Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
General Subjects => Flowers and Foliage Now => Topic started by: Roma on November 04, 2010, 08:35:55 PM
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Not much colour here compared with the Southern Hemisphere. I still have plenty Cyclamen flowering in white and pink shades but the following plants brighten up the day.
Armeria maritima rubrifolia with autumn gentians
Oxalis massoniana in the greenhouse unfortunately only opens when the sun shines
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In my garden;
Autumn colour from Viburnum carlesii 'Aurora'
Brugmansia - this plant, a hybrid of B. sanguinea ((Rosa Lila x sanguinea) x Mobisu), grown from seed sent by a friend and sown in March, is the plant that non-gardeners comment on most. Sadly unscented, unlike that in the last photo B. 'Wuppergold' - a lovely and very fragrant hose-in-hose double flower raised by Dorothea Langenberg in Germany http://www.engelstrompeten.de/index.html
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Gail that's wonderful for a minute I was thinking you were in a tropical country, those Brugmansia are amazing.
Angie :)
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Very nice indeed Gail. I particularly liked the Viburnam, how tall does it grow please Im looking to replace V. tinus which I don't like at all.
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Very nice indeed Gail. I particularly liked the Viburnam, how tall does it grow please Im looking to replace V. tinus which I don't like at all.
V. carlesii is a much more sedate plant than V. tinus - the plant pictured has been there about 15 years and is about 6ft tall (I've trimmed the sides back a bit from time to time but don't think I've reduced the height. Also has the bonus of beautifully fragrant flowers in May. It is one of my favourite shrubs; I also have the straight species and cultivars Diane and Charis. There is not much to choose between them but Aurora is probably the most floriferous.
Angie - the brugmansias look tropical but are surprisingly easy. I overwintered several in my lean-to which got down to -4 C last winter and a friend's sanguinea is cut down to the ground each year by frost but regrows from the root. I'm going to leave the one near the front door out this winter to see how it does....
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Two Enkianthus blazing away here, it certainly isn't the sun:
Enkianthus perrulatus Compactus
and
E. campanulatus (grown as 'Red Bells' but think that name means nothing)
Very wet here, well over 100m since Friday and another 80mm to go tonight. Others have received double this. Meanwhile no sun until Thursday. Season of mists and botrytisness. 18c yesterday, 17 today.
johnw
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Gail that's interesting I never would have thought that either of those would be able to withstand cold temperatures.
Thanks for the information.
Angie :)
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Just to show you the colour change in the Enkianthus perrulatus 'Compactus' in 5 days.
johnw
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Lovely John, am I right in thinking they need acid soil?
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Lovely John, am I right in thinking they need acid soil?
Gail - I thionk they prefer acid soil but I think they will alos take close to neutral and even a bit more. Worth a try. This one rarely flowers but the others are prolific seed producers.
johnw
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Some autumn foliage on evergreen azaleas here. Many give a good show well into December and the new year.
a) the prostrate North Tisbury hybrid "Michael Hill' - still green
b) a very dwarf kiusianum, again still green
c) poukhanense v. roseum
d) another North Tisbury, 'Late Love'
e) the old standby, always giving a great show, 'Stewartstonian'
f) Finally my favourite lepidote Rhododendron, 'Wren' still to turn a rich burgundy.
g) Measuring 4.5 feet across, while prostrate it is hardly a dwarf. Planted in the early 1980's
johnw
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variation in flowering time of Prunus autumnalis -
out for a walk this evening I walked past a garden that has two Prunus autumnalis one on either side of the path. One was covered in flowers while the other had only a few
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Lovely John, am I right in thinking they need acid soil?
Gail - I think they prefer acid soil but I think they will alos take close to neutral and even a bit more. Worth a try. This one rarely flowers but the others are prolific seed producers.
johnw
We have one on neutral soil Gail, but it gets a dose of sequestrine now and then, flowers well though
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Thanks John and Brian - I think I need a trip to the nursery!
