Tangled Branches: Cultivated
happenings in and around my zone 6b gardens in northern Virginia and in central Virginia
Friday, June 01, 2007
End-of-May Flowers
Just a few flower pictures from the last day in May in northern Virginia.
Oenothera missouriensis. A somewhat sloppy sprawling plant, but look at those flowers.
First larkspur flowers. This is the variety 'Blue Cloud', with a very airy, open habit. They self-sowed at the front edge of a flower bed and I let them stay.
Unknown Clematis. This was from a package at Costco. The packages was supposed to contain 2 varieties. If there were 2 varieties, then they look verrrrry similar to each other, and do not look like either photo on the package. I've forgotten what varieties they were supposed to be.
I planted several rosebay rhododendrons to screen the view of the neighbors' swingset. After 7 or 8 years they're starting to do their job, but now it may be getting too shady where they're planted - the blooms are a bit sparse. This may be the variety 'Roseum'.
This is a daylily from Costco. What? It doesn't look like a daylily? It's a very rare one with small blue flowers. Looks something like a Tradescantia. Beware of packaged plants from Costco.
On the other hand, I might never have had a Tradescantia if this "daylily" hadn't turned out to be one, and I never would have known about these nifty feathery stamens.
15 Comments:
Be careful with spiderwort - it can be VERY INVASIVE! I have seen a few varieties that keep to themselves, but all the ones that showed up in my garden do not. They multiply rapidly and the root system gets so tough that I actually cracked a shovel trying to dig them out!
Very lovely flower though :)
Pretty larkspur, lloks like it belongs in a faerie garden
Entangled, the buyer of clematis at Costco, who expects botanical accuracy! I love clematis so ANY I can get my hands on I would be happy-lucky you who have a choice. They don't sell these sort of marginal plants for our climate, as they simply die on most people, so those of us who can take care of them suffer from deprivation of opportunity! The larkspur IS quite pretty.
That primrose is lovely... do you find them to be as aggressive spreaders as some report?
I giggled at the pictures of your, ahem, rare daylily. But I've never noticed those feathery stamens before on the spiderwort so I appreciated the closeup. :)
Sylvana: Thanks for the warning. This one is well-behaved, so far. It seems to be a clumper and not a spreader.
Salix Tree: Maybe I've been creating faerie gardens all along, and didn't realize it? I'm just so attracted to those dainty, feathery kinds of plants. I should take another picture, now that more flowers are open on it.
Nicole: Well......maybe I am asking too much of Costco..... ;-)
But I've purchased some really nice plants from them too, so I'll allow them a few mistakes. I could never work up any enthusiasm for that clematis though - something about the color just doesn't click with me. It grows like a weed here.
Blackswamp Girl: This particular oenothera isn't much of a spreader, but I'm growing it in the hell-strip between the sidewalk and street so the growing conditions are less than good. I had Oenothera speciosa once, and I'll never have it again. It was a horrible weed (but with pretty pink flowers). I dug out as much as I could and smothered the rest with newspaper and mulch.
And I never noticed the stamens on the spiderwort until I took that picture. I was just trying to capture the contrast between the anthers and the petals.
We rue the day we planted Oenothera. It grew rampantly and choked out other plants. Kept coming back for several years after I dug it all out.
Very lovely blue color on the Tradescantia. I wouldn't be unhappy if a daylily I bought turned out to be so nice ;) I waited for 3 years to find out a Carolina allspice was actually a very common lilac. It was one of those cheap boxes with the open top revealing a puny plant with sparse new growth but I thought hey, Carolina allspice for $2.99! Although the leaves looked wrong, I was in denial and hoped it would be the allspice. At least the lilac has a wonderful smell.
Ki: Was it O. missouriensis that got out of hand for you? The one I have doesn't show any signs of spreading, but O. speciosa was a plague.
It's funny how convincing labels can be. If I remember correctly, the daylilies came 3 to a package. I think I should have noticed that something was different about one of them. They were just crowns with a few roots and fewer shoots. I used to avoid packaged plants, but those low low Costco prices on boxes with pretty pictures got to me. ;-)
We had both O. missouriensis and O. speciosa. Now that I think of it the yellow O. miss. was fairly easy to get rid of but the pink O. speciosa was/is a devil. I think I saw some coming up again this year!
We don't have a Costco nearby but have bought lots of bulbs from Sams. Actually some have turned out to be a good buy like the tulip Angelique. Those beautiful boxes get you everytime. How about those great pictures in catalogs. I've been suckered so many times it's embarrassing.
I see you bought quite a few surprise packets from Costco. ;-D
Love that Tradescantia, I have a light blue one and in my previous garden one very similar to the one you have now. In my garden it is not invasive at all. Perhaps it depends on the climate?
Your Larkspur looks great and makes me look slightly green as I had sown Larkspur this year and last year but NO Larkspur came up. Grrrrrrr!!!!
Ki: I've had some good bulbs from Costco too - narcissus and crocus. As far as I know, they were what the label claimed them to be. Pretty pictures sell plants, that's for sure.
Yolanda Elizabet: Oh, sorry about your larkspur. Maybe you could sow it outdoors in autumn for next year? Mine self-seeded, so I assume a fall sowing would work. I think I'll try that this year with sweet peas.
I always look on Costco purchases
as surprise packages. It's kind of
fun, so long as I dont actually need a specific plant
Marci: That's the spirit!
Wow! That contrast in the tradescantia is beautiful!! My climate is nice in that neither plant some found to be invasive is that way for me. In fact, very few plants get invasive in any way up here...except a small sedum with yellow flowers...I think it's called 'Acre' (probably because it could COVER an acre in a season!).
My mom has a bunch of the bright yellow Oenothera missouriensis in her garden - and I love it - it does go all over the place, but what nice flowers - they're just covered with blooms and brighten up the whole place.
My SC garden is still quite blue - with the summer blooming salvias blooming away. I really like the 'Blue Cloud' - they look really beautiful!
Lisa: I just bought 3 new Sedums today, but Acre wasn't one of them (phew!).
Pam: My O. missouriensis really hasn't expanded its territory much at all, but even if it did, I think I'd still be happy to have it. I do love the flowers. I'm still waiting for my Salvia 'Black & Blue' to bloom - I thought it had disappeared over the winter, but finally it made an appearance.
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