged on the computer screen!
and one view of the area where these are growing...
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Fascinating. Even more of a range of colours. The reds do stand out don't they.
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paul--the orangey scarlet, along with the sort of salmony-pink are the most common colours (not just in this stand, but in my area overall); the real red is not so common, and does stand out, along with the very pale ones; no true yellow or white--they are all sort of creamy or greeny, and no real pink...
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Do you find these are easy to grow Cohan? I only have ever tried C. miniata, with some tiny success but after a couple of flowerings it went west.
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i havent tried to grow them yet! i guess they should grow easily enough for me, since they grow as near as maybe 50 -100metres across the road in several directions...
for some reason, there are none in the woods right on my acreage, and i do plan to spread some seed around in natural areas...
i'm sure you already know they are semi-parasitic and need to grow or at least grow best with some host species, but i am hardly an expert on that..
i'm pretty sure lori grows them in her garden, so she will probably have something more useful to contribute..
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Cohan,
can't possibly be too many fotos! Wow, amazing variation in colour and form. I was unaware of this plant until now, although the Indian Paintbrush species are all over North America and apparently northern Asia as well.. Funny, I never really thought of it as a garden plant, but it certainly could be lovely in a wilder garden or integrated into a field-type planting.
Thanks for sharing these!
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Cohan,
can't possibly be too many fotos! Wow, amazing variation in colour and form. I was unaware of this plant until now, although the Indian Paintbrush species are all over North America and apparently northern Asia as well.. Funny, I never really thought of it as a garden plant, but it certainly could be lovely in a wilder garden or integrated into a field-type planting.
Thanks for sharing these!
thanks, jamie, glad you found it interesting! i'm working on the photos that show more of what this habitat is like, will get those posted soon--along with some of the other things growing there--anemone, geranium etc;
i think a field/meadow planting is probably a good idea, since they like to have a host, although i think some people grow them without; i saved an article on castilleja cultivation that someone linked on one of the forums, but i didnt have any seed yet then, so didn't think too much about it, i will have to go back to read it again...lol
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Cohan, thanks for this great photo essay on the variation in this plant. I had no idea the range of colours was so wide.
We sometimes see a plant of Castilleja on the show benches in the UK but I don't know if anyone is successful in establishing it in a garden setting. :-\
I find them very attractive flowers... the bugs notwithstanding! :o
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Very interesting series Cohan - there's something there for everybody's liking ;) !
We sometimes see a plant of Castilleja on the show benches in the UK but I don't know if anyone is successful in establishing it in a garden setting. :-\
I find them very attractive flowers... the bugs notwithstanding! :o
When I visited Wisley back in May, I remember Paul C. showed me some plants that were getting established in different settings. One area where they seemed to be starting to thrive was in the sand beds right beside the Alpine houses.
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I remember this one, from Wisley... in a trough....
http://www.srgc.org.uk/logs/logdir/2009Jun191245425185Log_13_of_2009.pdf
Two Logs re Sand Beds are these: http://www.srgc.org.uk/logs/logdir/2009Jul021246568306Log_14_of_2009.pdf
and http://www.srgc.org.uk/logs/logdir/2009Jul161247735866Log_15_of_2009.pdf
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wouah Cohan, what a beautiful palette ! ::) My favourite ones are the cream and dark "pink" mixed ;) The first time I saw them was in Botanic Garden of Lautaret ( 1 900 m altitude) but they were only orange :(
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Lovely set of pics Cohan, never worry about posting too many, too many never comes on this Forum ;D
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thanks, all, glad they were enjoyed! i was very surprised/pleased by the range of colours at this site, also..
maggi--photographing wildflowers intensively he last year or so, i've realised that, here at least, its rare to find flowers without bugs! whether pollinators or trying to eat the plants, or trying to eat the beforementioned, there is usually something there; tiny flowers just have tinier bugs, manytimes i cant see them until enlarged on the screen..
and it doesn't end with the flowers: picking, and later cleaning, some of these castilleja seed, it was a nonstop parade of little bugs and spiders! don't tell my housemate i had those in the house....lol
the article i mentioned before is by Paul Cumbleton from The Plantsman, December 2008, he talks about growing them without a host, and techniques used at Wisley, germination etc;
i don't have a link, just a file, which i don't think i should post for copyright reasons, maybe there is a way to see it online?
