2011-05 Around the Garden

A friend sent me a plant of Iris lacustris, that he has been propagating, last Fall as a gift. The English name for this iris is dwarf lake iris. It is federally threatened. It only grows in the lake margins of Lake Michigan and Lake Huron in Michigan and Wisconson (95% of the 60 total sites occur in Michigan). Development around the lakes is the biggest threat. The leaves are a massive 4inches tall and the flower is about the size of a quarter. I'm looking forward to a lot more flowers next year.


Speaking of far away plants, I collected an Aster seed pod from the Bull Run Battlefield in VA last summer. They are fast!


A bunch of my second year Castilleja minata are blooming or starting to bloom. I grew these from seed from S. OR. The grasses act as host, I hope.


Shockingly red! Asteranthera ovata comes from Chile and likes shade. It's not quite hardy here, so it will live in the greenhouse. My camera had a really hard time focusing because of the extreme color saturation. Two more flowers on the way.


A Collinsia (grandiflora?) from S. OR. First year from seed.


Downingia elegans comes from Mt Hood. The plants are seasonally flooded during the winter and appear after the water recedes in May. The whole lake bed turns purple. These were seeds from white flowered plants which obviously did not come true.


My Drosera callistos are putting on a good show. Each flower opens at about 11am and is closed by 3pm.


Edraianthus montenegrinus is a little scree plant from the republic of Montenegro. Very cute.


Lewisia tweedyi is still blooming strong.


Lewisia leeana blooming for the first time. Each flower is about the size of a dime.


We have several flowers on both of the Pawpaw trees, Asimina triloba.


A hypertufa pot I made last fall and planted this last weekend. It worked pretty well so I'll make some more this summer. Hypertufa is a mix of concrete, peat and perlite. It's relatively lightweight compared to a similarly sized terracotta. The plants are seedlings from S. OR, for the most part: Iris bracteata, an Arabis, an Aspidotis densa, a Penstemon, a Lewisia, a Gentiana septemfida, etc...


The Eschscholzia caespitosa are open. Very nice.


More to come.