June blooms in the rock garden

This is a close up of a bloom on Collomia grandiflora this plant grows to about 12" tall by 8" wide and is an annual. I love the blue color of the anthers.

Here is another blue flower suitable for the dry, dryland rock garden.... Eriastrum densifolium var. austromontanum

This is a plant that I'm very pleased has survived. It's another dryland species that is a bit persnickety about drainage and I've killed a handful of these already. This single plant has been blooming since early May.... Cryptantha johnstonii.

I winter sowed my Phyteuma orbiculare and scheuchzeri (both from NARGS) last year at the end of January. Scheuchzeri did not emerge. This year, I planted last year's seed of scheuchzeri and a different batch of scheuchzeri (from a trade), and sieberi. But I didn't get them planted until March 25, so they didn't get much of a cold treatment. I think the first accession of scheuchzeri was just bad seed, as it again did not germinate while the other batch did. Sieberi came up easily too.

Whether or not this is the right way, I plant the seed in a regular alpine mix, barely cover the seed, and top off with grit. I have used granite grit and limestone grit. Both are fine. They get sealed inside a plastic bag until I see the first seedling emerge, when the bag is opened, and removed in a few days.

Lastly a blue flower I purchased as Gentiana kolakovskyi.

Leftwood thank you for the information. Looks like I did everything right except add the baggie. I've wondered if I couldn't use some type of clear rubbermaid container for this purpose, so I can accomodate more than one pot at a time.

By the way I see you had a birthday back on June 9th. A very belated happy birthday wish to you.

And June_Ontario seems to have the same birthday as Todd. Hope you had a great birthday as well June.

Many (and maybe most) winter sowers do. The difference is with alpines you need to keep a close eye on germination and remove the lid immediately. So if you feel like unstacking and restacking every day or so to check for germination, more power to ya.

Winter sowers also use translucent containers. I've even seen on the verge of opaque. A friend tells me that if the container is translucent enough so you can see the shadow of plants in there, then it's all good. She showed me some of hers, and the seedlings were healthy. But I wouldn't recommend it for alpines. Stay with the clear. As you know, stretching for light is more detrimental for this group of plants.

And Happy Birthday June_Ontario!

I didn't realize this thread was here when I started my June blooms thread...some great alpines here! and many I either don't have or are just barely budding for me. I'll add my Phyteuma orbiculare here. I grew it two years ago and it is finally blooming this year.

And check this out...this is Echium amoenum I grew last year from seed. I never thought it would survive the winter. Too bad its biennial. I'll have to save seed for sure. I love it! It about 18" tall.

Not that I would, but I didn't know there were red Echiums. Nice.

As simple and "stupid" a plant as it is, I still like the European invader, Echium vulgare.

Echium amoenum is a fun plant, that the bumble bees love. I believe it's actually a perennial and the second year bloom is even better. Watch the seed set as this is an aggressive reseeder, especially in a gravel mulch.

haven't had a chance to check in for a while. great plants & pics, everyone :0)

here's my Pinus strobus 'Horsford' from my earlier post above, finally planted. to the right is Sedum spurium 'John Creech'. I also put in a couple of tiny edelweiss seedlings that I wintersowed.

on the outside fringes of the rock garden, Sempervivum 'Kalinda' is blooming

The sempervivum flowers are lovely aren't they? Here is one of mine.

Also flowering now is allium insubricum - gorgeous!

I've been trying for years to get the real insubricum but every time I sow seeds it ends up being something else...cyathophorum var. farreri mostly!

This is Aquilegia buergeriana 'Calimero'...a lovely dwarf..it would make a good companion to flabellata 'Mini Star'.

Galanthophile - those sedum blooms are lovey! As is the allium.

Todd - very cute. Are you going to save seeds?

Tam

Yes Tammy, this one breeds true...if some other pollen doesn't sneak in! I hope to collect seed from a number of the columbines. If successful, I'll let you (all) know in case you would like some!