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A great display of photos showing such a range of colours and forms of Castilleja....they are really intriguing, Cohan, from creams to firey red - lovely! Two questions:
What host do they grow on?
Are they bracts that are coloured?
They seem to be quite tall but it is a little hard to see from your last shot ::) thanks for the introduction ::) 8)
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A great display of photos showing such a range of colours and forms of Castilleja....they are really intriguing, Cohan, from creams to firey red - lovely! Two questions:
What host do they grow on?
Are they bracts that are coloured?
They seem to be quite tall but it is a little hard to see from your last shot ::) thanks for the introduction ::) 8)
thanks, robin..
i should do some more reading to understand them better--as far as i know, they are partially parasitic, but in this sort of habitat (i will be posting a set of photos of the location soon) there are many hosts to choose from, not sure if they have favourites or just take whatever is there--there are grasses, poplars, geraniums, roses, anemone and many other things growing around them; they are common in semi wooded areas where there would be lots of tree roots, also often seen in roadsides where there is probably more grass than anything else..
again, i'm not super informed on the flower structures,and need to look that up too..lol.. but, yes--most of the colourful 'flower' is bracts, then the actual flowers project outward in narrow spikey structures-not sure which flower structures are adapted in those..
in this photo, you can see most of the structure--look at the bottom and you can see some bracts/leaves that are just barely coloured on the tips, then fully coloured bracts, and you can see the actual flowers jutting out-some faded ones farther down, and fresh ones at the top;
the true flowers often appear mainly green, as you see here, but there are usually some coloured parts, same colour or colours of the bracts..
height varies with exposure, of course, but average would be 40-60cm--my book gives the range as 20-60, 20 would be a dry exposed spot, or maybe young plants..
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Margaret Glynn has a very healthy plant on her rockery/scree and as far as I know without a host. I'll look for some photos
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The NARGS publication, Rock Garden Quarterly, has articles on cultivation of castilleja in the Spring, 2005 and another in the Summer, 2007 editions, and there was also one in 2003 (which I don't have). They are described as hemi-parasites, thus not requiring a host, but it is said they are more inclined to prosper and flower if they do have one. One of the articles states that castilleja are not host-specific, though there are preferred hosts.
In my front yard, Castilleja miniata grows with a variety of native plants and garden perennials. It produces copious amounts of seed. From that, one might assume it would become weedy, but it hasn't. With its apparent very long bloom time (due to the persistent coloured bracts), it provides a lot of colour and I welcome the few seedlings that have popped up nearby.
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I think I might have posted this before, but now we have a specific thread, I'll put it here:
Castilleja (sorry can't remember which species it was; Ontario; front lawn !!)
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..I think I remember Paul C saying his article was available to download from the RHS website, somewhere.
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I see you've wrapped up against the cold, Giles :-X
Paul said this about his article......
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For anyone who does not subscribe to "The Plantsman" magazine but would like to read my article "Castilleja: Saying Goodbye to the Host", the RHS has kindly made this article available as a free download (PDF format) from this page of the RHS website: http://www.rhs.org.uk/Learning/Publications/plantsman/1208/plantsmandec08.htmJust scroll down and click on the article title.
