I think it is time to start a new page...353 posts is a lot to load each time!
Here is a very nice ground cover in a couple of my gardens. I have never seen it anywhere else but in my own beds. It is a very long bloomer and the spent blooms turn a rusty red and last till next spring. I know what it is, do you?
I don't know what it is, but I wonder if it is related to this (also unidentified pretty flower):
Greenjay..wow, that sure is pretty and I believe you are right. They are related. My picture is Persicaria affinis 'Dimity'. I found it at a local Garden center 8 years ago, and haven't seen it anywhere since. I did a google search and came up with some pics that look like your picture called Persicaria affinis 'Superba'. That 'Superba' in much brighter than my 'Dimity' . I am going to have to try to track it down.
I thought it looked familiar. I've never seen it growing, but it is recommended in one of my perennial books as a companion planting for Japanese painted fern and the picture was very pretty. I have ordered some ferns for fall planting and was going to look for the persicaria. the one they showed in the book was was persicaria affinis 'Border Jewels'. doesn't look like you guys have it planted in the shade, though
gram
OK, now that you have narrowed it down for me, I believe what I have in that picture (Denver Botanical Gardens, 8/2006) is "persicaria amplexicaulis "Firetail" Mountain Fleeceflower (http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/80947/ ).
Big Dipper Farms seems to have an interesting selection of cultivars
http://www.bigdipperfarm.com/cgi-bin/searchstuff.pl?Botanical=Persicaria
Now, is it or is it not a xeric plant? The location where I photographed it at Denver Botanical is an x-xeric area.
gram, Thats it! Border Jewels! I thought there was more name than I was remembering. Had to dig up an old garden journal to be sure.That is what was on the tag that came with it. It used to be classified as Polygonum as I recall from when I bought the plant and was trying to learn something about it's needs. 'Dimity' went with the original Polygonum classification I believe, I can't find that information now. It is here in one of my many books somewhere.
Yes, mine is in mostly sun, but has spread gradually around to the shady side of the bush you see in the picture and looks happy there as well.
they certainly are related. I'm looking for the affinis, though, like gazania has. they don't have any at Big Dipper, unfortunately. your amplixicaulis is much taller and not a spreader.
edit to add: I was hoping that Big Dipper would have it listed under polygonum, but they didn't
This message was edited Aug 26, 2006 3:08 PM
greenjay, no not Firetail. What is in my picture is a groundcover only about 5 to 6 inches...not feet. The flower spikes may be about 10 inches.
I don't think your picture is of Firetail either. It seems to be part of the persicaria /FleeceFlower family.
Hello everyone. What lovely gardens you all have! I wish my daylilies were so willing to flower! I have two that I've had for a few years now and neither one of them has graced me with a single flower yet :-( Maybe they like more summerheat .... I was amazed to see astilbes flowering in June, mine are just starting to open - sometimes they don't even make it before the first frost.
Here's a photo from my garden I took just a few days ago
Rannveig, your growing season must be very short, but your garden is gorgeous! I guess we all have to adapt to what conditions we live in. Don't you also have very long days in the summer?
rannveig, that is a fabulous garden. Since you are in zone 7b what is the length of your growing season? What grows obviously has a lot more to do with temperature ranges than I thought. I had the idea that it mainly was frost dates. I am in zone 4 and my day lilies are done blooming.
I lived on the coast of Norway for three years and was totally amazed when the roses were still in bloom in December. I need to read up on what determines growing zones, unless someone out there can enlighten me.
rannveig, your garden is stunning! Masterfully done!
Gazania, I love those periscarias! The first one I've only seen in pics and have tried to find it. White Flower Farm offered a similar variety, but only in a collection with other plants I already had. Both are lovely!
they have Border Jewels at Heronswood. but it does say full sun. I don't know why my book recommends it with fern.
Thank you zenpotter!
The growing season here is really short, because although the winters are mild (very rarely below -10°C (15°F) , the summers are also very cool and short with average temps. of only about 12°C (54°F). For the past years we have been getting a bit warmer summers so temps. in the upper 50's, lower 60's aren't that uncommon and even a few days of upper 60's. The all time high in my area (around the capital Reykjavik) is just over 22°C (72°F)! So the minimum winter temps. only tell half the story - for instance many winterhardy roses don't grow well here because they need more summer heat to flower properly. I don't think I can grow any zone 7 plants, zone 4-5 are usually a safe bet, some zone 6 plants too. The safe date for bedding plants is usually around the first week in June, June 15th for really tender plants like Dahlias. Spring is a very varied time, the crocuses usually start blooming around April 1st, but sometimes sooner. First frost is generally around mid - late September, but that also varies greatly. Last winter was unusually mild, I don't recall temps. below -5°C (23°F) at all, but then we got really nasty frost spells in late March and again in late April and May. These late frosts often do the most damage. Generally there is nothing certain about the weather here, you can have rain and 10°C (50°C) in any month of the year!
