Popular Posts

Thursday, June 14, 2012

The Clay Mariposa

Calichortus argillosus

Come on, how ridiculous is this flower, It's like a very talented artist decided to muck about with a paintbrush inside a cup.
from Contra Costa (I love that name, I think it's a bastard of Indian and Spanish)and San Benito county, said to grow in compacted, heavy clays. This species hasn't increased well for me, so I might give it a heavier soil next year....seems my general bulb mix might not be suitable as a clay substitute.

Beautiful evening for the last day of the kiddo's softball season and now she is on Summer break....Oh Ya and since "Public works so you don't have too"....It's also public works day and I'm a public worker.

Cheers,

Mark

Monday, June 11, 2012

Crocus kosaninii

Crocus kosaninii

I've been reading a lot of Ruksans writings on bulbs lately and really enjoying it, so even though this is a spring bloomer and not in season I thought I would share it with you.

From Janis Ruksans "Crocuses a complete guide to the Genus":
Crocus kosaninii (2n=14) is a newer species named in honor of the famous Yugoslavian botanist Nedeljko Kosanin who described C. pelistericus and C. scardicus. It grows in lowland oak forest and mixed scrub within a limited area in Southern Serbia"

The description of it's type habitat makes me think it would be a great naturalizer in Oregon. After all the Willamette valley is pretty much lowland Oak forest.....or it used to be.

I make my living restoring native habitats in the valley and Oak Savannha is a pretty rare thing these days owing to the lack of forest fires that burned out the shrub and kept the Douglas Fir forests restricted to the foothills.

Speaking of disappearing habitats, I've been working on a project to restore a native wet prairie, this is the rarest of the wetland ecotypes in the Willamette Valley. It's been a fun project, but I would really like to do a controlled burn on the parcel, unfortunately Salem Fire Department says no dice....It's on the final approach to McNary Field and they are worried the smoke could be dangerous for small planes. Talk about a challenge to restore a dissapearing ecosystem without the tools necessary.

Anyway that's my rant for today, The weather has been lovely, 75 degrees and sunny, although as I type this a marine layer is pushing inland.

Cheers,

Mark Akimoff

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Calochortus longebarbatus

Calochortus longebarbatus

To again quote the very informative NARGS "Bulbs of North America":

"This is a plant of high mountain meadows from 5000 to 8330 feet (elevation) which seeks out a perfect hydrological regime. Grazing and erosion have severely reduced its populations on many sites; it is a kind of ecological barometer or miner's canary for alpine meadows. The extensive range of the species has many gaps, indicating loss of habitat. It occurs in eastern and south central Washington, down to Oregon's Hood River Valley; after a large gap in Klamath and Jackson counties of Southern Oregon; after another hiatus, in Shasta County, California. Like many plants of cold, semi-arid steppes, it is difficult to cultivate in most gardens, the bulbs appear to need a clay soil with some moisture over most of the year"


It is certainly a bit more challenging than some of the others I have grown, but the moisture year around is not hard to provide even in pot culture, just make sure you use a humus rich potting soil, with Lot's of grit or pumice to both drain well and hold moisture.



Cheers,

Mark

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Calochortus superbus

Calochortus superbus

You probably can't be a half bad looking flower if your common name is the
Superb Mariposa Lily.

From the must have NARGS Pulication "Bulbs of North America":

"This species has a disjunct northern outpost in Siskiyou County, California northwest of Mud Lake, where it grows in juniper-sagebrush woodland along with C. macrocarpus. More generally it is found from Shasta county south to Kern County and through the North Coast Ranges to Lake and Sonoma counties, at 670 to 5700 feet elevation. It does remarkably well in cultivation. the plants reach 50 centimeters and have basal bulblets."

It does do very well in cultivation, the specimen in this photo having no less than 13 flowers and it's in a one gallon pot.




The late mix.
Late bloomers always succeed in life, otherwise they never would have blossomed at some point...right?

I'm gonna design a flower bed with the above mix and it's going to look spectacular at the end of May and beginning of June.

More Calochortus tomorrow.

Mark

Monday, June 4, 2012

Peonia rockii

Peonia rockii

From Gansu and the adjoining provinces of the midwestern Mts. of China come this most spectacular tree peony.
The fragrance is incredible and the deep purple blotches set on alabaster petals are really quite a show.

Joseph Rock was one of the intrepid early botanists to venture into the war torn regions of china in the 1920's-40's.  His work resulted in the introduction of no less than 493 species of Rhododendrons. He was employed by Mssr. Sargent of the Arnold Aboretum for some of his collection expeditions.

Quite some time ago, Jane had given me three Peonies in 4" pots that she had started from seed. The P. rockii pictured was from a Halda collection in China. I not knowing much about peonies sandwiched them between the fence and some raised beds that hold alpines and bulbs. One of them is now a 6' tall tree, and between it and a Japanese maple gifted to me by an overzealous (but exceedingly generous) neighbor, lies this beauty. I really hadn't thought about it much until a week or so ago, I saw a white flower buried under the draping branches of the maple. Low and behold this wonderful specimen was lurking in the shadow all along.

I promised some Calochortus pictures and they are coming soon I promise....In the mean time I'm gonna be propagating Rocks Peony because a dozen of these beauties around the property still wouldn't be enough.