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I was somewhat distressed, Maggi, to find a tomb with my name on it, in Bredon Church, but it looked like I was knighted before I died, which was nice ;)
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'Arise, Sir Giles' has a nice ring to it ;)
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giles--that's quite a 'front lawn'!
i'm hoping to scatter some seed about the edges of my yard--i have a lot of rather wild areas with native vegetation (which i can claim no credit for, other than not mowing ;)..the seed i have collected so far i have promised to kristl, but i plan to get back to the same site, and maybe find some more, i'd really be happy to have some colours other than the common orange, lovely as it is...
its interesting that there isnt any growing here already--my only thought is that i havent seen any (very offhand observation, which now i will need to watch more closely to back up or disprove) on lands that are or have been grazed, so perhaps they need a longish period undisturbed to establish? but this acreage hasnt been grazed in a long time, so not sure if that's it...
thanks maggi for the article link...
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Not all members of this genus require a host plant
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Hello, Harold, how nice to have you post here!
How are you both? And the Lady Flurrie, of course? Has this been a good year in your garden?
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'Arise, Sir Giles' has a nice ring to it ;)
I was wondering about the point of this particular avatar image. Robin, judging from the picture I doubt if this Sir Giles will be arising any time soon.
On a totally unrelated subject and only because it offends me no end, a few years back our then Labour govt. did away with the UK honours list and the titles "Sir" and " Dame" in preference for a NZ system of honours which meant almost nothing to anyone at all. Our current National (conservative) govt. has restored the old system and invited all those who missed out on knighthoods to take them up now. Most have done so - a few exceptions on principle seeing as we're really not much related to our British forebears any longer, but one who is now to be called Dame is a previous prime minister (not elected, she stabbed the incumbent in the back to all intents and purposes in order to take his position). Her title (which implies meritorious work) offends me because the only thing for which she is to be remembered if her pushing to have the drinking age lowered, an act which has seen young people binging and boozing to extreme degrees and their own great detriment. Moreover, she once used the non-word mischievious, in a speech to a visiting president of somewhere, at a state luncheon. And she previously a school teacher. To my mind she is a national disgrace.
OK rant over.
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Hi Harold,
How wonderful to have you join us on this magnificent forum.
It seems many moons since you visited the AGS East Lancashire Group at Ramsbottom, but we remember that evening with the greatest of pleasure ...kind folks of this forum, we welcome a legend!
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... And Cohan, many thanks for starting this super thread with so many excellent images. I have been lucky enough to see these gems growing in Colorado, California and Utah and, of course, occasionally on the show benches here in the U.K., but your images show a range of colours that defy imagination and belief. Absolutely beautiful.
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On a totally unrelated subject and only because it offends me no end, a few years back our then Labour govt. did away with the UK honours list and the titles "Sir" and " Dame" in preference for a NZ system of honours which meant almost nothing to anyone at all. Our current National (conservative) govt. has restored the old system and invited all those who missed out on knighthoods to take them up now. Most have done so - a few exceptions on principle seeing as we're really not much related to our British forebears any longer, but one who is now to be called Dame is a previous prime minister (not elected, she stabbed the incumbent in the back to all intents and purposes in order to take his position). Her title (which implies meritorious work) offends me because the only thing for which she is to be remembered if her pushing to have the drinking age lowered, an act which has seen young people binging and boozing to extreme degrees and their own great detriment. Moreover, she once used the non-word mischievious, in a speech to a visiting president of somewhere, at a state luncheon. And she previously a school teacher. To my mind she is a national disgrace.
OK rant over.
Lesley,
I take it you are impliing that the women is party parasitic and best planted out in a lawn. Correct?
Jamie
PS: Cohan, I'm really loving this thread!
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thanks cliff and jamie!
of course i am still envious of the species in other places with real pink and purple/violet tones! but for one population, this was a pretty special one :)
jamie--excellent suggestion for lesley's unsavoury politician...lol..sounds like she might be full of fertiliser too ;)
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Jamie, she just thinks far too much of herself and to my mind would be best planted out UNDER the lawn. >:( I've never had a great opinion of the Honours List as it seems to me that most who receive the honours do so for doing with or without competence, what they've been paid to do anyway.