OT - other interesting plants in the garden
OK, I don't hear about people growing these much on here - perhaps they only like Northern CA?
Anyway, here are pictures of my corydalis (I actually also have a purple one and a pink one, but they are seedlings and not ready for portraits yet. I read that they are difficult to grow and die in the heat, but in the shade at the bottom of our front stairs they do fine. These are 4 and 5 years old respectively.
Cerinth - so interesting! The purple blooms are actually leaves. I planted one last year, and now I have 4 (I of which popped up 12 feet away in another bed).
What different and interesting plants to you have in your garden that no one every talks about on here?
Jackie
Comments (20)
mariannese
6 years agoIf your yellow corydalis is the same species as the one we have over here in Europe, (new species name Pseudofumaria lutea), it's a weed here. I don't mind it so much as it flowers the whole summer. I keep it to brighten deep shade. The blue Corydalis elata x flexuosa Craighton Blue is not the least invasive and has been difficult to grow for me. I wish it would take after the yellow one just a little.
User
6 years ago...we grow both of those over here although I don't have them... Corydalis lutea and Cerinthe major 'purpurascens' would be the two most popular... I see the Cerinthe quite a bit...
...this plant is one of my rarest, in fact I think it's quite hard to obtain right now but I love it as it survives long dry periods and needs no irrigation... I think it's a native of the Balkans and Greece...
..it goes by the long winded name of Petrorhagia illyrica subsp. heynaldiana 'Pink Starlets'...maybe that's why we don't see it much... but it used to be called Tunica so could be better known under that...
..whatever, it flowers from May to October and I love it under a rose or two.... here [ignoring the yellow viola]... under 'Octavia Hill'... it's rather like a Gypsophila ground cover...
Related Discussions
Maybe of interest? How much should you plant in your garden?
Comments (11)The recommendations in the article may be useful when it comes to planning the garden, but they greatly oversimplify what is a very complex question. I agree with Dave that a more accurate method is to use nutritional guidelines to estimate each family member's caloric intake and then plant according to that. Perhaps an even better metric (when the issue is examined through the lens of comparing home-grown with store-bought) is to use US RDA vitamin requirements instead of calories. This would account for the fact that fresh home-grown fruits and vegetables are generally more nutritious that those which are bought from the supermarket. For example, pick vitamin C... As an adult male, my RDA of vitamin C is 90mg, or 32,850mg/year. Now estimate and add up the vitamin C present in all the fruits and veggies which I ate from my garden this year. Divide it by 32,850 and multiply by 100 and you will get a reasonable estimate of the percentage of nutrition I got from my garden. This also doesn't account for changes in taste BECAUSE OF planting a garden. For instance, there are those of us who don't like the flavor of store-bought tomatoes, but will happily mow down home grown 'maters like candy. Similarly, you may have never even seen kohlrabi on a store shelf, but plant it on a lark one year and discover that you love it. Gardening changes how we eat. I would also point out the obvious - that the article ignores meat, oils, condiments, etc. I'm not criticizing the article - it is actually a good starting point for those wishing to become more self-sufficient. I would just make the point that it's an iterative process, whereby you make the decisions about what to plant based on your own family's eating habits. (For those who may be interested, I grappled with this issue quite a bit in my book Garden Imperative. Link below.) Here is a link that might be useful: Garden Imperative...See MoreOther plants blooming this week OT
Comments (9)VERY Pretty KIM. Ilove the CLEMATIS. I have that Red one, too.Mine all bloomed earlier and finished for now.They will bloom later in the year again.I planted about 14 this spring, that I grew from seeds,so its going to take a while before they get going good.The Dutch Iris are pretty.I use to have a lot of them, too, but, these men my daughter has sent here from time to time to cut my grass, also cut the iris down too, so this year I have not seen any come up.. Jean...See MoreFor all gardeners interested in native plants
Comments (4)I found out that they are going to raffle off the hypertufa creations, the rain barrel, and a few other donated items. Oh, and there are also going to be boxed lunches available, which is great because going out for a bite would be very cold work this weekend!...See MoreInteresting RHS study re plants for pollinators in gardens
