Image of the day - 2012

Jandals wrote:

Thanks Cliff . I think I spotted an ex-pat in there

You certainly did Steve ... and what a beautifully grown celmisia it is!   No need to ask the name of the exhibitor?  Alan Furness has always grown NZ plants to perfection.

Thanks Cohan ... I wouldn't like to estimate the number of individual blooms on that saxifraga or on the huge Dionysia bryoides exhibited by Derek Pickard.

Fabulous Dionysias and Saxifragas filled to the brim.  Cliff, what is the pale yellow Dionysia, is it a hybrid? (image name = DSC_5506SMALLER.JPG).  Also, whats the Ornithogalum, can't quite make out the name.

I do however have this devilish urge, assuming I had a greenhouse and the skill to grow such challenging plants to perfection (which I don't on both accounts), wouldn't it be whimsical to plant one of those mounding alpines into a square pot, and then systematically keep nipping off the advancing growth in the north-south-east-west directions to coax a square plant.  Not sure why I think of these things, but wouldn't a square mound be awesome?

A pot of Melasphaerulea ramosa blooming in the greenhouse. Only one species in the genus, and easy-peasy under glass ( an apparently in the garden in warmer climates where it can be a pest. As a late blooming South African bulb, it fills a gap between Lachenalia species, and Gladiolus tristis for me. It's so warm this spring, I've moved many of the potted bulbs outdoors, since we've had no frost for a week now.

I've not heard of this one before, very different looking isn't it, rather light, frothy, and delightful.  Matt, can you believe this weather, so warm, almost reached 80 F in Nashua, reached 75 F where I am; but keep a close eye on the weather if bringing out your tender treasures to your patio and deck, we still could get whacked with frost; you know, 80 F one day, 25 F the next morning sort of thing ;)

Cliff, I am awestruck and dumbfounded!  How can anyone judge those?

My favorite is the Frit, with the twisty bracts like the sparse branching of an alpine fir, decorated with the red bells of frit flowers.

McDonough wrote:

Fabulous Dionysias and Saxifragas filled to the brim.  Cliff, what is the pale yellow Dionysia, is it a hybrid? (image name = DSC_5506SMALLER.JPG).  Also, whats the Ornithogalum, can't quite make out the name.

I do however have this devilish urge, assuming I had a greenhouse and the skill to grow such challenging plants to perfection (which I don't on both accounts), wouldn't it be whimsical to plant one of those mounding alpines into a square pot, and then systematically keep nipping off the advancing growth in the north-south-east-west directions to coax a square plant.  Not sure why I think of these things, but wouldn't a square mound be awesome?

Good morning Mark,
The Ornithogalum is Ornithogalum sibthorpei, while the pale yellow Dionysia is Dionysia monika.
Your idea for a square mound isn't (unfortunately) totally original as we have seen examples on the show benches over the years ... the judges don't seem to agree about the 'awesomeness'.  ;D    What about a pyramid?  :D

Hi Rick,
The diversity of frit's being exhibited is immense and, whilst this hasn't been one of the best seasons for these bulbs so far, we can enjoy an enormous range of shapes, sizes and colours at our shows.

Very nice plant, Matt.  Certainly new to me.

Matt, your Mela-something is rather a very special plant! Is it bulbous?
I've moved almost all my pots out now, haven't had frost for a month :-\  - But no warm weather either :-\ :-\

Hoy wrote:

I've moved almost all my pots out now, haven't had frost for a month :-\  - But no warm weather either :-\ :-\

No frost for a month!  I've had nothing BUT frost...dropped to -8 C last night and apparently will stay below freezing at least into early April...this has been one of the coldest March months on record for Newfoundland yet WAY ABOVE normal elsewhere in eatern North America.  Just our luck! Normally my earliest crocus and eranthis would be open the first week of April...still under a foot of snow at the moment. I am living vicariously through the rest of you!

Tim wrote:

I just couldn't resist this anemone as an image of the day; incredible colour like the chocolate cosmos, how true is it likely to come from seed?

How did this one arise, Tim? Was it from seed you sowed or a bought corm?
Definitely worth collecting the seed and segregating it. I can see "Tim's Chocolate Selection" becoming a popular choice! ;D
Incidentally, the foliage of Anemone coronaria and A. pavonina is just emerging here!
cheers
fermi

I know what you mean Lis, same thing here, the wind was gusting so strong this afternoon (29 F) that it was ripping the buds off Magnolia 'Forrest Pink'.  I fully expected this after all that summer in Burmuda weather.

