Convallaria and Rock Garden Plants.

Convallaria and Rock Garden plants.

Convallaria majalis Flore Plena in flower at Margs garden, on the cool shady side of the house.

Convallaria majalis and Convallaria majalis variegata below both in Margs garden.

Convallaria majalis Rosea I have in large drifts I never poo poo these easy plants as they always put on a magnificent display, and there is always someone who cannot grow any of the Lily of the Valley.

Aquilegia canadensis nana a lovely little Aquilegia only 10cm high and will grow and seed right up against the house where very little else will grow.
If ever you can find the three little printed leaflets put out by Walter E. TH. Ingwersen and Will Ingwersen on "The Genus Aquilegia" the Hand-list published about 1949 no date on the leaflet, grab them, they are full of descriptive information. A lot of the Aquilegia described in these leaflets, I don't know if they are in cultivation any more. Apparently there were discoveries in Russia that had not been described yet, and since its publication there will be all the Aquilegia's in China.

Dianthus Whatfield Wisp covered in flower and Dianthus sp. Japan below.

Dianthus pavonius from seed, one I grow in a trough it does get a little large for a trough, but I don't want to loose it as it is the true form. The flowers are bearded and the colour varies from purple through to pale pink with the buff reverse on the backs of the petals. Which is how you tell you have the genuine thing. From Italy, France and Switzerland, click on photo to see the beard.

Gypsophila repens a lovely little underrated ground cover with deep pink flowers, fading to pale pink and leaves are a soft grey green, spreads to approx. 60-80cm wide by 10cm high. From central and Southern Europe amongst mountain rocks, an easy little Rock Garden plant.

Phlox adsurgens Wagon Wheels from a Tasmanian friend.

Leiophyllum buxifolium in full flower, a house warming gift from Otto when we moved in to this house. Likes morning sun.

Geranium sanguineum var striatum next to an unnamed Veronica. 

The Rock garden in full colour, which always makes me smile, when I had my nursery people would say "Oh I don't want any thing in yellow, I only grow flowers of White, pink and blue" and I grow every colour under the rainbow and love them all.

Linum x Gemmell's hybrid from seed so may be a little different when grown from original plant. A hybrid between L. elegans and L. campanulatum and that lovely large white flowering bush beside it is Ptilotrichum spinosum from Spain, which we found growing in Grazalema, but not nearly as good as this, just loves this position full sun. Smells of honey, flowers all year and available from Craig at Gentiana Nursery.

A lovely little shrubby Thyme I collected seed of in Spain.

 Semiaquilegia ecalcarata does well in my garden seeding gently, semi shade and a plant that I love, the little nodding spurless flowers are so quaint and old fashioned. Over the years there has been a lot of controversy about its name, but it is listed in the Encyclopaedia of Alpines so I feel confident that we can use this name. In 1989 the Botanist Maximowicz found it growing in eastern Kansu and named it, but it had been described and named by Sprague & Hutch previously. Also Miss Eastwood in 1891 had found a spurless Aquilegia at the head of Johnston Canyon in Colorado which she named A.ecalcarata but luckily this was renamed to A.micrantha var. mancosana, no wonder they keep renaming plants as more records are found of plant name, makes it very confusing for the rest of us though.

Semiaquilegia adoxioides raised by Aaron as Semiaquilegia Linnett Lavender. But as usual that is not a legitimate name it is just simply Semiaquilegia adoxioides about 10-12 cm high just as lovely as ecalcarata only white-pale lavender, scarcely spurred flowers. found in China, Korea and southern Japan at medium altitudes.