Alpines. Piccies of

Haemanthus albiflora.


Flavour of the month: Petrocosmea sericea.


Sempervivum "Gold Nugget".


Autumn flowering Gentian.

Petrocosmeas look far better in real life than with my camera.

 

Surely the haemanthus isn't hardy @kindredspirit ?
I love the gentian too - I need to work on getting an area where they will survive for me. More grit!

 

I had gentians in a previous garden @CarolineL - I literally planted them on top of gravel, so they were barely in contact with soil at all. I do that with quite a few things to prevent them rotting in the heavy soil. I've been thinking of getting a white gentian for this garden.

 

White would be good! But isn't it funny - we have so few true blue plants, and then we want a version that isn't! (I was hankering for a pink delphinium...)
I also love gentiana verna and acaulis, but I think they're even more picky

 

It's simple for me @CarolineL - I don't like blue!
I don't mind the stronger blues so much though - it's those peely wally pale things I don't like. Same with pink - love the strong ones, loathe the pastels. They're too depressing with the many grey skies we get, so I stopped growing any pastels colours a long time ago.
The only exception I make with blue is our Scottish bluebell - the harebell -Campanula rotundifolia, but it's a good colour, not pasty and pale. It reminds me of my hill outings, and is lovely with rain on it.
We're all different aren't we?

 

Hi @CarolineL . The Haemanthus is in the Alpine House out of the rain. Seems to do fine there.

 

You're doing well then @kindredspirit - when I was at Botanic Garden of Wales, the haemanthus were all under heated glass.

 

Silene growing in a tuffeau rock face sourced from the Loire valley.