Dictamnus albus var. purpureus

Dictamnus albus var. purpureus blooming now in my front border with alliums

Wider view of Dictamnus in front border

     One of the great things about gardening is that you never really know everything there is to know about growing plants, even if you think you do.  Early in my gardening career I read about Dictamnus albus var. purpureus, also known as the pink burning bush, and I had briefly grown it then.  But back in the day it had not impressed me, probably because I never let it get big enough to perform well and because I hadn't put it in the right place.  Then a few years ago I was visiting Dancing Oaks Nursery, which I wrote about here, and they had one of these gas plants growing in their garden and I thought it was beautiful.  Then they told me it was drought tolerant, and I was hooked.
     So when I found some well grown plants of this in a local nursery I snapped them up and planted them in my front border.  They have done well there, without any supplemental summer water and in an area frequented by deer.  They just keep getting better from year to year.
     As you can see from the pictures, the plants have handsome foliage which stays nice looking all year long until they die down for the winter.  As I was working around them recently, I noticed that they had a wonderful citrus like odor. 
     They are commonly called burning bush because they give off essential oils which, it is said, will ignite if you hold a match to the base of the inflorescence, making a gassy noise and emitting a delicious aroma (or so says Christopher Lloyd in his book Garden Flowers). I have never tried this.
     By the way, Christopher Lloyd describes this plant as "one of the most handsome and distinctive hardy perennials in the repertory".   I would have to agree.

Giant Echium Flowers!

Self sown echiums blooming now in my garden

Closeup of flower tower

     I have previously written about some self sown echiums which are growing in my front border this year here.  As I mentioned in my last entry, I now think these are a hybrid sometimes called 'Mr. Happy' rather than Echium pininana, as I had previously thought since the flowers on pininana are generally blue or purple, rather than pink.  Also, I don't think I have ever grown a straight Echium pininana and had it flower, whereas I have gown Mr. Happy to flowering before.  However, I could be totally wrong about this. I am no expert on echium identification.  As I mentioned in my previous entry on these echiums, they are seedlings from long ago echiums, so their parentage is not at all certain.
     In any event, as you can see from the pictures these are giant spectacular flowers!

More Front Border

Front border with alliums in bloom and eremurus getting ready to bloom

Another view of front border with variegated yucca aloifolia or gloriosa and tall echiums on the right

Nolina nelsoniis with Limnanthes douglasii underneath

Scilla peruviana with leaves nibbled by the deer and pink California poppy

     As I previously wrote about here I have been working hard in my front border.  It is a labor intensive space because it is so large and because I rely on self sowers quite a bit for its color and impact. Today's entry is another report on its progress.  As you can see by the first picture above, the alliums are now in bloom and the eremurus have sent up their bloom stalks, but the flowers have not yet opened. As the second picture shows, the big foliage mound in the center is Lobelia tupa, which is now over a foot tall.  It, of course, will not bloom until quite a bit later.  The first and second pictures also show two of my biggest restios--Rhodocoma capensis--with their sort of brownish seed heads around the edges of the pictures. The second picture also shows how big the echiums are which I blogged about here.  While I said those echiums were pininana in that blog, I now think they are, in fact, a hybrid known as Mr. Happy.
     These first two pictures also show a variegated yucca aloifolia or gloriosa, depending on who you ask.  I will have a future entry on this yucca, but suffice it to say it is no longer one of my favorite plants.
     The third picture is of my Nolina nelsoniis which I previously wrote about here.  These have been underplanted with Limnanthes douglasii, a California native annual which self sows so reliably and thickly that it might as well be a perennial. The fourth picture shows one of the few remaining Scilla peruvianas I have in this border.  If you read my previous entry on these here you might remember that I had to move them into the fenced in portion of my garden to protect them from the deer.  As you can see from the photo, the deer have munched some of their leaves, although, thankfully, have not yet eaten the flowers.  I suppose they will wait til the flowers are fully open to eat them!