The Astilbes are fully hardy here and have no problem surviving the winter - but they don't manage to bloom before the first frost every year - so only the very early blooming varieties are grown here and they're not even a sure bet. This year has actually been unusally good, despite a very cool June, there are at least 5 of my Astilbes starting to bloom now. (Rheinland, Bruidsluier, Europa, Peach Blossom and one white one I don't know the name of) Unfortunately the forecast is for 40's temps next week - but hopefully it'll warm up again!
A photo of A. japonica 'Europa' along with japanese maple and Dicentra spectabilis
gemini, grampapa, thank you as well! Sorry I didn't notice your post before! We get 24h hour daylight from late May to early July - so it's really hard to stop working in the garden in June, I just don't want to go inside! I'm often out till midnight, once to 1 am - it's just the best - nothing that can beat it. It would be nice to just skip sleeping in June and make it up in December when there's only 4-6 hours of daylight ;-) What are Border Jewels, do you know the latin name?
Edited to say never mind - just found the refernce to the Border Jewels - sorry!
Here's one more from the garden
rannveig
This message was edited Aug 27, 2006 3:04 PM
rannveig
, I would think that you could go crazy with the snapdragons if you give them and 4 week head start under lights. They do beautifully in the temps you describe, and the 24 hour daylight would not hurt them at all!
rannveig..what lovely plantings you have. I agree, in that climate wouldn't it be great to be able to garden through the daylight hours and sleep in the December darkness. I guess there are garden challenges no matter where you garden, but you seem to have made the very best of your 'different' situation.
About Heronswood...isn't that the one that sold out to Burpee last spring. I looked and there is still a website with the Heronswood name, but the address is now in PA where Burpee is. I wonder if they will continue to have all the hard to find plants like they did before the sale? That would be great for those of us in the East.
there's a lot of controversy surrounding the buy out of Heronswood by Burpee. there are almost none of the Heronswood employees still working there, if any.
here's a link to a thread over in the Trees & Shrubs forum where folks are pretty adamant about not doing business with Burpee or Heronswood at all any more because of the way this was handled. I don't know enough about it to make a judgment.
http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/636724/
rannveig,
Your photos are wonderful. I love all of the color.
Thank you for the description of your weather. That gives me a better understanding. It obviously has more to do with highs and lows than I had understood. I really thought it was mostly frost dates. Our frost dates are basically the same as yours, although that is changing now. We have temperatures from 100º F to -40º F (38º C to -40º C). It is amazing how there are so many plants that can survive in that kind of climate.
Thanks, I can't pick a color so I just have them all! Does get a bit tricky at times - I'm always moving things around! lol
Yeah, that's a bit more fluctuation in temperature than here :-). Do you get a lot of snow during the winter? It always helps protect the plants. I often wish we'd get more snow cover to guard my gems!
Each year we get less and less snow. When we get it boy do we get it though. The woman in the red coat in the background is our 89 year old neighbor out shoveling. My husband usually shovels for her, but he hadn't gotten home from work yet and she was to impatient to wait.
rannveig, I think I could give up daylilies and astilbe if my garden was as beautiful as that. That must be delphinium - so tall and what a great color.
zenpotter lovely photo - still hope we don't have to start shoveling snow for at least two months yet !;-) We usually don't get much snow - but our first winter here in our new house it snowed a lot - and we had to do more shoveling than ever before! Our former house had heat in the drive way which usually melted the snow so we hadn't done much shoveling before. When we moved we thought it wouldn't matter that much that there wasn't heat in the driveway since it hadn't snowed that much in years - boy did we get our share that winter! One time we were snowed in - no way of getting out!
alyrics - thank you for the compliment :-) Maybe it's just a case of "the grass is greener ...somewere else" ! There are daylilies in the botanical gardens here that are huge and flower nicely every summer - I wish mine would too. I don't know what kind the ones at the botanical garden are - probably some species ...
Yeah the blue ones are delphinium, I don't know what kind it is. I got it from my father, who in turn got it from my grandfather's garden where it had grown for many many years ... it's becoming sort of a family heirloom! It is a bit tall for the windy conditions here but does surprisingly well even though it doesn't have a very sheltered position.