Before the big freeze, Pulmonaria rubra (showing some flowers aging a comely blue), before the freeze ;)  Although, I think the Pulmonarias will take the freezing just fine.

Tim wrote:

No - I bought it Fermi! (At our local Hardy Plant Society sale this March). By coincidence the speaker at the day was John Massey of Ashwood Nursery fame and he showed pictures of anemones naturalised in grass. They supply seed of anemone strains in the summer but I've never seen a colour like this! They must be potentially very good plants in Australian gardens.

We saw lovely patches of Anemones naturalised at Ashwood when we visited prior to the Nottingham Conference last year!
[attachthumb-1]
cheers
fermi

That is something to speak of, Fermi! I don't like at all all this talk about freezing temperatures :o The weather forecast says we maybe will have down to 0C Monday or Tuesday next week :-\

This week almost all S Norway has had all time high temperatures for March. Today they hit 22-23C the warmest places and that is a warm day even midsummer!
Here at the coast we don't get that warm weather due to the "cold" sea (it is warmer than normal though). Instead we get a lot of morning and evening fog :( Still the average for this month is +4 above normal and no freezing even at night for 5 weeks now.

Fermi, I remember the anemones very well - so colorful and graceful.  Do you recall the "herd of sheep" nearby?

Tim, fabulously fantastic furry fuzz!  Everyone looking at this photo, be sure to enlarge it by clicking on it to see frothy filagree of feathery involucre fineness... lots of "f" adjectives.

I remember (as I imagine everyone does) the first time I grew a pulsatilla for myself.  The "fur" was (and still is) so captivating.  But yours, Tim, is far beyond that!  The shade of lavender of the flowers is quite nice, too.  :o

Tim wrote:

There are several plants vying for Image of the Day in our garden at the moment, but I think this Pulsatilla really is the most eyecatching. The flowers don't last long like this, but in combination with that foliage they are a real picture.

Tim, it is worth growing even if the flowering period lasted but one day!

cohan wrote:

Hoy wrote:

and no freezing even at night for 5 weeks now.

Wow, that still amazes me- even though I know intellectually you are so much warmer than us, you are still in the 'north'...lol and we hardly get more than 5 weeks frost free in summer ;)

Cohan, it's the blessing and curse of the sea!
A blessing in winter but a curse in summer! It almost never gets really cold, however, it never gets really warm either :-\

Sensational image Tim ... and so beautifully captured.

Spring has finally made an appearance.  Here are the first flowers (nearly opened) of the season.

The Pulsatillas were another group we found enchanting last year in the UK!

The image of the day in our garden has to be this South African Amaryllid, Brunsvigia gregaria, which has just started to bloom - first flower since planting the seedling bulb in this sand-bed about 8 or 9 years ago!
cheers
fermi

Todd wrote:

Spring has finally made an appearance.  Here are the first flowers (nearly opened) of the season.

Todd, glad to hear that! It is always the most exciting time of the year whenever it happens ;)

Difficult to believe that something will outshine that Callianthemum, Tim.  Everything here is 3 to 4 weeks ahead of itself despite the
recent cold.  One large trough is in a sunny spot protected from the wind and things are starting to happen already.

Don't know why the pictures of the trough didn't come through.

Douglasia nivalis
Veronica caespitosa and Daphne 'Ernst Hauser'
Douglasia nivalis var. nivalis

(Edited to add searchable plant names.)

Sorry, the last picture is of Douglasia nivalis v nivalis.

Fermi wrote:

The image of the day in our garden has to be this South African Amaryllid, Brunsvigia gregaria, which has just started to bloom - first flower since planting the seedling bulb in this sand-bed about 8 or 9 years ago!
cheers
fermi

I have many times been tempted to try some Brunsvigia but never taken the step. I had to grow it in a pot anyway. However when I see yours  I do regret I haven't tried yet ;)

Tim wrote:

This Callianthemum anemonoides on the sand bed flowers for rather longer and is one of the stars of the bed, but there are a couple of other plants just coming on that will compete with both of these plants - it's a fantastic time of year as these plants start doing their thing!

It is a fantastic plant too, Tim!

Spiegel wrote:

Don't know why the pictures of the trough didn't come through.

