Simple Pleasure: Narcissus pseudonarcissus.

Ah, I hope you enjoy 'Sangria,' I have read about it and seen some lovely pictures.
I hope a "truce" is arranged with the rabbit. (ie, hawk as diplomat/ombudsman).
Cheers,
Kenton

Hi Robert,
I don't have any woodland phlox with white/pink center. All mine are uniformly lilac-colored. So far, the bunnies here have not bothered them, but we live out in the woods, so they probably have something they like better (I hope!). Sounds like you did a lot of shopping for plants...dill is a good herb for swallowtail larvae.

Kenton, the little puschkinia is darling and now I can see the relative size of the caniliculatus. I haven't tried the puschkinia yet...I have blue chionodoxa and blue squill and blue anemone blanda. Is it easy, hardy, etc.? The pale color of it would be exquisite with apricot tulips or other delicately-colored blooms.

Well, I better grab a shower and get down to Mom's for the morning shift.
Susan

The naturalize extremely well. Just like Chionodoxa, but a bit later blooming and longer.
I'll send you some when they go dormant.
Kenton

Here is what was a single Puschkinia bulb in fall 04. A nice plant in spring 05, and a nice clump- seedlings to boot, in spring 06.
Kenton

Yes, it does appear they multiply rapidly. No need to pillage your beds for me, though. I think I can get them in the fall here. With postage so high, sometimes it is cheaper to buy plants than to mail them. I guess bulbs could be sent cheaper than first class, though, if dormant.
Thanks for offering them.

If a plant is rare or expensive, then trading is a wonderful thing. When I send live plants it is usually Priority mail and costs $10 or more. If I have a rare bulb you want, please do ask for some and I will be glad to send if I have extras (such as the Thalia and Ice Follies and Barrett-Browning Daffs that are taking over!). It's good to weigh the freight charges against the plant value before striking a deal.
My favorite trade is a bunch of assorted cuttings wrapped in wet paper towels, sealed in a big ziploc, then boxed up. I can root a whole bunch of exotic, tropical, otherwise unavailable plants for cheap that way.

Well, gotta get off here and check on Mom.

I didn't ask if you wanted me to send some, I just warned you that I would - as soon as they are dormant. As a poor College student, I know all sorts of ways of making shipping cheaper. I usually send things at miminum rate at the expense ofa few days, which can be counteracted with good packaging.
Kenton

Here's the violety-eyed Phlox. You can see a couple of the blue at the top.

Robert.

Have some 'Chit Chat' from my friend's Narc. collection:

Another.

Robert.

I've been watering the pseudos regularly, giving 'em what they need for next year.

I ran a very long hose down through the woods and got a few that have spread there. And then I wandered on down and watered some "Christmas fern", "Merrybells" (Uvularia), "Solomon's Seal", Trillium grandiflorum, and some "Bloodroot" (Sanguinaria canadensis). Even carried water in a huge container. We're aching for water here so......I sometimes go out of my way for favorite plants.........

The woods here are not moist ones at all, so I'm surprised and delighted that the Trilliums and bloodroot are doing ok. Not prolific by any means, but a few small clumps here and there.

Robert.

You wouldn't ahppen to know if that fern is Polystichum acrostichoides or munitum would you? Can I request a picture?

N. Puppet

Yes, that's the fern's "real" name. I'll get some pix in the next coupla days.

You asked about the fern in the pix of the stone wall (in D-mail) and I forgot to tell you it's Ebony Spleenwort", Aspleniun platyneuron. It's usually upright but over winter it can fall down a bit like lots of ferns do.

Robert.
PS Nice Daffs!

I've got more...
'Puppet'

A better picture of N. canaliculatus.

Augh. The 'Puppet' I meant to post the second time.

It's like going back in time: We're having temps in the 80's F all this last week! Spring is just a memory (though our record frost date is May 2) now and it seems like summer. Whew. It's nice to see the coolness of daffodils and tulips just emerging.
Thanks.

Robert.

I need to look up that Asplenium, I'm not familiar with it.