Greenjay, I just looked Snapdragons up as I wasn't sure what they were (I'm slowly learning the english names of all these plants :-) )- Yes I've grown them and they do really well - the short growing varieties that is - the taller ones can get blown over by the wind - it's very windy here:-( - we're constantly trying to get shelter from the wind without getting too much shade in return (it's rather tricky) ! lol
Have to sow them in january to get them to flower in June -
Fascinating gardening challenges, Rannveig! And I love your results, too!
I hope you sign up to be a permanent Dave's Garden member and also check in on the Welcome Mat forum to let everyone know you are posting.
http://davesgarden.com/forums/f/welcome/all/
I'm sure others would like to hear about your strategies!
Yes, Rannveig. Please do stick around. It's so interesting to hear from someone with such different challenges. And also to see such beautiful pictures! That's a pleasure no matter where the gardener lives :0)
gram
Rannvieg, Thank you for the interesting education!
Dave
Well, thank you all for the warm welcome! I think I will stick around for a while at least - I wasn't aware of the welcome mat forum - I'll check that out. I'm finding it really interesting to read about what others are doing and I love to see all your photos!! So many beautiful flowers! :-)
Great thread that I have just stumbled upon..............I don't have much to add as far as pics go, but I have really learned a lot, thanks! Hope everyone has a wonderful Monday ~ ~ ~ I am actually getting rain today for the first time in 72 days and what a welcome change for my gardens!
Happy Gardening,
Belinda
Belinda, Love those zinnias! We just hit with 5 & 1/4 inches of rain. Its still drizzling and another storm is coming in. Could I send you some? You can have everything in my basement. ;^)
Dave
Rannvieg, Your gardens are beautiful. The colors are so vibrant. Do many people try to garden there or are they discouraged by the short growing season?
early_bloomer
Thank you Early_Bloomer. I think us graden nuts are rather a rare breed here. There isn't a very long tradition of gardening here- at the beginning of the last century it was generally accepted that nothing could grow here. Then some pioneering people started growing vegetables and later experimenting with planting trees and decorative plants. So there has been a great amount of progress made in a relatively short amount of time - but we are still experimenting. There are still plants left to be discovered to be able to grow here. So, yes I think many people are still discouraged by the climate and think that you need to be an expert in order to be able to grow anything. The wast majority just sticks with growing annuals and maybe the most common perennials. The trend here now is to have a low maintenance garden with large decks and patios - and very little grass - plant a few flowering shrubs and then grow annuals in containters. Maybe because people here generally work very long hours and don't have the time or interest to garden. So the "inspired" gardeners who grow many kinds of perennials or roses and try new things are few and far between. I'm pretty new to this - I've only been gardening for 9 years, 3 years at my current home, but there are many beautiful gardens here - and many much prettier than mine!
rannveig, there is a DGr in Alaska, Weezingreens, who shares some of the same challenges that you do (and grows a fabulous garden too!). I think you 2 will enjoy sharing insight and experience with each other. She grows the beautiful (and much coveted by many of us) Himalayan blue poppy (Meconopsis, I think). Have you grown them? Those of us with hot summers can only enjoy pics from afar :(
Yes, I've met Weezingreens! We seem to be dealing with very similar conditions. Yes I grow the Himalayan blue poppy (Meconopsis betonicifolia) - grows very well here :-)!! I'd really like to grow Meconopsis grandiflora as well, it's flowers are a deeper blue color. I sowed some seed last year and had the seedlings in my greenhouse where they just gave up on the heat at died on me. They really don't like it hot!
Here's a pic Meconopsis grandiflora I took on our travels to the Westfjords of Iceland (NW) this summer. Grew very nicely there and really stood out! Such a wonderful color.
Here's a photo of my blue beauty - Meconopsis betonicifolia :-) Taken on June 27th 2006 - this was the first year it flowered- I got it as a self seeded seedling from my friend. It's very commonly grown here.
Drool! So beautiful, and such an amazing color, and so rare in nature.
The blue and orange together are gorgeous. The color vibrates.
Yes they are pretty :-) I think I have a deeper appreciation for them now - thank you! Somehow when plants are easy to grow, they become so common you don't always appreciate their beauty! It seems that many himalayan plants do well here - for instance Primula florindae thrives in these cool, wet summers of ours!
hello,
My delphinium "magic fountain" is blooming again :o)
I couldn't get a closer picture.
Connie
