June's invitation to view.

[Palustris]

Not as spectacular as some folks!
Well, here we go again. You are invited to take a walk round the garden as it was on the 1st of June 2007. There are a lot of pictures because I added some individual shots of lfowers. I could name most of them, but there are one or three Clematis which have lost their labels over the years.
Enjoy!.
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v172/Berghill/June07/
And yes I know you may have seen the first 3 pictures before, but I do not want to move them and break a link for elsewhere!

[ideasguy]

Fantastic!
Ive viewed all 134 pics - how do you find time to take pics and keep that garden in such very good shape.
Is your garden open to the public? Do you have a team of gardeners?

Theres lots of beautiful plants in there - and I can see you have a very good collection of Clematis and Iris.

Ive made some notes as I viewed. I hope I'm not being too troublesome here, but
What is No 69 (White, reddish fleck)
What is No 107?
What is 130? (A lovely little plant with white flowers)

I can see lots of alpine beds - very nice indeed. The raised alpine bed in the greenhouse is loooking really exceptional.
Do you show plants?

(Sorry about all the questions)

[Palustris]

Right in order. We work virtually full time on the garden, helps being retired! There is just myself and my wife now. Our daughters have fled the nest, but they did help when they were here. We do not open to the public as the stress would give me even more trouble and the insurance costs are prohibitive.
We were given a lot of irises by a friend when she became too ill to carry on with her plant selling enterprise and also my sister in law had some from a breeder, so many are unnamed sedlings. We also live very close to Claire austin who sells a huge variety of them.
We had at one count over 100 Clematis, some have failed to gorw and we have added more so heaven knows how many there are.
No 69 is a picture of the Shade garden, the only flower in view is an Ariseama ciliatum.
107 is one of the Irises, but unnamed
Mayflower 28 is a Saxifraga callosa and the next white one is Oxalis White Swan.
The only white red flecked flower I can see is a Paeony lactiflora hybrid whos name has gone long ago,but it is probably P. l. Festiva maxima

[greenfinger]

The presence of the lawns gives an airy impression at the borders, especially the double borders.

[ideasguy]

RE:

We also live very close to Claire austin who sells a huge variety of them.

Ive just had a look at the Claire Austin website.
http://www.claireaustin-hardyplants.co.uk/
On the site:

Claire Austin Hardy Plants was situated at David Austin Roses for many years

Is she a daughter of David Austin?

I note that she has two national Plant Collections® - holders of Bearded Irises & Hybrid Peonies

I'd love a walk around that Nursery. Is it well laid out? Plants labelled?

Over 1000 perennials to choose from - you are spoilt for choice Eric.
I'd love a copy of that catalog. A bit expensive at £3.50.

[Palustris]

Claire Austin is indeed a daughter of David of Rose infamy. Her new nursery is still in the process of being set up, but it looks as if it could be a good one. The plants were all well displayed and labelled. Only trouble we could see us that most of her stock is at her old place. We went before Chelsea and there was very little in flower to see as it was all waiting to go there and after Chelsea she had sold it all. Prices were not too bad for the Iris and Paeonies, but some of the ordinary herbaceous stuff was expensive.The catalogue may be expensive, but ti is a life long thing of beauty.

[ideasguy]

From what I read on her web site, she has great plans to expand her product range, so you are lucky to have such a lovely place close to home.

Ive revisited your photobucket album, and can see where the confusion has arisen over the numbers I quoted.

RE: My query:

What is No 69 (White, reddish fleck)
What is No 107?
What is 130? (A lovely little plant with white flowers)

When I click on one of your photos, they are numbers 1 to 135, and thats the numbers I quoted.
These numbers are assigned by photobucket?

RE (your reply):

No 69 is a picture of the Shade garden

If you click on that, you see:
Showing 88 of 135
Its June07069 (which you refer to as 69)

So, going back to my question:
What is No 69 (White, reddish fleck) = June07056-1

What is No 107?  = mayflowers001.jpg = Amosnia orientalis
Already answered!

What is 130? (A lovely little plant with white flowers)
Gosh, 130 is now 131, and has the name Oxalis White Swan, so OK on that one.
OK, now that weve identified it, is it a good plant?

The Camassia leichlinii alba is a lovely looking plant!
alba = white, but it looks a delicate shade of cream. Is it pure white?

[Palustris]

Right the only unidentified picture now is a Paeony lactiflora hybrid (white with red flecks).I would have to go searching for a name though. Labels do not last in this garden even for one night, no matter what we do.
The Camassia is probably a creamier colour than pure white as you surmise. Lovely thing though and easily available.
Oxalis White Swan is again easy to get hold of. I have never tried it outside, mainly 'cos I have not got round to splitting the one I have into pieces, but it is sold as a good easy rock garden plant. Its parentage is southern Argentina and the Falkland Islands so it should be hardy!

[ideasguy]

Your photos are very good quality Eric.
That is a gorgeous Paeony. Mind you, they are all gorgeous. Pity they didnt flower a bit longer though.
Mine are in full bloom at present. I'm all tickeld with a new white variety which I bought at a Garden Show in Belfast. Photos to follow (already taken)
Their blooms of my pink lactifloras are too large for the stems, and I find I have to stake each individual bloom carrying stem. Even then, the rain we had today will have them hanging again.

I have to say I'm very keen on your plants. Does the Oxalis flower over a long period?
I have a pink variety. If its overcast, it closes up. When its sunny, it beams with a mass of flowers, and it flowers all summer.
It has proved to be very hardy. Ive one in the garden and one in a pot. It does great in both applications.

I will look out for your 'White Swan'

Ive never grown Camassia. Would you recommend it? Hardy with you?

[Palustris]

All the Camassias are as tough as old boots, they are American praiirie plants and used to extremes of weather. There are three varieties. Cc. cuisickii,(blue), esculenta (smallest and blue) and leichtlinii (blue, white). The C. esculenta is the Amerindian Quamash and I am waiting till I have built up stocks to try eating it myself. The books say, you just roast it like a sweet potato or onion!. We shall see.
The Oxalis flowers sparsely for at least 6 weeks. The ones I have are Oo. laciniata, Ione Hecker, adenophllya, White Swan, and some others which are unnamed seedlings from either our garden or from Slack Top Alpines in Yorkshire. There are others too. If you see one called. O verticiliata, it is a beauty, flowering in Feb. with red and white flowers.

[ideasguy]

You certainly have a good selection of plants Eric.
I have a database of the plants grown by Chrissie (The Gardener on this forum) and I see she has each one of your Camassias.
She is linking photos to all her plants with Flower Genie so hopefully one day we will see all these plants.

Thanks for the info on Oxalis, and I'll look out for that O. verticillata. Its great when someone recommends a plant, so any more favourites you can make us aware of would be much appreciated.

Ive just paid Slack Top a cyber visit:
http://www.slacktopnurseries.co.uk/
Interesting! I had a peep at their plants list. Prices look reasonable - and I see quite a number of Oxalis.
Matter of interest - are they invasive?

[Palustris]

Owner is a nice young cha too. And the plce is beautiful. The name on the row of houses in the next village always amuses and has to be fastened too high up to be stolen "Slack Bottom."
The Oxalis mentioned are not invasive ones, though I would read up about any Oxalis before planting it out. We have been trying to eradicate O. cornuta which came in, in bought plants for years (soi dit Bermudan Buttercup).
I could probably find pictures of all the Camassias myself, certainly we have them in the garden.

[greenfinger]

I planted some blue and white Camassia leichtlinii this year.
There seems a difference beween the two, other than the colour. The white one's flowers are stronger built and and they remain in good shape somewhat longer than the blue ones.