No one grow ferns in my valley, and I've heard big horticulturists say that they don;t grow here. In my natral styler, I'm testing a bunch of species of fern, and having success with all but one (and even that one might be coming up now, I won't know until the leaves are more unfurled). When I planted the Dennsteadtia punctobolula (spelling, who knows!?) it went chlorotic and disappeared. I then read that it liked acid. (pH 7.5-8.1 here) The Athyriums are rock-solid tough-as-nails, the Polystichums look promising, and the Dryopteris look good. I dug up a Maidenhair fernlet in a Portland ditch, bringing a seed that sprouted last fall. I ought to photograph this odd plant to get it IDed on DG.

Kenton

Polystichum munitum.

We were experiencing summer heat too, until it rained this morning. My fried Tulips feel better...

I love our local Northern maidenhair (Adiantum pedatum) and I picked up a southern maidenhair (A. capillus-venerus) at the plant shop the other day. I'm going to try to overwinter the southern maidenhair..........

In the stone wall with the Ebony Spleenwort, there were also some other baby ferns too. None were planted there either, though this year I'm going to put in some more spleenworts.

I had Japanese painted fern and crested lady's fern in pots (dragging my feet again getting them into the ground, and then's there's the voles issue). I lost the crested ladies over the winter 2004-5 but had 2 or 3 come up in the wall with the 'pictum' Japanese.

I'm misting the wall regularly now to promote mosses, lichens, and ferns. Love my rock wall!

Robert.

I hereby demand pictures.

Guess I should have got a picture of my fried tulips, LOL. We had 90+ here and very windy, and so I deadheaded them all yesterday since they were just crispy-looking.
Speaking of overwintering ferns out of our zone (Robert), I planted out my Adiantum hispidulum (Rosy Maidenhair) to see if it would make it. I mulched with pine needles. It has now sprouted lots of new growth! My agapanthus 'Peter Pan' is growing too.
http://davesgarden.com/pf/showimage/19721/
Susan

A picture for Kenton
Lilac, ragwort, phlox, bluebells, tulips:

Seems like a heatwave all over the US!

Susan: Yippee for your Rosy Maidenhair! I'm excited because I wanted to have that one too but though it was too tender.

Love the bouquet, Susan! The Mertensias are just lovely. I lost my plants a bit back (don't know if it dried out too much, got crowded out or was made into vole-food, but I enjoyed it for several years.

In renovating all the borders and beds, I've discovered survivors I thought had perished. Latest happy-making discovery: Amsonia tabermontana. I'll be moving it to a better location with a richer soil to help hold water in our southern August heat.

I also found two little bits of my deep blue Agapanthus I thought had vanished. Not sure which one it is, but it came from Monrovia. I potted the little plants up to baby them a bit. I know I had them in a too-dry spot and the soil was common unaugmented clay loam, so it's to their toughness that they are still there. I've had them for YEARS and never got a bloom and I made that not happen......I got a pot of Monrovia's "Midknight Blue" the other day. It has four shoots coming. It looks very close to the one I got way back when.

kenton, I wonder if you could grow your ferns potted up and then use a fridge/freezer to simulate a cold winter rest.......?

I'll try to get the pix done tomorrow of the wall and the ferns.

I just discovered that the voles have eaten one of my "Dizzy" bulbs. voles. Die die! I moved the other to a place it *may* be safe. You never know. (They can find their way into large pots through the drainage holes!)

Bulletin for Kenton: The "Blue Melody" Camassia are up 7-8 inches and I see buds down in the crowns, so it won't be long now! Will post pix when they bloom.

Robert.

