june 2023 photos

[Arnold]

Haemanthus humilis
Clivia "Vico Yellow"

[Martin Bohnet]

Hi Arnold,

I splitted those to a june thread, hope that's ok.

Up until an hour ago, June was completely dry - not that this will have changed much - but for now the suffering keeps bearble, as in: the garden hose can deal with it... though the Iris spuria

already show some drought stress.
no ID for this Albuca - another lost label. More surety about this white trio: Nigella damascena, a xHeucherella hybrid and Triteleia hyacinthina

. Alliums are still a topic here, with Allium obliquum

Height:	60-100 cm (2-3.3 ft)
Flower Colors:	yellow
Flower Season:	late spring to early summer

being one of my favourites, especially as it flowers rather long for the Genus. Staying with yellow, Tropaeolum leptophyllum

Flower Colors:	yellow, patterned
Flower Season:	late spring
Special:	climber

is in flower, too.

Always a treat in June are the Bletillas - Bletilla'Brigantes',  Bletilla striata

Height:	10-30 cm (0.3-1 ft)
Flower Colors:	pink, purple, blue, white
Life form:	deciduous rhizome
Climate:	USDA Zone 7-9

'Trilips', and Bletilla striata

Height:	10-30 cm (0.3-1 ft)
Flower Colors:	pink, purple, blue, white
Life form:	deciduous rhizome
Climate:	USDA Zone 7-9

'soryou'. The Blue Dragon is usually quick to abort flowers, but this year seems to suit it well.

So why not end on a blue note: Aristea africana

, first time flowering from seed. A tiny aristocratic plant - mostly because the working class can only enjoy it on weekends, another one of these late morning to shortly past midday flowers.

[Carlos]

Yes, more Allium



Allium valdesianum from Sierra Nevada    (the original one in Spain) at some 2500. It is not happy at sea level but it stays small and with somewhat reddish outer tepals.



Allium longispathum seen wild yesterday after a storm which prevented us from hiking.


Allium ionicum, a lovely miniature with arching stalks



Maybe duplicated but I just love this one from Algeria, I'm not still sure if it has a name.

Carlos

[Arnold]

Sauromatum venosum

Image of plant and infrared image showing exothermic ability of flower.  Mimics the heat generated by rotting meat.
 

[David Pilling]

Arnold - great photo. My Sauromatum venosum has only just broken the surface.

The PBS wiki has some mentions of thermogenic plants on the Arum page, including a photo you took:

https://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/Arum

I wonder what you're using for thermal imaging these days.

[Arnold]

I picked up a small infrared camera lens that plugs into my iPhone.

https://www.thermal.com/compact-series.html

[David Pilling]

Thanks for the link to the camera. Thermal cameras are desirable but have been expensive.

I added your photo to the wiki:

https://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/Sauromatum

[David Pilling]

I snapped these hairy growths in the leaf axils of a hybrid oriental lily yesterday. Can anyone tell me their name and what evolutionary advantage they may confer?

[Diane Whitehead]

I have tried growing Eremurus on a dry, occasionally sunny bank but it has never grown for me.  It might be hiding behind my rampant Cistus.

This plant is growing on top of a small mountain on Saltspring Island, B.C.  Note the abundance of sunshine and the cactus blooming over on the left.

Shall I try again?

[Martin Bohnet]

Diane, I lost my Eremurus either to too much shade with time or to late frosts - I guess the latter one is less of a problem with your oceanic climate, but they need light, light, light.

More Bletillas to show: the Bletilla 'Dark Red'

Height:	20-30 cm (0.7-1 ft)
Flower Colors:	red, purple
Life form:	corm

of this year is a little more believably red then last year's soaked version - still you need a magenta one right beside to appreciate the difference. Next one is sold as "yellow striata" - it definitely looks different than the ochraceas I know so maybe that's correct, or maybe its a hybrid of any sort.

