Wisley's Alpine Log

By Paul Cumbleton

2010: Log 74... 10 June

No, your eyes don?t deceive you ? this is decidedly not an alpine! Last weekend was one of my turns to do weekend working. This partly involves looking after areas of the garden that otherwise you get little opportunity to visit. During my time caring for plants in the large Glasshouse, a couple of things particularly caught my eye that I thought I would show you. The first were these marvellous Epiphyllum cacti. The one above was not named, but this following one is called E. ?Yellow Jacket?. The huge flowers (around 25cm across) are so spectacular.

The other things that attracted me were some Echiums. I have never seen any quite as tall before in this part of the world.

Back to our own part of the garden now. The Landscaped House is looking good and a couple of star performers are Verbascum ?Letitia? and the orange flowered Sphaeralcea grossularifolia:

 

Outside the house in the tufa walls, Saxifraga cochlearis ?minor? is flowering really well:

Also, outside the Landscaped House, the sand beds have performed particularly well this year

One plant in the sand that has surprised me is Leptodactylon californicum. These usually go brown and woody fairly quickly and need replacing regularly; but this one plant has stayed green for a few years now and is flowering better than ever this year:

In pots, the Castillejas that I have been experimenting with in recent years continue to do well. This one is C. thompsonii and is potted together with an Erigeron host which it seems to like:

The unusual Petunia patagonica managed 15 flowers this year, a record for me for a plant with a reputation for shy flowering. When the flowers first open they are an off-yellow colour as shown below:

They soon fade however to a greyish-white like this:

Finally this week, a couple of beauties now just gone over but beautiful while they lasted were Cypripedium tibeticum and Oxalis laciniata ?Julia Johnson?