Flowers and Foliage July 2008

[Magnar]

Some of this week's pics

Allium insubricum


Centaurea bagadensis




Cremanthodium ellisii


Lilium monadelphum


Potentilla sp coll Kulu Valley, West Tibet. Chadwell 2005. So dark flowers that they are very difficult to take good pics of.

[Kristl Walek]

You are lucky not to have black knot fungus - it attacks almost all Prunus species here in Newfoundland and there's a reservoir in the wild species. Our P. virginiana seems OK but it goes for the other native species, pincherry, P. pennsylvanica.  Do you find the suckering of the chokecherry much of a nuisance?

With all that ails and can potentially ail Prunus species, I just assume that most of them are temporary visitors here ----and perhaps I love them even more for that reason. Of the 5 or 6 P. maackii I orginally planted as seedlings, only the one remains, and each year it is still here, I am grateful.

[Paul T]

Oh Magnar, they're all beautiful!!!!! 

[Armin]

Hello Magnar,

beautiful! The Centaurea bagadensis is very lovely. I don't know this species.
What is the natural distribution, habitat and size?
Easy to please?

[Magnar]

Hello Magnar,

beautiful! The Centaurea bagadensis is very lovely. I don't know this species.
What is the natural distribution, habitat and size?
Easy to please?

The Centaurea bagadensis is a rather new introduction from Gerogia in the Caucasus mountains. I have been growing it for 3 years now and it seems to be fully hardy here. I grow it in my scree bed where it behaves very well, not spreading by roots like some other Centaureas do. It grows to about 25 cm here, may be it would get taller if it was given more rich soil to grow in, but I like it the way it is now. As you can see in the last pic it also has a nice foliage. It is very easy to grow from seeds. They usually germinate within a week without any cold treatment, and the seedlngs grow fairly fast. It is said to tolerate dry conditions.

[David Nicholson]

You do do lewisias very well David. Much of your seed is germinating. Don't know why, the weather's cold and miserable - so perhaps it feels at home?

When I grew Calandrinia grandiflora it always died after flowering. Couldn't be bothered with it eventually. I think if you wanted an extra year, you'd need to cut the flower stems IMMEDIATELY after the majority of flowers had passed. Not wait until there was seed.

Thank you Lesley, but if I was as good as Michael Campbell I would be a happy man. I seem to do fairly well with forms and varieties of Lewisia cotyledon and L. oppositifolia but I can't grow L. rediviva to save my life. I've had a plant for three years now but not a single flower. If it doesn't perform next year it's heading for the compost bin.

Thanks also to you, Luit, and to Fermi for advice on Calandrinia grandiflora (just been looking on Google and found a Site that says it is now Cistanthe grandiflora- b****r, I've just learned to spell Calandrinia). All the pics I can find show the pink form but I did see one Site that suggested there were other colours (strange though, none seem to be on the Internet!)

[David Nicholson]

Lovely Magnar, you do grow a lovely plant, and you take a very good picture too.

[johnw]

Luit - Finally I heard back from my friend in Newfoundland who I bought the charge fertilizer from.  As I said the recent bag was Canadian produced.  He e said the bag I just finisheed was made by HYDRO AGRI - ROTTERDAM BV and it was called PG MIX 14-16-18. He also said they have different formulae.

johnw

[Susan Band]

David,
 I water Lewisia rediviva from about now (when people who keep bulbs in pots start to water them) and keep it watered though out the winter. When the first flower buds start to show in about March I stop watering completely and allow the soil to get like dust (they sit on a shelf in the greenhouse) The leaves will die down but the flower buds continue to grow, flower and set seed. They are then baked until it is time to water them again.
For seedlings I keep them growing for their first summer/autumn

[Magnar]

All Lewisias do well in the open garden here. I guess snow in the winter is good for them.

[Magnar]

Lewisia columbiana v rupicola


Crenathodium helianthus hybrid


Geranium platyathum


Geranium regellii

[Gerdk]

Photographed in my garden today after a long period of cold and rainy weather

1. Clematis fusca
2. Bomarea edulis - pot grown, flowers in a height of 1.5 m
3. Cyclamen purpurascens - self sown seedling
4. Erodium cazorlense - flowering during the whole summer
5. Heliophyla longifolia - a South African annual

Gerd

[Paul T]

Very cool Geraniums, and that Clematis and Bomarea are excellent.  Thanks for posting!

[Brian Ellis]

A few from the garden the other day. A general view with Dierama pulchellum 'Blackbird', Dierama igneum, Morina longiflora.  Elsewhere in the garden Dierama 'Lancelot' and 'Guinevere'

[Brian Ellis]

...Aconitum lycoctonum 'Dark Eyes'
Franchoa sonchifolia
Franchoa sonchifolia 'Rodgersons form'
Sanguisorba albiflora
Santolina pinnata 'Edward Bowles'
Scutellaria altissima
Stachys albotomentosa