Charming July vignettes

This past weekend I visited a few charming gardens in the area of the Niagara escarpment. Below are some of the lovely photos taken. The day was sweltering,  however the air was clean , and the sky that azure blue of summer. What a perfect day indeed!

Primula bullyena- Deirdre and David Tomlinson's garden

 

Green Tree Frog hanging out in a Veronicastrum sp.- Native garden of Darcie McKelvey

 

Echinacea tennesseensis- at home in the alvar at Darcie McKelvey's

 

Actaea sp. ( formerly Cimicifuga)- Darcie McKelvey's garden

Nymphaea sp.- Water Lily pond in the garden of Liz & George Knowles

 

Gentiana sp.- garden of Liz and George Knowles

 

Kniphofia sp.- garden of Liz and George Knowles

Gypsophila aretioides caucasica- scree bed- Liz and George Knowles

Ramonda myconi- 4 basal rosettes carrying seed- scree bed- Liz and George Knowles

Lilium formosanum pricei- This is on my list. Stunning, at full bloom in the scree bed- Liz and George Knowles garden.

Dysosma versipelle- formerly Podophyllum - a rare Chinese Mayapple- immense umbrella like leaves. Liz and George's garden

Lilium taliense- Liz and George's garden

 

Prunus maackii- in fruit- fabulous Cherry Tree from China. The yellow-bellied sapsuckers can kill these trees, as they pound numerous holes in the bark extracting sap.

Toronto Gesneriad Convention 2013

The North American Gesneriad convention played host to Toronto this year. This is the 57th convention to be held. The show was lovely, with many beautiful, and beautifully grown plants. All manner of gesneriads were represented, including many rare, seldom grown genera. The many Streptocarpus cultivars provided a kaleidoscope of outstanding colour, as well as the campanulate Sinningias. I myself grow many gesneriads, with a particular penchant to alpine gesneriads, and gesneriads from China and Brazil.

Sinningia 'Deep Purple Dreaming'

Streptocarpus 'Givence'

Streptocarpus 'Sashen Ka'

Streptocarpus 'Ambra'

Streptocarpus 'Eva'

Streptocarpus 'Escada Magnetizm'

Sinningia 'An's Nyx'

Paradrymonia sp.- grown in a terrarium as it requires extremely high humidity

Gasteranthus anomalus- also grown in a terrarium



Achimenes misera

Columnea 'Indian Feather'

Sinningia 'Flamenco Apricot Bouquet'

Sinningia  'Kevin Garnett'

Sinningia aghensis

Sinningia aghensis- close-up

June garden visit

I spent the most splendid day yesterday in the garden of Arie Vanspronsen and Lee Bolton. Their garden is a real collectors' garden containing alpines, hardy cacti, succulents, saxifragas, woodlands plants, trees, shrubs, and herbaceous perennials. The scree beds were built, and designed by Arie. He has also built a greenhouse which houses many cuttings of various hardy Cactus species, which will be planted in his new cactus bed scheduled to be built in July. Looking forward to returning to see the new cactus bed.

Troughs of cacti, succulents, and conifers

Scree bed built by Arie with many choice alpines-Soldanella, Lewisia, Leontopodium. and Pelargonium endlicherianum in background top right

Scree bed- Thymus, Buxus, Opuntia

Saxifraga sieberi

Buckiniczia cabulica a gorgeous statice from Afghanistan which is monocarpic



Sempervivum cultivars with Orostachys spinosus

Beautiful lace-cap Hydrangea

Cotinus- Smoke Bush

Echinocereus reichenbachii- hardy cactus species in the scree bed

Scree bed that Arie created. The greenhouse in the background.

Scree bed with a lovely Edraianthus graminifolius, Heterotheca jonesii, Campanula sp. 

Delosperma modderpoort- a gorgoeus cultivar from Holland, which I am coveting

'

Bouquet of Clematis 'Roguchi', and C. 'Princess Diana'

Campanula punctata

Summer Flowering South African Bulbs

Summer has arrived, and with it a great deal of rain. The rains are over for now, and the sun is shining gloriously. More rain, however is yet to come. We had a very cold, and wet Spring, and as a result the summer-growing South African bulbs were late to sprout. I thought I would share the wealth of some of the Summer-Rainfall region bulbs from South Africa's Eastern Cape province.

Apodilirion macowanii

Ammocharis coranica

Scadoxus puniceus

 

Cyrtanthus macowanii

 

Cyrtanthus epiphyticus

Watsonia confusa

 

Moraea alpina

Rhodohypoxsis baurii

Galtonia viridiflora

 

G. viridiflora

 

Eucomis grimshawii

Colchicum striatum ( formerly Androcymbium striatum)

 

Crinum moorei

 

Gladiolus ochroleucus

 

Crinum campanulatum