Sunday, June 10, 2007

Lilies



Above are two Asiatic lilies which I've bought this year - 'Black Watch' and 'Latvia'.


Sunday, June 03, 2007

Some More Pics

I have no idea what bariety of daffodil this is, but its a cute and attractive little dwarf.
Viola cernuum.
A nicer view of the Dicentra 'Goldheart'. These are all older pics.


Orchids

Phrag Memoria Garren Weaver. These are all outside for the summer.
Paph. Deperle.
Paph. Avalon Mist. Couldn't quite get a satisfactory photo.

I also have a few in bud: Paph Wossner Armenijack, Paph Joyce Hasegawa x chamberlainianum, and Phal Maki Watanabe. I haven't moved those outside yet, because I'm afraid the buds will drop. Once the flowers open they will be moved.

More Garden Photos

Dodecatheon meadia, shooting star. A great woodland plant. Some say it grows better in full sun, but I've found they wilt horribly.
Another Cyp. parviflorum var. makasin. These are flowering just before var. pubescens.
Allium aflatuense 'Purple Sensation'. Full 4" diameter flowers.
Cyp. parviflorum var. pubescens, large-flowered yellow lady's slipper. This is a first-bloom seedling, but it still has flowers twice the size of var. makasin. Eventually they will be 3 times the size. This is the first of my pubescens to flower this year.

June 3 Garden Photos

Lilium philadelphicum, western wood lily. This little gem is really hard to find, both in the wild and for sale. It is a native to my area, a widespread plant of western North America. It is now sparse due to overcollecting and habitat destruction. It's the most beautiful native lily in the west.
Dicentra spectabilis 'Goldheart'. This is a beautiful and vigorous selection of bleeding heart with golden yellow-green leaves.
Cypripedium parviflorum var. makasin, northern small-flowered yellow lady's slipper. Looks almost exactly like the larger variety except much smaller. The pouch is the size of your thumbnail.
Alpine columbine, Aquilegia alpina. While columbines are supposed to be short-lived, I've now had this one for 4 years and it just gets better and better.

Monday, May 28, 2007

Cypripedium macranthos


This clone is from the Lake baikal area of siberia. It has a very large flower.

Friday, May 25, 2007

Paph Avalon Mist

A while back I posted a pic of Paph Pinocchio x primulinum. This is the same plant; I've confirmed that its actual name is Paph Avalon Mist (primulinum x Pinocchio). Had the parent's names been reversed as I had originally thought, the flowers would have been darker in color. The photo (due to lighting) makes it look creamy; it's actually a bright white with some cream near the opening. I'll try to get a better pic soon. This is the next flower to open in succession after the one I pictured earlier. It has at least 2 more coming! The form and color are both far superior on this flower to the one it had open when I bought it a few months ago.

Change in Phrag Culture

I've repotted all my Phrags except Grande into a mixture of 4 parts paph mix (fine bark, charcoal, perlite) to 1 part PRO-MIX HP. This mix drains well but retains moisture. The rockwool is too hard to get, and I found it was too chunky and had to fertilize too often. Most importantly, it MOLDED! I've never had a bark mix mold. The Grande will be repotted as soon as I can get more mix.

Thursday, May 24, 2007

Cypripedium Ulla Silkens



I never did post photos of this class A lady's slipper hybrid when it opened! It's still blooming now but the flower is fading. While I suspect this is a first-bloom seedling, the flower is surprisingly large and the color is great! It also has a great rosy fragrance.

Misc. Garden Photos

Here we have Pulsatilla 'Papageno' (Pasque flower), a new addition to the garden. I had hoped for a white one, but oh well...
Here is Iris pumila (dwarf bearded iris). I bought four small divisions three years ago and the expanded very rapidly... last year I divided the clumps and sold a couple divisions. This year I have four divisions that I'm selling, plus four large clumps in the garden. It's a great plant and a reliable bloomer.
This is Arisaema triphyllum, Jack-in-the-pulpit. I have three of these; this is my only purple form.
This is Lilium pumilum, coral lily. Its many attractive flowers give off a nice fragrance.

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

A Walk in the Garden



Here we have Fritillaria meleagris (checkered fritillary or snake's head) in the meadow garden, Pulsatilla vulgaris (Pasque flower) in the rock garden, and Aquilegia jonesii (Jone's columbine) also in the r.g. The Aquilegia pic was taken a week ago. It's now finished flowering.

A Walk Around the Garden...





Here we have Lilium pumilum (coral lily) in the new sunny border, Epimedium x rubrum (red bishop's hat) in the woodland garden, Helleborus orientalis (Lenten rose) in the shade border, Tulipa spp (hybrid tulip) in the meadow garden, and Muscari armeniacum (grape hyacinth), also in the meadow garden.

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Cyps





Here are some photos of northern hemispheric temperate lady's slippers (Cypripediums). The first one is C. Ulla Silkens (flavum x reginae), which is in bud. The last one is C. acaule (pink lady's slipper), in flower. Both of these plants are in bud/flower a couple weeks early because they started into growth in a warm coldframe. The two in between are C. macranthos (from Siberia) and C. reginae (showy lady's slipper), in that order. The macranthos naturally starts into growth and flowers earlier than my other Cyps. It will flower in less than two weeks. The reginae is not supposed to start into growth until about 2 weks after other Cyps; this one was coldframe started. My other reginae are just peeking out of the soil. My C. pubescens are all starting to leaf out like the reginae shown here.

Sunday, May 13, 2007

Cyps

The Cyps are starting to grow actively outside now. My new acaule is flowering; the new Gisela and pubescens are finished flowering. The other pubescens are starting to leaf out and the new reginae is leafing out. The other two reginae are just peeking up. The new Ulla Silkens (acquired this weekend) is in bud. The macranthos is forming a flower bud as it finishes leafing out.

Sunday, May 06, 2007

A New Bed Under Construction...


These photos show my new front yard bed under construction. In front of the Cyp. pubescens (not seen in the photos) is a Cyp. macranthos which like the rest of my Cyps that have not been bought this year, is still emerging. Behind the shooting star is a Cyp reginae, emerging and newly bought. Behind the Arisaema is another Cyp reginae (not emerging yet) and behind that, the Cyp Gisela that was blooming last week (visible in the photos at the very back). The Arisaema sikokianum is the same one previously pictured in the greenhouse. It has not been planted, the pot only sunk in the ground, just like the Arisaema ringens pictured before. I grow all my Arisaemas this way (except A. triphyllum) and store them indoors over the winter.

Cypripedium pubescens & Dodecatheon pulchellum





More new plants, freshly planted. Last year when I photographed Cyp. pubescens in the wild, I noticed that it often grew with saline shooting star (Dod. pulchellum), another one of my favorites. I decided to plant this beautiful, full-sized plant with a pulchellum in my garden.

Cypripedium Gisela



As I said in my previous post, I have been shopping! These pictures were taken a week ago, but
I had some technical difficulties with the blog and couldn't post them. Gisela is one of the best lady's slipper hybrids for the garden. This is a particularly nice clone.

Arisaema ringens and sikokianum (variegated form)




The gardening season is now well under way, and I've been shopping! The top two photos show A. ringens, a large Asian species with very dramatic flowers. This plant is about 16" tall and at least 2' wide. The bottom two show A. sikokianum fma. variegata. This form occurs in nature but this is a named cultivar which is hard to find.

Monday, April 30, 2007

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