August 2014 in the Northern Hemisphere

[ruweiss]

Your garden is looking lovely, Rudi. A lovely place to sit and enjoy the flowers.

Thank you Maggi, you are right. Wish I had more time to sit down.

[Maggi Young]

I realise more with every year how much extra pleasure can be found just from sitting looking at the garden - it has been a valuable lesson!

[ashley]

How true - and not just the plants but the wildlife, the light, the wind and weather, the sky.

[Growild]

Some plants brightening up the nursery today.

1: Cicerbita sp. from China BWJ7891
2: Allium macranthum S&L5369
3: Impatiens puberula
4: Impatiens oxyanthera 'Milo'

[rgc]

Two flowering bulbs, very different in size. First is Lilium lancifolium 'Flore Pleno'. I was rather surprised when it turned out to be the double form!
The other is Allium beesiana. The flowers in the garden are a bit bluer than the computer shows it.

[Robert]

Epilobium canum



More of the same, Epilobium canum



Epilobium 'Wayne's Silver'

Off to the Farmers' Market'.

[astragalus]

Blooming for weeks now in the "Last Outcrop", Thalictrum kiusianum.  It looks so delicate and seems to be very tough, surviving heavy thunderstorms and also hail the other day.  This year it has taken off and makes a wonderful billowing ground cover for my few shade lovers like hellebores etc.

[Robert]

More "annuals"



Agastache hybrid - Around here all sorts are sold at the local nurseries as perennials. For us they are short lived, so I just grow them as a seed line annual. Drought tolerant, the foliage has a nice scent, blooms from seed the first season, continuous bloom during warm weather, colors - pink thru apricot-orange. For around here not bad for an annual. Good as a filler, until I have something else to plant.

[meanie]

Agastache hybrid - Around here all sorts are sold at the local nurseries as perennials. For us they are short lived, so I just grow them as a seed line annual.

I do like there orangey Agastache. By seed line annual I presume that you mean self seeders?

Caiophora hibiscifolia at last!




Forgive the rubbish photo and next doors Clematis, but here's an Impatiens niamniamensis in my fledgling exotic bed by the back door..............


In the same bed is this Solanum lancifolium seedling.......................


In the greenhouse are a couple of young Gloriosa;
G.lutea....................


And G.carsonii..................

[Robert]

meanie,

I love the photos from your garden. I'm back on dial-up for a few days so they up load slowly. Worth the wait. 

I'm intrigued by Impatiens niamniamensis. Is it hardy outside for you or does it need protection? A reseeder?

Our native soil is rocky clay. The Agastache do not reseed in it, but do in the sand beds where I grow "alpine" type plants. In the sand the seedlings can be a pest, and the plants can become perennial. Now I am growing them in the "vegetable garden" as annuals. I do have to gather the seed and get it started every year. I do make some effort to keep the colors separate (but not a lot). The bees and hummingbird like them so there is still a fair amount of crossing between the different colors. It does make the next generation interesting.

[meanie]

meanie,

I love the photos from your garden. I'm back on dial-up for a few days so they up load slowly. Worth the wait. 

Thanks!

I'm intrigued by Impatiens niamniamensis. Is it hardy outside for you or does it need protection? A reseeder?

Deffo not hardy - it turns to mush at the merest hint of frost. I just take cuttings in September (very easy) and plant out the following year. Worth the effort as the difference that growing them in the ground makes is considerable.

Our native soil is rocky clay. The Agastache do not reseed in it, but do in the sand beds where I grow "alpine" type plants. In the sand the seedlings can be a pest, and the plants can become perennial. Now I am growing them in the "vegetable garden" as annuals. I do have to gather the seed and get it started every year. I do make some effort to keep the colors separate (but not a lot). The bees and hummingbird like them so there is still a fair amount of crossing between the different colors. It does make the next generation interesting.

They're growing an Agastache (species or hybrid I know not) in the zero maintenance beds at Oxfords Botanic Gardens. The idea is that what is in these beds either survives or self seeds. No watering either. I'll be over that way next week so I'll pop in and get some photos.

[Robert]

Deffo not hardy - it turns to mush at the merest hint of frost. I just take cuttings in September (very easy) and plant out the following year. Worth the effort as the difference that growing them in the ground makes is considerable.

Yes, Thanks for the info. I'll keep my eyes out for it around here.



Aster occidentalis - One of our Sierra meadow asters. Doing well down the mountain and starting to look good here in our garden.

[John85]

Robert,
 About your epilobium canum : how much frost has it resisted?

[Robert]

Robert,
 About your epilobium canum : how much frost has it resisted?

John,

The Epilobium canum should be very cold hardy. The mother plant grows at 6,800 ft. in the Sierras - lots of snow during the winter and very cold.

[Lori S.]

Epilobium canum ssp. garrettii 'Orange Carpet' has been hardy here in zone 3, Calgary, for 10 years now.