Cypripedium hybrid 'Aki Light"

Cypripedium "Aki Light" blooming in my garden now

     I have previously written about cypripediums here.  Today, I want to focus on one of the hybrid cypripediums that is blooming now in my garden.  As I have previously mentioned, I have found the hybrids to be easier garden plants than the straight species.  This particular hybrid in the picture is called 'Aki Light' and it is a Frosch hybrid from Germany.  Frosch is one of the leading hybridizers of cypripediums and most of the hybrids on the market now come from his breeding program. 
     'Aki Light' is a cross between C. macranthos and C. pubescens.  Apparently, the flower color can vary somewhat from year to year and from plant to plant.  'Aki Light' is supposed to have large flowers for a cyp and this one certainly seems to be larger than some of my other cyp flowers.  According to what I have read online, it is supposed to have twice as large flowers as another relatively commonly available hybrid called 'Gisela', which I also have in my garden.
     Cypripediums are not cheap plants, and one of the reasons for this is that the nursery trade must grow baby cyps in flasks in laboratories--they are extremely difficult to grow from seed otherwise.  I suppose this is true of many if not all orchids.  While some orchids, such as Dactylorhizas, self sow in a garden, if one sets out to deliberately sow them, they are much more difficult.  I suppose that given the right conditions even cyps would self sow, but that happy event has not yet occurred in my garden.
     In any event, to grow cyps in large quantities, one must buy flasked seedlings from a lab, and then grow them on for several years before they are big enough to fend for themselves in a garden.  This whole process is fraught with difficulties in keeping the plants alive, and hence, the high price of cyps. 

Telopea Truncata with Mass Quantities of Flowers!

Telopea Truncata blooming in my garden now

     I have previously written about Telopea truncata, an evergreen shrub from Tasmania here and here.  This shrub has grown in my garden for upwards of 10 years, and it has never suffered from the cold.  This year it is putting on its best floral show ever--there are 12 of these great red flowers on it!  So maybe I am exaggerating when I say that this constitutes mass quantities of blossom, but that is the most that this shrub has ever had--three was the maximum number in years past.  I expect that as this plant gets older it will have more and more of these blossoms (I hope).  As I wrote before, my specimen is not particularly well shaped or beautiful, but I must admit that these flowers make up for that shortcoming.  Also, as I have previously written, these shrubs are very rare here, but this one has performed so well in my garden that I think more people should try to find them and grow them. 

Paeonia Mascula type at Far Reaches Farm

Paeonia mascula type flower in bloom at Farm Reaches Farm

    As I mentioned yesterday, the shade garden at Far Reaches Farm is full of amazing treasures at their prime right now.  Among those are a number of species peonies, including this one.  Kelly says it is a mascula type, possibly a hybrid, which he salvaged from Leo Hitchcock's garden in Seattle in the 90's.  Leo was a botany professor at the University of Washington, and the author of Flora of the Pacific Northwest.  Kelly says that Leo had a garden in Seattle that had plantings dating from the late 40's and that it was full of horticultural treasures.  That property was sold to a developer who was going to destroy the garden, so Kelly managed to rescue some of the plants, including this one.  As a photographer, I am glad he did!
     I will have more posts about some of the species peonies later.  I have mixed feelings about them because their bloom period is so short--turn around and they will be done blooming, just about.  However, those mixed feelings evaporate every year at two times--when they first come up with their usually red snouts, and when they bloom.  This particular peony in the photo is a particularly photogenic one even if it is mainly white! Although this is a mascula type, it is not a usual mascula--those are usually pink.  I have a number of P. masculas in my garden and they self sow with abandon--to the extent that they will be on the noxious weed list before you know it!
     If you didn't already know this, if you click on the picture you can see a larger full frame version of it.  This is a good photo to do that to.

Maianthemum Oleraceum Revisited

Stalks of Maianthemum oleraceum at Far Reaches Farm

     I have previously written about Maianthemum oleraceum here.  In that post, I showed pictures of this plant in flower.  Today, I want to show you a photo I took on Saturday of this same plant growing in the shade garden at Far Reaches Farm.  As you can see, this is quite an impressive looking creature, even though it is not yet in bloom.  These bamboo like stalks which are two or three feet tall certainly grab the eye!  The plant I bought last year at Far Reaches is alive and growing in my garden, but it has only one stalk this year.  I am just waiting for it to get this big. 
     By the way, in one of his recent newsletters, Kelly mentioned that Far Reaches has many of these coming along, but they are not yet big enough to sell.  So put them on your wish list and drool! I will post more about my visit to Far Reaches tomorrow, but let me just say here that the garden there is simply amazing right now, and it is well worth the trek out there to visit.

Thamnocalamus tessallatus

Thamnocalamus tessallatus in my garden with Tetrapanax 'Steroidal Giant'

