Saturday, January 21, 2023

The deceased C's finally Cease!

Clausia aprica

Not everyone is as smitten with crucifers as I am: I suppose my love is partly a response to THEIR love for my garden--and this was a good example. I grew it from seed I got from Alexandra Bertukenko: it did not disappoint! Nice foliage, lovely blossom....

Then the next year it had run amok! It LOVED my rock garden...but unfortunately overran too many little gems, so I dug it up and put it in a border thinking it would make a nice edging. It turned out NOT to like borders at all, and I lost it. Surely I could have left a bit of it in a corner to run wild at will? So now I look back at these pictures with a pang of regret!

Claytonia megarhiza
I must confess--this picture was taken in the wild. I DID have a husky specimen in my old garden thriving...when an artist at the Museum of Nature and Science asked if I could provide her with a specimen so she could make a plaster cast. I did--but the bruised plant that came back to me "failed to thrive". Her avatar is still lurking somewhere at DMNS however...

Clematis tenuifolia

The less said about this the better: I have grown it many times--sometimes it ramps for feet in every direction--apparently trying desperately to escape my garden...

Clematis tenuifolia

A particularly nice blue form in nature. I yearn to tame this plant--but our only local grower is out of business...and where to find seed?

Cleome lutea

I have had dozens of husky pink spider flowers self sow around my garden, and even a white one--but I've only grown the yellow one once and it never came back...sniff!

Codonopsis clematidea
 
There was a time I thought this might become weedy in my garden...not to fear! It disappeared!

Corydalis turtschaninovii

I dedicated a whole blog post to this creature: it bloomed and looked good a year or two, then disappeared. Lesson: don't write blog posts about plants until you have them coming out your ears!

Coluteocarpa shanginii

I still have a few miserable plants of this: I divided my big clump and didn't put any back to where it LIKED to grow...

Corydalis ruksansii

I was thrilled to bloom this. It didn't reciprocate!

Corydalis bracteata 

I have grown this for decades--only to realize it's a woodlander and not a rock plant--and it gradually faded away...

Escobaria vivipara Convolvulus compactus 

My champion Turkish bindweed finally bit the dust. So did that cactus come to think of it!

Coluteocarpa vesicaria

I let neighboring plants smother this. My bad...

Coluteocarpa vesicaria

Here it is at DBG's children's garden...hope theirs fares better than mine. The seedpods are even showier than the flowers!

Cochicum kesselringii

I had one bulb of this growing for decades--it never produced more than a flower and last year it didn't bloom. That's a bad sign.

Cunila origanoides

Not very showy, but I love our American dittany....

Cunila origanoides

Also a victimj of crowding: Have to give it pride of place in my new Crevice garden!

Cryptotaenia japonica f. atropurpurea

Not the showiest plant...but look how happy it was (here growing at DBG: mine was happy too). Notice the tense of the verb.

Cryptantha paradoxa

I believe this was photographed at DBG: I had one in a trough as well. Past tense!

Cryptantha caespitosa

A scanned image from a transparency--that's bee how long since I grew this!

Crassula coralloides

I have seen and loved this in a wide swath of South Africa. But it eludes me...

There's the end of the C's: cease and desist I say!

5 comments:

  1. I allow a few Cleome lutea to grow every year in front of my compost bins for the bees. Every spring, I pull out hundreds of seedlings - hard to avoid since the inflorescence continues to develop flowers through the season and mature seeds all the while. What's the difference? My truly sand soil?

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  2. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  3. I still think about Alexandra Bertukenko. She was so nice when I ordered seeds from her. I lost my job and asked the order be cancelled. She offered to send the seeds even if I could not pay. I ended up getting another job and sending a check. However, I don't remember if she was able to cash it. I did not realize how difficult it would be to exchange dollars for rubles. I hate to think she might not have gotten paid.

    After I wrote the above, I remembered she had died but her family had continued to make her book available.

    https://www.nargs.org/alexandra-berkutenkos-seed-atlas

    I worry with Russia's aggression, we are in the beginning stages of ending up on the opposite sides of a war. A very unfortunate situation.

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  4. I am equally worried about the dreadful war in Ukraine, James and Putin's obdurate temperament. Great hearing from you again. And thanks to alerting me to Alexandra's books--on NARGS website no less! Sent off am email to be sure they will respond.

    We are in the midst of a Siberian winter here in Colorado--so some Siberian plants are in order!

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  5. World events bring to mind two quotes.

    "The perpetrators of a wrong never forgives his victims." John Ross

    and

    Golda Meir's comment
    "Israel's Secret Weapon: We have no where else to go."

    It is not only Israel that has no where else to go. Facing a war of aggression with threats of using nuclear weapons all humanity has "no where else to go."

    ReplyDelete

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