Comments (4)Thank you for this, Woody. We have an interesting set of variables in the UK - although we are an island, we have been enthusiastically importing plants for 500 years - I was at my local botanics the other day, lurking round the 'chronological' beds and was startled to see the history of plant arrivals laid out so clearly - but then, as a maritime nation with imperial ambition, not so surprising. We also suffered late glaciation in the last ice-age which severely limited native diversity, certainly from mainland europe, so we basically squeezed a fraction of geological time into a few centuries of avid collecting...and finally, the gulf stream has blessed us with a mild and temperate nation - although we are somewhere on the same latitude as Moscow or southern Scandinavia (z5), the oceanic currents have lifted us into a forgiving z8. We are also very small (but crowded, with only 1/40 as much landmass as the US. Consequently, while the debate regarding natives, invasives and ecological diversity has been elevated in the US, native plants have never really gained much traction here - not least because of the general paucity of garden-worthy contenders...so we are coming at this issue with entirely different assumptions and expectations...for which |I am glad since, although I lack formal scientific training, I do have eyes to see which are telling me that life is both tenacious and adaptable. Not having the vast and empty land masses in the UK, we have never really taken the issues of invasive plants to heart, apart from a small number of obvious contenders, most of them aquatic - Flora and I have often commented on the continental differences here and in the US - so we are coming at this question purely in terms of pollinators. An example which chimes with my personal experience: I garden in the one tiny part of the UK which still hosts the swallowtail butterfly - for one reason or another, this butterfly has gone down an evolutionary dead-end of depending on one difficult and elusive food plant...which also only grows in this area of undisturbed waterways...and as such, they are rarer than hen's teeth - I have seen only one (this June) in my entire life...and yet, the continental swallowtail has a much wider range of caterpillar food plants (although still in the apiaceae family) and, as climate changes are afoot, we are seeing odd sightings of this warmer-blooded butterfly cousin...and so butterfly conservationists are quickly planting up more umbels since if the 2 species have a chance to meet, to breed or even, in extremis, our butterfly may be forced to adapt - LIFE WILL FIND A WAY. And not only do I enthusiastically grow fennel (one of the continental's favourite foods) I am also growing milkweed because you never know. Conversely, in order to deal with one of our more troubling invasives, Japanese knotweed, plans have been afoot to bring in a particular variety of Japanese beetle which predates on this plant...and we are assured that as soon as the knotweed plants are completely eaten, the beetle will also die out. I am not reassured...although this is not THE japanese beetle of wanton wholesale plant destruction (we are told) I cannot help being sceptical that these 'biological controls' are simply going to lie down and vanish. Life is also tenacious....See More
nikthegreek
6 years ago
fig_insanity Z7a E TN
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agoMelissa Northern Italy zone 8
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agoUser
6 years agoMelissa Northern Italy zone 8
6 years ago
ingrid_vc so. CA zone 9
6 years agonikthegreek
6 years agojacqueline9CA
6 years agoHere's another one which just comes up in my garden - lunaria. Also called money plant, because it makes seed pods in the Fall which you can rub the cover off, and the result is a dried branch covered with 1 inch diameter discs which are pretty.
Here it is today.
Alana8aSC
6 years agobluegirl_gw
6 years agoBeautiful!
Every year I'm blown away by the sheer mass of blooms the pink "primroses" put on --Oneothera speciosa. Don't throw things at me. Sure, they're invasive, but in the right spot, they're priceless. I needed them to cover slopes of caliche in full sun--and look pretty, with no water or care--& they do it in spades. Make sort of a living mulch, keeping the soil moist & cool for the roses & other things planted within them.
I tried the beautiful cerinthe, but it croaked. Seen the corydalis growing native--hmmm, that's pretty--need to put some in the beds.The regular nemophila (baby blue eyes) & 5 spot make a big show until hot weather.
This veronica persica grows all over. Tiny thing, makes shiny green mats just an inch or two high One of the first things to bloom. Sparkling blue flowers.
Not unusual, but I love this how this patch of lamb's ear shows off Archduke Charles. There's a purplish penstemon clump behind on the right.
And I got inspired to try some of the species tulips (I'm looking at you, Alana :-D--love the pic of you & your Dad). We have too short & mild a winter for the regular ones, but several of the species are supposed to be happy. The T. linifolia was particularly spectacular--weeks & weeks of brilliant color. This whole pot was eventually covered in bloomsThese little species daffs--N. bulbocodium--are tucked around various roses
Since I'm new to this zone, I throw lots of things out to see if they'll do. Larkspurs, poppies, sweet peas & the native wildflowers have done great.
I like lizard tail! Makes me smile just to see the funny possumtail blooms. Smells nice, too.
This little native *weed* is 4 nerve daisy, aka bitterweed, (hymenoxys or tetraneuris)
It literally blooms all year. Only thing it insists on is full sun. Very nice little plant for the flower garden.
Jasminerose, California, USDA 9b/Sunset 18
6 years agobluegirl_gw
6 years agoJasminerose, California, USDA 9b/Sunset 18
6 years agolast modified: 6 years ago
Sheila z8a Rogue Valley OR
6 years agoAlana8aSC
6 years agoJasminerose, California, USDA 9b/Sunset 18
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agoSheila z8a Rogue Valley OR
6 years ago
Alana8aSC