     One of the many kinds of clumping bamboo I grow in my garden is Thamnocalamus tessallatus, a tight clumper from South Africa.  This bamboo is rated hardy to zone 7 and, indeed, it has never suffered any damage from the cold in the almost 15 years it has been growing here in my garden.  For many years after I planted this bamboo I wasn't sure I liked it because in its youth it had a unkempt appearance, much like that of many teenagers I have known. However, the ugly duckling has now transformed into a swan as you can see!
     This bamboo, along with clumps of 7 other bamboos, forms a visual barrier on one side of my garden. That part of the garden is relatively close to a number of houses and so when I first began creating the garden I wanted to block those houses out with a hedge.  I originally planted Canadian hemlock, but the conditions in that part of the garden were not uniform and the hemlocks did not grow uniformly which is what you need to create a good hedge.  So I began planting bamboos which I staggered so they are not all in a straight line.  This has proved to be a great way to screen the neighbors and it has the advantage of not requiring clipping which the hedge would have.  In fact, I learned from this experience that a requirement that all plants in a row have a uniform appearance is a requirement just asking for trouble. Chances are that sooner or later one of the plants in the row will die, and then where are you?
     This picture above was created from 4 different exposures of the same shot using a technique known as HDR or High Dynamic Range photography.  This is a useful technique where, if you expose for one part of the photo, another part is either too dark or too light. By merging these 4 exposures, I was able to get all parts of the shot correctly exposed.  To do this it is recommended that you use a tripod, although I have seen HDR photos where no tripod was used. All shots, however, must be exactly, or pretty much, the same except for the exposure.  Then I use a program called Photomatix Pro to merge the shots, and then I process that merged image in Photoshop as I would any other image.

Corydalis buschii

Corydalis buschii surrounding a young Yucca linearifolia

     Blooming now in my garden is a patch of Corydalis buschii.  This is growing in the bed by the lionness sculpture.  I have previously blogged about this bed here and here.  Those entries discussed the Tropaeolum polyphyllum which is also planted in this bed, along with Scilla peruviana and some California poppies. Today, I am showcasing this nice little corydalis which blooms now and then goes out of sight later in the season when it goes dormant.
     I first got this corydalis from Janis Ruksans.  It was sent to me as these tiny, almost twig like rhizomes, which I was instructed not to let dry out.  I planted them and lo and behold, they survived and thrived.  Those plants are in another part of my garden and I believe they are still there.  These particular plants in the picture I got from Beaver Creek Greenhouses, a rock garden mail order nursery in British Columbia.  They have a great list of many rarities and I would highly recommend ordering from them.
     Corydalis buschii is touted as a woodland plant, but it is growing in almost full sun in this location and seems to do quite well.  The main problem I have with it is weeding in the patch. Since the plant dies down later in the summer, all manner of weeds try to get a foothold on top of it.  So when I do this weeding, I am always also digging out the Corydalis buschii rhizomes accidentally.  This, fortunately,  does not seem to hurt the patch and these dug up rhizomes can be replanted elsewhere in the garden. This plant comes from eastern Russia and Korea and is supposedly hardy to zone 4.
     The plant that the corydalis is growing around is a young Yucca linearifolia which I got a couple of years ago from Cistus nursery.  You can see what this yucca will look like at maturity here.

Gunneras

Emerging Gunnera tinctoria in the wild wetland area of my garden

     As I promised I would do a few blog entries ago, I am going to tell you about my experiences with Gunneras.  As you all probably know, the large familiar gunneras, Gunnera tinctoria and Gunnera manicata, are the kings of large leafed plants.  Well grown specimens of these plants are amazing sights to behold with stems well above human height and leaves in excess of 6 feet across.  I have grown many of them in my garden and, indeed, the one in the picture above is one of the few self sown seedlings I have found in the garden.
     Many gardeners are confused about the difference between Gunnera manicata and tinctoria.  In fact, many nurseries also seem confused and many plants appear to be mislabeled.  As I understand it, manicata is slightly less hardy than tinctoria.  The leaves of manicata are a little larger but less textured and held in more horizontal way.  Tinctoria is from Chile and is probably the better plant for our climate in the Pacific Northwest.
     In any event, both of these plants are moisture lovers which seem to do better beside streams, ponds or lakes.  The largest specimen I have seen was at Van Dusen Botanical Garden in Vancouver, BC.  There also used to be (and it is still there) a large specimen at Heronswood Garden. On a recent stroll of that garden with Dan Hinkley he told me that that plant recieved all the runoff, including fertilizer, from the nursery, and that was why it was so large.  It was also located right beside a swampy area of the garden.
     Gunneras are not necessarily shade plants.  I have seen slides in Dan's lectures of Gunneras growing in the wild in Chile in completely open conditions.  The massive gunneras at Van Dusen were also out in the open.  In fact, I have found in my own garden that gunneras do not like deep root infested shade, probably because they don't get enough moisture in competition with tree roots.
     So, the best way to grow large gunneras is in good soil without competition from tree roots, in a place where their roots can get lots of water, but their crown stays above winter wet, and then to water and fertilize them well in summer.  In our climate it is wise to cover the crowns in winter with straw or dead leaves or something to protect them from the cold.  Unprotected gunneras will sometimes be killed by cold in this climate.
     As for other species of gunneras, and I have read that there are at least 40, most of them are  apparantly not hardy.  I have acquired on 2 different occasions Gunnera killipiana, both times from sources in the San Francisco area. A picture of this gunnera may be found here. This is an attractive plant with red stems and large leaves but not as large as G. tinctoria.  Sadly both my plants succumbed to the cold the first winter I had them.
     Heronswood also carried some other gunneras including Gunnera insignis, from Costa Rica, I think.  A picture of that plant may be found here.  Sadly, it also is not hardy here.  In addition, Heronswood also offered a  hybrid of insignis and some other, more hardy gunnera, but I have also lost that plant to cold and I do not know that it is available anywhere anymore. Finally, Heronswood offered Gunnera perpensa, which is a gunnera from South Africa.  I grew this one in my garden for a few years, but it was proving to be extremely invasive in a wet area of my garden over the drainfield, so I took it out.  In my opinion it did not offer much except somewhat large leaves and that same look could be achieved by other less invasive plants such as Darmera peltata.  There are also some very small leaved gunneras which can be found here at local nurseries from time to time.  These, however, do not appeal to me--the lure of a gunnera is in the large leaves and so why in the world would I want a tiny leaved one?