Echium amoenum

Echium amoenum blooming now in my garden

     Blooming now in my garden is a great little echium which seems to be more common in nurseries than in the past, probably because it is being promoted as a Plant Select 'winner' of 2010.  Plant Select is a cooperative program of Denver Botanical Gardens and Colorado State University to seek out and distribute the best plants for the intermountain region to the high plains. I have found that most plants promoted by this organization are very hardy and drought tolerant, and that is certainly true of this echium. Indeed, it is supposed to be hardy down to zone 4.
     Looking at this picture, you might wonder how this echium differs from Echium russicum which I wrote about here.  While they seem to be very similar, the main differences that I have observed are that Echium russicum seems to have slightly taller spikes, and it does not seem to have such a bushy base.  Other than those slight differences, to the hoi polloi they look pretty much the same.  They both seem to like similar conditions--sun and well drained soil.  Echium amoenum is said to be tolerant of clay soils, but in my garden both plants perform well in similar soil conditions. Indeed, I wouldn't be surprised if these are considered to be synonyms of the same plant, although I have not yet gotten any confirmation of that fact.
     I have grown Echium amoenum for many years in my front border, and like most echiums it is not bothered by the deer.  I have forgotten where I got the first plants of this echium, but they are still alive and doing well in the front garden.  I bought 5 more of these plants last year at Swanson's nursery and the plant in the picture is one of those.  I also recently acquired more from Bay Hay, a local Bainbridge Island nursery.  This means that this plant is available from mainstream nurseries.  If your local nursery does not carry it you can always ask them if they can get it for you.

Lewisias in my sister's garden

Lewisia, probably a cotyledon hybrid, in my sister's garden

Another colored Lewisia in my sister's garden

Lewisia with Yucca linearifolia

View of entire bed in my sister's garden

Scilla peruviana about to bloom

     My sister, who lives in Salem, Oregon has a bed in her garden that is between her driveway and an alley.  When she first moved in there were two large pines in this bed.  She had them taken out and has created a very interesting rock garden in this area.  She did nothing to amend the soil here except to add some gravel on the surface.  She does not water this bed in the summer, either.
     She has planted this little rock garden with some of my favorite plants--alliums,  eremurus, and recently, Scilla peruviana.  The stars, however, at least at this time of the year, are the lewisias.  Lewisias, for those who don't know, are small plants native to the Pacific Northwest at usually high elevations. These plants, however, are not that difficult to grow provided they have sufficiently well drained soil and a fairly open situation.  They are well suited to rock gardens. The ones most commonly found in nurseries are forms of Lewisia cotyledon which is native to the Siskiyou Mountains of Southern Oregon and Northern California.  That is probably what the ones in my sister's garden are.
     As you can see from the pictures, the colors on these lewisias are clear bright jewel tones.  The flowers last a very long time.  They have been blooming as pictured for at least a month so far.
     I have grown lewisias from time to time in my garden, but I never found a good spot for them.  They always seemed to get swamped by other plants.  I recently, however, ordered several kinds from Beaver Creek Greenhouses which has an exceptionally long list of Lewisias.  They have arrived and are great looking plants.

Cypripedium hybrid 'Aki Light"

Cypripedium "Aki Light" blooming in my garden now

     I have previously written about cypripediums here.  Today, I want to focus on one of the hybrid cypripediums that is blooming now in my garden.  As I have previously mentioned, I have found the hybrids to be easier garden plants than the straight species.  This particular hybrid in the picture is called 'Aki Light' and it is a Frosch hybrid from Germany.  Frosch is one of the leading hybridizers of cypripediums and most of the hybrids on the market now come from his breeding program. 
     'Aki Light' is a cross between C. macranthos and C. pubescens.  Apparently, the flower color can vary somewhat from year to year and from plant to plant.  'Aki Light' is supposed to have large flowers for a cyp and this one certainly seems to be larger than some of my other cyp flowers.  According to what I have read online, it is supposed to have twice as large flowers as another relatively commonly available hybrid called 'Gisela', which I also have in my garden.
     Cypripediums are not cheap plants, and one of the reasons for this is that the nursery trade must grow baby cyps in flasks in laboratories--they are extremely difficult to grow from seed otherwise.  I suppose this is true of many if not all orchids.  While some orchids, such as Dactylorhizas, self sow in a garden, if one sets out to deliberately sow them, they are much more difficult.  I suppose that given the right conditions even cyps would self sow, but that happy event has not yet occurred in my garden.
     In any event, to grow cyps in large quantities, one must buy flasked seedlings from a lab, and then grow them on for several years before they are big enough to fend for themselves in a garden.  This whole process is fraught with difficulties in keeping the plants alive, and hence, the high price of cyps. 

Telopea Truncata with Mass Quantities of Flowers!

Telopea Truncata blooming in my garden now

     I have previously written about Telopea truncata, an evergreen shrub from Tasmania here and here.  This shrub has grown in my garden for upwards of 10 years, and it has never suffered from the cold.  This year it is putting on its best floral show ever--there are 12 of these great red flowers on it!  So maybe I am exaggerating when I say that this constitutes mass quantities of blossom, but that is the most that this shrub has ever had--three was the maximum number in years past.  I expect that as this plant gets older it will have more and more of these blossoms (I hope).  As I wrote before, my specimen is not particularly well shaped or beautiful, but I must admit that these flowers make up for that shortcoming.  Also, as I have previously written, these shrubs are very rare here, but this one has performed so well in my garden that I think more people should try to find them and grow them.