Do you ever wonder.
Rhododendron schlippenbachii from New Zealand seed exchange, sometimes I wonder how I ever germinated a Rhododendron from dust like seed, a Rhododendron that looks so fragile but seems to be quite hardy in a shady spot in my garden. It is approximately a meter high it will reach 4-5meters in time, native to the Korean Peninsula and adjacent regions. Pale pink flowers with deeper pink spots.
Sanguinaria canadensis belongs to the Papaveraceae family an Eastern North American rhizomatous, deciduous perennial. Certainly is an easy plant, in a semi shaded position in my garden. Not only are the flowers lovely but the scalloped leaves are just as good as they unfurl, with their silvery green backs. Sanguinaria canadensis all need a humus rich soil to grow well, and it is wise to put them in several places in the garden, to see where they will do best for you, by dividing the fleshy branched rhizomes, containing an orange sap. When I first started to grow alpine plants, I was told these plants can bleed to death with the orange sap leaking away. I have found sometimes they do loose a bit of sap, but your pieces need to be large enough to survive, don't break them up into small pieces and they should be fine, and replant straight away don't let the roots dry out.
Plant Hunters were selling Sanguinaria canadensis Tennesee Form a couple of years back, and is multiplying very well for me. It has quite a few more petals than the single form of Sanguinaria, but not nearly as many as the very beautiful double Sanguinaria canadensis Flore Pleno below it is slowly increasing and I now have two clumps growing well.
Mertensia virginica 30-60cm in a slightly moist, shaded to semi-shaded position. Mertensia virginica leaves emerge through the soil a purple, greeny, black colour and then turn a blue-green. Seed needs to be sown immediately and seed bags placed over the flower heads when they finish flowering to catch the seed as they ripen very quickly and can easily be missed. Flower buds come out pink then turn this beautiful blue, a very choice plant for the woodland.
Another little choice bulb this time Puschkinia scilloides from the Caucasus for a semi shaded position also.
Many times I have tried to grow this little bulb only to find was wrongly named and one year Marcus of Hill View Rare Plants had it for sale, of course it was correct and he had a white form that I didn't buy.
A new plant for me from Czec Republic seed Iberis aff. spruneri, doing very well.
Anemone apennina a little bulb that does not like being dried out, this plant always has this variegation to the leaf. Its seed sometime have the variegation and sometimes it doesn't I'm not sure if it is a virus or variegation but each year it comes through extremely vigourously. Of course variegation started out as a virus.
Daphne petraea x collina cuttings by Otto Original plant from Marcus, and we would love to get Daphne petraea seed but it never seems to be available from anywhere. We saw many plants of D.petraea at Blackthorn Nursery in the UK, may be someone going to the Italian Alps, Tremalzo may collect some seed one day.
To finish off an Australian native plant called Conistylis setigera approx 10cm high.
I'm not sure if the blog is a fitting place, but I know some American people read our blog, I just wanted to say our thoughts are with you, with all you have been going through, with floods, tornado's, cyclones and now a terrible shooting. I hope you find peace and solace in your gardens and plants.
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