Robert, if you ever get another mertensia, just let it go to seed and soon you will have lots of babies. For years, I deadheaded mine and then one year I did not get around to it and hundreds of volunteers appeared all over the place. (I now deadhead again, just did it yesterday in fact).
They naturalize along slow-moving rivers around our area, and that is where I got my original plant. They are so beautiful and bloom when the bleeding hearts, celandine poppies, and woodland phlox do. I have one that is still not deadheaded, so if you want I can try to save some seed for you. Let me know real soon, so they don't scatter all over the place, LOL.
As for Amsonia...I have seen pictures and admired the plant, but don't have it. Does it bloom for a good while?
And Agapanthus...I have a bigger type that survives, but has not bloomed except twice in 5 years. The Peter Pan smaller one was in a pot with flower buds on it when I bought it last year and it bloomed really well for such a small plant. But it may never bloom again either. They supposedly require being rootbound to bloom, but I wonder if it is our shorter growing season that is causing the lack of blooms.

Would love to have some Mertensia seed! Save me some!!!!

It's been a while since I saw the Amsonia bloom, but as I recall, it bloomed over a fairly long part of the summer. Weeks on end. It turns a nice bright yellow in the fall.

Never noticed if it seeded or not, but if it does, I'll save some for you in return for the Mertensia.

I think my Mertensia was in too hot a place. I remember it wilting a lot during the day, and of course, they don't hang around long during the season anyway. But I'll bet a vole (cuss-cuss) ate it!

Robert.

Christmas ferns in the woods.

R.

Another fern. This one and the next are on a very steep dry bank.

Mis-read your earlier post.
They're Polystichum acrostichoides.

The stonewall ferns.

A bit closer. All volunteer ferns.
Notice the Begonia grandis ssp evansiana that came from seed too.

Trillium.

Herewith a Canadian offering... my mother created a fern garden in this disused mica stripmine at our cottage. She populated it with 23 indigenous ferns, about 20 years ago. I took these shots on Sunday when we went up to the lake for the day.

There are treasures here, some haven't even sprouted yet. Others winter over.

There are tiny ones. My mother knows all the names; I have yet to learn them!

Pardon me for intruding on your conversation. I have really enjoyed your chat!

andycdn~

Glad you joined in. You haven't "intruded" at all.

The pictures are really an inspiration!

We've gone here and there in this thread, on and off topic, but I think we've all been having an enjoyable time. Feel free to speak up anytime!

The second pictured fern is very interesting looking. If you can get some pix later after the foliage has flushed out a bit, I'd love to see that one in particular, as well as the planting as a whole. You'll have to get the name of the ferns, though, cause I for one want to know what's-what! ;-)

Robert.

I promise, Robert. I only have three at home, here in town: a maidenhair, a Christmas and a Royal. So I have no problem identifying those.

In these shots, the fuzzy one is probably an interrupted or a cinnamon. The mini is an ebony spleenwort, I think. I'll ask my mother next time we're there together; maybe I'll have to draw a diagram! The mine also has a good clump of Jack-in-the-pulpit. I'll take pics as the season unfolds.

Our mertensia blooms occasionally. It's one of those plants my mother and I particularly like, so my evil brother manages to drive over it with the lawn mower whenever he can. He did the same to a volunteer lobelia cardinalis we were trying to protect.

Has anyone grown a wood poppy, Stylophorum dephyllum? It's on my wish list... I think it would look great in the mine.

Robert, I will save the mertensia seed for you.

Andycdn, I do grow the wood poppy ( I call it celandine poppy), and I can catch seeds from it for you if you want. It seeds prolifically and they come up everywhere in watered beds. To keep it blooming, it needs constant deadheading, so I usually cut off all the seedpods as soon as they start to form. But I have some in the woods that I will try to let go.

Here's a link to wood poppy:
http://davesgarden.com/pf/showimage/19603/

Here is a columbine from seed I got from New Zealand:

Thanks Susan!

Beautiful Columbine.

Here's some of my A. canadensis.

Robert.

Aquilegia grows wild at the cottage... this photo shows some just starting to leaf out around this rock. The plantlets are everywhere, and grow to about a foot high. I'll post more pics when it's in bloom.

A shot of the view from the deck of the cottage. In a week or two the Narcissus should be in bloom. On Sunday there was only one lonely little Tête-a-tête and a white muscari.

I have big plans for this rock outcropping...