Douglasia nivalis
Veronica caespitosa and Daphne 'Ernst Hauser'
Douglasia nivalis var. nivalis

It is here now, anyway!
I understand Douglasia is hardy but does it tolerate winter wet?

The trough is not covered in any way but it also is very deep and has incredibly positive drainage.  I did lose Townsendia jonesii v lutea in this trough after three years druing a snowless wet winter.  Townsendias in general don't seem to last more than 4 years or so except for Townsendia montana.

Well spring was short-lived...currently have a raging blizzard...70 Km winds and 12" snow!  Drift over snowdrops is now 3 feet high.  Guess it will be another couple of weeks before they see the sun again.
:(

Tim, I like the commingling idea, the lovely Bergenia and snowdrops looking quite happy together.  It reminds me that this would be an interesting forum topic; plant pairings, like wine and food, certain plants seem to go together well, enjoying a mutual level of growth, location, soil, and spacial needs.

Mark, a perfect example of a good pairing would be Dicentra cucullaria and Epimedium grandiflorum in almost any form.  As the dicentra starts to go dormant the yellowing foliage is hidden by the new flower and leaf shoots of the epimedium.  Works quite well.

Spiegel wrote:

Mark, a perfect example of a good pairing would be Dicentra cucullaria and Epimedium grandiflorum in almost any form.  As the dicentra starts to go dormant the yellowing foliage is hidden by the new flower and leaf shoots of the epimedium.  Works quite well.

I agree Ann, this is a combo I'm very familiar with.  And toss Corydalis solida & malkensis into the mix, which pop up everywhere.

I love the emerging foliage on Dicentra cucullaria, this view taken a couple weeks ago:

Emerging foliage of Dicentra cucullaria in the wild (Minnesota).  This was a "hope this picture turns out" kind of photo.  The plants were perched on a wooded cliff ledge, and photo taken with arms and camera stretched high above my head.

Dicentra cuccularia is a charming plant I have tried several times but it is shortlived here - I blame he slugs :-\

This week we are at our mountain cabin on holiday. We hoped for snow but it is even less snow than last Easter which furthermore was 14 days later too :o The previous 14 days were sunny and mild now it is sunny and cold but no snow.

Pulsatilla vernalis is due to flower whenever the temperature get high enough and the same is Noccaea caerulescens (syn Thlaspi alpestre).
The first picture shows the meadow where it usually is 2 ft snow at this time of the year!

Rick, that's too funny about your precarious cliff ledge "hope this picture turns out" photo.  I must admit to never encountering Dicentra cucullaria in the wild, even though native to Massachusetts.  Interesting to see the distribution of this species, largely central-eastern North America, to learn of disjunct distribution in the tri-state area of Washington, Idaho, and Oregon.
http://www.efloras.org/object_page.aspx?object_id=5377&flora_id=1

John Lonsdale found lots of strong pink forms in southeastern USA, a couple photos available here:
http://www.edgewoodgardens.net/plants_album/the%20plants%20-%20%20comple...

Trond, love the golden fluff on Pulsatilla vernalis!

Lori, I actually worry about D. cucullaria becoming a pest; in autumn the bunches of rice grains, looking like dense banana clusters several inches across, rise to the surface and sit there totally exposed, the rice grains spilling about.  I actually scoop them up and replant elsewhere, or rebury them deeper.  The foliage, while ephemeral, is quite robust and lush, and could smother smaller spring ephemerals like Anemonella thalictroides.  But I do love this plant, and feel fortunate to have it romping about making such finely dissected foliage mounds.  In the photo below, this clump appeared a couple years ago, there's a self-sown Pulmonaria there (well, they're everywhere), a yet-to-sprout seedling Epimedium plant, and the amazing ressurection of a pink-flowered Sanguinaria canadensis that went underground for about 4 years and suddenly emerged and produced a small flower, a small miracle.

About Dicentra cucullaria, I have never seen such "rice grains" of any kind.  I have always wondered about the root structure (and of Dicentra canadensis), but would never dream of digging one up, as they are not that common here.  They are a little larger growing in southern Minnesota, and the pic (also from the Hastings SNA) is about 50 miles south of me.  Where I am and to the north, I have never seen them more than five inches tall, although admittedly, I have only found them in 3 or 4 places.  The thought of them smothering Thalictrum thalictroides is quite laughable here.

Unfortunately they don't smother anything here :-\ Are they easy from seed? Maybe seeds should be sown fresh? Corms are rather expensive.