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When I was a graduate student at the University of Rochester, New York, the beds in front of the main buildings around the "quad" (http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=43.127958,-77.629859&spn=0.001374,0.002409&t=k&z=19) had specimens of V. carlesii in them. Every year these would flower about March and fill the air with a marvelously spicy aroma even though there was still plenty of snow on the ground and the weather was cold and raw.
I've never found a specimen for sale here (Victoria, BC) that has the same powerful scent. Weather perhaps not cold enough? Who knows?
BTW, it's my observation that at least some viburnums dislike dry soil. Both my pathetic V. carlesii and V. farreri 'Album' are distinctly unhappy unless I give them regular summer water.
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Rodger,
We have strongly perfumed Viburnum carlesii here, and we don't get cold enough for snow. When they're in flower in a garden you can smell them quite a distance away. I wonder if it is just genetic variation and those that are growing in your current area just come from stock that is not as strongly perfumed? I don't know how cold you get in Victoria, BC though?
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Rodger,
We have strongly perfumed Viburnum carlesii here, and we don't get cold enough for snow. When they're in flower in a garden you can smell them quite a distance away. I wonder if it is just genetic variation and those that are growing in your current area just come from stock that is not as strongly perfumed? I don't know how cold you get in Victoria, BC though?
There might be something too that theory (genetic variation), as I have a seed-grown bush of Ribes odoratum which I believe is the correct ID, that has no scent whatsoever to the flowers, a great disappointment as I grew it after sampling the wonderful fragrance on a bush grown elsewhere, I wanted it primarily for the fragrance, although the floral show is pretty good too.
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McMark,
Isn't that always the way. You grow something for a particular reason and then Murphy's Law decides that you get everything BUT that particular reason. ;D Good luck with finding both perfumed Ribes and Viburnum. 8)
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we've had serious frosts already for a couple of months, and snow a couple of times, but didn't last; still the ground was staying frozen in damp shady areas (that describes a lot of property at this time of year, when the trees cast looong shadows).
but, we did have an above normal first half of november, and a few things were still in flower in spite of a few lows below -10C, maybe -16C.
a few shots from nov 07
pics 1,2 these garden violas-self sown, and far from any other violas, in two new beds far apart-are great plants for this climate--flowering last year to long past frost, and again in spring as soon as they were out of the snow and the ground a little thawed, and all summer long..
pics 3,4 a native self sown aster most are finished (pic 5), but the occasional brave one tries a later flowering
pics 6,7 this garden lonicera is oddly impervious to frosts, considering it didn't like the hail in summer at all
pics 8,9 the rugosa flowers had been preserved by the frost, foliage was still looking good..
well, that was the first half of november, things turned around a couple of days ago, from +8C days to -12 to -16days, and -20's nights, along with 20cm or so of snow, more days of flurries, and periods of snow forecast for sunday (tuesday's forecast low -30C, but warmer by next week's end..)
pic 10 -here is that same aster yesterday--the gamble on late flowering didn't work out this year!
i'll put some other shots from that day in germinating now and maybe alberta wanderings..
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Interesting Lonicera, Cohan. Very nice. 8)
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thanks, paul, i don't know what it is, something my mom planted some years ago--something foreign ;)
its a bit slow to really get going in spring, and can look battered in summer from hail, but it does hang on in fall! i'd like to move it ideally, since its almost right in front of my house, and since that's one of the sunniest places on the property, i'd rather have some sort of rockery there! it is nice to see hummers on it though in summer :)
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Cohan,
Most Lonicera are pretty successful from cuttings, so I'd suggest getting some cuttings going before you move it. That way you have backup before the event. ;D
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Love the violets- they are such appealing little flowers.
Good idea to try some Lonicera cuttings. I would even try some now .... I plucked a piece off one ( no idea what it is :-[ ) flowering a few weeks ago to show someone and afterwards popped it in a little vase....... it's sat there quite happily since then, with the water being renewed regulalry as I bring in other odd blooms to enjoy and the Lonicera has a nice root system. I'll try another piece now to see if it willk root at this tinme of year... but these plants which will root in water are a real boon to the lazy propagator.... even if they might need a little more care to wean them to a pot.