More Orchid power is in the bog garden, where Pogonia ophioglossoides spreads quickly via stolons. In the open garden there's Gymnadenia conopsea

Height:	45-80 cm (1.5-2.6 ft)
Flower Colors:	pink, white
Flower Season:	early summer

growing strong.

To end on a non-orchid note, last one is my first flower of Clivia caulescens

- another one of my Brexit emergency shop items. Do they ever branch?

[petershaw]

These are not in my garden. I saw them at the Bonny Doon Ecological Preserve yesterday.

Toxicoscordion fremontii and Dipterostemon capitatus

[Martin Bohnet]

The current heatwave makes it difficult for some of my plants, especially the Himalaya-based Cardiocrinum giganteum

suffers, the flowers burn the minute they open, so no pictures here.  But some plants do cope better:

Hieronymiella marginata

finally flowered again, after changing the handling completely: Planting in the garden and lifting in fall proved too much stress for the plant - I now have it in a quite deep pot, and remove the soil in winter all the way down to the base - so the roots stay intact, but the bulb itself stays dry - I have good success with this method and other summer growing Amaryllids as well, e.g. Hymenocallis.

The Bog has of course enough water even though the heat is massive - Gladiolus palustris

Height:	30-60 cm (1-2 ft)
Flower Colors:	purple, white
Flower Season:	early summer
Life form:	deciduous corm

loves their wet feet - who wouldn't right now...

Not sure about the ID of this tiny Allium - flavum tauricum? huber-morathii? At least for now it seems not to be the spreading monster the basic flavum is...

Now for three Wiki-add candidates. First is another drought and heat specialist, Pterocactus tuberosus, a cactus actually dropping overground growth on yearly basis. love the warm dark gold tone of this one. Not much wiki discussion there, I'll add it sooner or later. Ophiopogon chingii is a beautiful shadow groundcover as it spreads via stolons so it can be a thug. Blue-gray berries follow. it's closely related to Liriope, which could be an indicator to add it. Last but not least of the candidates is Delphinium semibarbatum. Some sources speak of a woody rhizome, I wouldn't dare to dig up my single survivor which took three or four years from seed. It seems to be from Kasachstan, while all the current wiki species are Americans. there's another unusual thing about it: all flowers of a branch open up nearly at once. It will go dormant in a few weeks when the seeds are ripe, to return in early spring. It doens't flower every year for me

[David Pilling]

Photos from today - a dahlia - survived the coldest Winter for 10 years outside in a big pot.
A hosta.
An unknown. I grew a big bulb from a small bulb someone gave me, seems to have a hint of onion about it. Anyway it has spent the last few months producing a yard long flower spike. Flowers have yet to open. Getting easier to guess what it is, some sort of albuca

[Martin Bohnet]

Interesting to see a dahlia survive winter - how cold was your coldest winter in 10 years? I have a Datura surviving outside for a few winters now, getting monsterous. Klimate change does happen....

Hosta is another Genus I thought about bringing to the wiki like its other non-succulent cousins from Agavoideae. Problem is: species are nearly never grown, and few people know their particular hybrid cultivar - with very few exceptions on the extreme ends like huge "Empress Wu"

[David Pilling]

how cold was your coldest winter in 10 years?

Sub-zero during the daytime for about a week. Here by the sea it would not be a lot below zero, but the key thing is being below zero all the time, it gives the cold chance to permeate things.

In a more normal modern Winter here, there will be nights when the temperatures go below zero, but only for 12 hours maximum.

Damage was done, neighbour was kept busy removing a dead shrub, my passion flower vine had a big set back, but has eventually re-sprouted. People's hebes cut back.

There are plenty of cabbage palms (cordyline) around here. 10 years or slightly more back many of those were killed down to ground level, some pretty big specimens which must have taken 20 or 30 years to grow. They do come back though with split trunks. In 2023 the cordylines seem to be untouched in Blackpool, but killed elsewhere.

Something like you can work out how cold an area gets by what grows and how big it is.

Now when I was a lad, in 1963, the sea froze.

Hosta funkier than the average bulb (genus Funkia)