What do you see on your garden walks? 2013

First Galanthus sps of the season down here.

Cheers Dave.

What an incredible Edraianthus, Michael!   :o

Lots of promise with buds or growth on last year's seedlings...
Lactuca intricata; Dianthus scardicus; Silene bolanthoides; Mathiola anchonifolium; Silene nigrescens:

     

Edraianthus vesovicii; Edraianthus niveus:
 

And various sights from here and there in the garden...
First flower on Lomatium nudicaule; Pulsatilla pratensis x 2; Aubrieta canescens; Phacelia sericea - let's see if this lasts more than the usual one season!; Townsendia parryi - or so it was supposed to be - they never look like this in the wild here; update on Astragalus loanus:
     

Rosy-bloom crabapple; 'Evans' sour cherry:
 

Rheum palmatum v. tanguticum:

Nymphaea 'Colorado':

Roses - 'Sheila's Perfume', 'Full Sail', 'Dolly Parton':
   

A couple of last year's seedlings of Lupinus lepidus v. utahensis starting to bloom:
 

Fritillaria acmopetala; Thymus neiceffii with Sempervivum 'Oddity' and Jovibarba:
 

A native plant, Lithospermum ruderale:
 

I was hoping to get all my pots of seedlings planted out into the garden this weekend, but after a lovely Saturday, there's been a constant, soaking rain since Saturday evening.  Still have almost 2 trays to go, but at least I've put the big plant stand back in the garage, so it feels like progress.
A few more...

Of the two plants of Lithospermum ruderale, this one has larger flowers (I showed the smaller-flowered one earlier):

Front yard in the rain, with 'Royalty' crabapple and the bur oak in bloom; 'Royalty' flowers; 'Amsterdam' rose was set outside at the corner of the house last weekend:
   

IMYoung wrote:

Yup, after the Jandals were famously jettisoned by Steve the other day, I was expecting the snaadreeps to begin! :D

Steve will probably have them back on again now --Saturday, 1st day of winter, temps reached 15c on the coast here --warm enough for me to tip out some of my clumps of potted Trilliums and carefully divide them.

Cheers Dave.

Wow, what a horticultural feast Lori! I have a few of those growing well, including Lactuca intricata which must be on the verge of flowering. I like the Lithospermum particularly - a very interesting genus with so many good rock plants. There were some intriguing matthiolas in the Czech gardens, including this one in Vojtech Holubec's, with soft brown flowers (I'm not sure if this is M. alchemilloides?).

Hi
here are some pictures of the flowers and garden taken today. Nice weather and I diligently added all the names of the plants on the body of the text  ;D

Phlox subulata sp
View of part of my rockgarden
Aquilegia scopulorum-from NARGS seed

since i cant fit all the pictures in the first post I am sending another one

Erigeron aureus canary bird
Physaria didymocarpa
Delosperma nubigenum

Rose 'Eddie's Jewel', a hybrid of Rosa moyesii:  12 feet tall on a 6 foot fence.  This was started as a cutting in 2008.  If allowed to climb a tree, it will reach 30 feet in height, an extremely impressive sight.  Behind the rose is grand fir, and behind the fir is black locust in bloom, attracting thousands of bees.

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Here it is up in the trees at my place in Portland:

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Lilium martagon on left, Lilium mackliniae in front, Nomocharis pardanthina (?) behind:

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A dark form of Lilium mackliniae, blooming for the first time this year.  Note the deeply colored buds:

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Nomocharis aperta (?):

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Linnaea borealis blooming under the firs, with Cornus canadensis in front and Disporum hookeri in back:

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Another group of Linnaea:

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The Cornus and Disporum were grown from seed.  Linnaea is one of the few plants that I start from cuttings, since I can never find the ripe seed.

IMYoung wrote:

Gene wrote:

Linnaea borealis blooming under the firs, with Cornus canadensis in front and Disporum hookeri in back:

The Cornus and Disporum were grown from seed.  Linnaea is one of the few plants that I start from cuttings, since I can never find the ripe seed.

Drat! And I was just about to send you a begging  letter for seed!  :'(

M

Will the plant police take me away if I send you some cuttings?