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Cohan, your honeysuckle is the omnipresent Lonicera x brownii 'Dropmore Scarlet', developed by Dr. Skinner of Dropmore, Man., long ago - a great plant for our area. I found a site that says it's a cross between Lonicera sempervirens and Lonicera hirsuta. Other cultivars from this cross are hardy here too.
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thanks paul, maggi, lori
maggi--i love the violas too, and we don't typically get hot enough in mid-summer to bother them..i haven't figured out how they reached some of these beds far away from any potted violas and with no recycled soil..the dark one is doing nicely in a quite dry bed just in front of large spruce trees..(the aster is growing wild just at the edge of the same bed, and a partch of Linnaea, pre-existing, is spreading nicely on a large spruce root that cuts the bed in half...
paul and maggi-- i will take some cuttings, good idea--we are fully frozen now, so i will wait til spring-it may root indoors, but then i'd have to coddle it all winter... last year i took some cuttings of what i presume is a large shrub/small tree honeysuckle gone wild behind my grandparents' old house, i think that rooted in water, though i can't remember if that was one that survived my subesquent lack of attention, if not i'll do it again...
i wonder if our native L dioica would root easily, i will have to try it.. very attractive species (i still have some seed) though it does not have the protracted flowering season of this..
lori, thanks for the name--i thought it probably it would be something common, not too many rarities in circulation around here, though we do have a nice Tilia cordata that i don't think is as common around here.. i've been meaning to try cuttings of that, as i'd like to have a few more...
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Cohan
We have the same wheather I see.
(http://cs4986.vkontakte.ru/u6450879/62605997/x_723444c0.jpg)
Yesterday snow fell about 20 sm. :-\
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olga--the flowers are pretty in the snow--but hopefully you were not as cold as we were the last couple of days-- we got to around -35 or a few degrees colder, with days below -20..now it is supposed to rise overnigh to -13 by morning, then a high of -4C, it will seem very warm, and friday 0C-i will be putting on my bathing suit ;D
here is a view of my place today...
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An early Christmas card Cohan !! :D
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we got to around -35
Wow! :o -35! Oh no it is much warmer here, only -5 - 0.
Cohan, you are very optimistic man gardening there. :)
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luc--i was thinking nature was very nice to decorate all the trees for us :) though now temps are up to -4, and -1 tomorrow, a lot of the snow will fall off..
olga--at this time of year, its hard to believe anything grows here! but there are many nice natives, and more in the mountains, so there are many possibilities, and fortunately, many alpines and others from other places also grow here :)
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olga--the flowers are pretty in the snow--but hopefully you were not as cold as we were the last couple of days-- we got to around -35 or a few degrees colder, with days below -20..now it is supposed to rise overnigh to -13 by morning, then a high of -4C, it will seem very warm, and friday 0C-i will be putting on my bathing suit ;D
here is a view of my place today...
Cohan,
Well I hope it is at the very least one of the old neck to knee bathing suits, or perhaps a new fashioned tip to toe one made of some sort of insulative material. ;D While we like the colour blue in the garden, we are not usually intending that blue to BE the forumist, instead of a flower the forumist is looking at. ;)
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not to worry, if and when i put on a bathing suit, there will be no witnesses ;)
only -7C now at 1 am, going down to -15...still seems very warm after the last few days...
i saw a newspaper headline from wednesday from calgary, which proclaimed:
" could be worse, but only if you live in antarctica!" i think that day, or another, calgary was the second coldest place on earth, but that's because, ironically, they were having a mild spell in the arctic, and summer in antarctica!
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Cohan, thank you for giving me a hope on gardening in more cold climate than mine. :) Sometimes it feels here like the end of times but not in November.
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Cohan, thank you for giving me a hope on gardening in more cold climate than mine. :) Sometimes it feels here like the end of times but not in November.
i think wherever you live, there are times of bad weather that you feel will never end! today is a hopeful day here, it should get to +2C :)
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It went below -30C in central Southern Norway last night! VERY cold for the time of year. A mere -18C here...