I was delighted to discover today that the couple of caterpillars I noticed on Mertensia ciliata are police car moth (Gnophaela vermiculata) larvae.  Well, I had been thinking of reducing the burgeoning population of Mertensia ciliata but now I've reconsidered!  (I also have Mertensia paniculata, which would be one of their native food sources... haven't seen them on those plants yet.  It appears they are feeding on the inflorescences.  Mertensia paniculata isn't blooming yet... wonder if that's why they're on non-native Mertensia ciliata, which has been in bloom for some time?)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/theresaburg/4842334588/

RickR wrote:

It warms my heart to be in the company of people who don't automatically think bugs are bad.

What a great observation, Rick!  My sentiments, also.
The only "bugs" I kill are those that are attacking me - mosquitoes, horseflies, stable flies (though I sometimes feel a little bad about doing so - after all, sucking mammalian blood is a pretty amazing adaptation for survival!)  However, I have to admit to an unrelenting blood-thirstiness where lily beetles are concerned, but, given that they are introduced pests, I don't feel bad about squashing them!

Well, Paeonia ostii looks like a great addition to the garden, whether or not you're ever inclined to add others.  Where did you get the seeds?

Eremostachys speciosa; rather large for the rock garden, but I like it anyway - reminds me of a wooly Pedicularis.
   

Dianthus scardicus, from seed last year - dark buds followed by sugar pink flowers:
 

Paeonia officinalis was looking fabulous the other day:

First bloom on last year's Penstemon pumilus seedling:

Townsendia parryi - now fully open:

First bloom on last year's seedling of Silene nigrescens; I had a nice plant a few years ago but lost it - it's taken quite a while to get another one going again:

I got this as Saxifraga FJK 3... ??

Ranunculus pyrenaeus:

Eritrichium pauciflorum ssp. sajanense:
 

Silene bolanthoides - this one looking very white:

Rheum rhizostachyum and dark buds of Campanula stevenii ssp. turczaninovii; Iris mandshurica; Androsace sp.; Arenaria kansuensis; Edraianthus niveus:
       

Maggi - thank you for the name of the Matthiola. I bought a plant that looked the same or similar from Miroslav Stanek under the name alchemilloides which doesn't seem to make a great deal of sense, but intriguing none the less.

The crevice and tufa gardens in the Czech Republic were very inspirational, as was a trough demonstration that Vojtech Holubec gave. The stone we have is a little too bold by comparison, but this is a trough made up with some of the plants brought back: there are about twenty plants in here including Asperula boissieri, Salvia caespitosa, Convolvulus sundermanii, Callianthemum farreri, Crepis wildenovii, Androsace villosa ssp. glabrata, Veronica bombycina var. frederyana and Globularia incanescens. It will be exciting to see how these develop, and in the absence of tufa I think this will be the way to try growing a lot more of these plants. The trough is essentially filled with sharp sand with some 'clay loam' from the garden to fill the base and help anchor chock stones in the crevices. Probably some feeding will be necessary in time in the absence of a much more extensive root run for the plants, and hopefully they will give us propagation material and seed.

I forgot to mention, Rick, that the flowers of Xanthoceras sorbifolia are quite amazing!  Is it totally hardy for you?
What an excellent trough-planting demo, Tim.  Very inspiring!

A few more...
Pulsatilla vulgaris seedheads - a few plants are still in bloom, too:

Front yard, with Penstemon confertus, Antennaria rosea and Castilleja miniata - Lilium philadelphicum is in the background of the first photo:
 

Penstemon procerus:
 

Trough with Rhodiola rosea, Heuchera hallii, Aquilegia laramiensis, Saxifraga cuneifolia, Thuja occidentalis 'Tiny Tim':

Spiegel wrote:

Lori, very lovely Penstemon procerus.  Do you grow P.p. formosus and P.p. 'Alpenglow' as well?  They do well here.  Do you grow Penstemon spatulatus?  The foliage is great, but it doesn't flower heavily here.  I may even resort to a little blossom booster (diluted) next spring.  That works wonders w/ Lewisia tweedyi and w/ gentians.

Thanks!  I had P. procerus ssp. formosus in a trough but eventually lost it:
http://nargs.org/nargswiki/tiki-browse_image.php?imageId=1384
I don't have 'Alpenglow' or P. spatulatus... I need to improve my collection!   ;D

Cypripedium californicum

Trond - yes, one large drainage hole in one corner! (This was covered with some wire mesh and fine plastic shade netting). The trough is actually a lot more shallow than I would have liked, and watering will be the most important thing - but it is just outside the kitchen window in full view, so the plants will signal my neglect!