
Prairie Break
34 FOLLOWERS
Horticultural and botanical musings from the Rockies, Great Plains, and beyond.
Prairie Break
12h ago
Mike Kintgen and Kenton Seth
Two of the keynote speakers at Peaks to Prairie--the North American Rock Garden Society's annual meeting in Cheyenne this June--happen to live in Colorado. I know I am a good person, because these two relatively young (compared to superannuated me) gardeners have gone far ahead of me when it comes to what I treasure most. Mike Kintgen has been Curator of the Rock Alpine Garden (something I did myself for quite a while): I am humbled by his extraordinary knowledge of all manner of hardy plants--he's eclipsed me by far with North American natives and woodie ..read more
Prairie Break
6d ago
Penstemon cyaneus
Everybody goes gaga over Meconopsis....having spent magical times in the Himalayas (not to mention Scotland) I certainly get this. But what about penstemon? There are no end of charismatic penstemons--especially in the West--most of which are bluer than all get-out. In July of 2024 I was so enchanted by the blue of Penstemon cyaneus along the shore of Lake Yellowstone I took way too many pictures of it--which I shall now share with you. If you have a case of Endless Winter Blues, like I do--this could help!
Range of P. cyaneus
Pretty much confined to ..read more
Prairie Break
1w ago
Clay Butte, from Beartooth Highway
Technically, I have never lived quite long enough in Wyoming to REALLY call it my home. But I have probably spent more time in Wyoming than perhaps any other state in the US after Colorado--except perhaps New York where I lived for a whole school year when I went to Graduate School. You see, my favorite aunt--actually three of my favorite aunts--lived in Wyoming. I would be hard put to count the times we drove to Casper to visit them. And over the decades I have camped and hiked and reveled in what is pretty close to being my favorite state ..read more
Prairie Break
2w ago
Aptosimum indivisum Calitzdorp 09-16-2023
The one pretty Universally accepted common name for plants in the genus Aptosimum is "Karoo Violet". Although they are by no means confined to the Karoo (the vast interior dryland--part Steppe/part desert) that comprises much of inland South Africa) they are pretty common in that complex and crazy biome. No use trying to change the name--they remind me a lot of our Western American penstemons (see below), however Aptosimum still resides in Scrophulariaceae whereas poor Penstemon has been coralled in with the homely Plantain Family (Plan ..read more
Prairie Break
1M ago
Ramonda serbica
Gesneriads are one of those hot-button families of plants that have spawned their own societies and generate a sort of buzz. I am old enough to remember when African Violets were still a bit of a novelty (I had a long, complex and treasured relationship with Muriel Milsted, a great English gardener who lived most of her life in Illinois--and who wrote one of the first books about them: African Violets for the Home)...but I digress. This is just one of a number of hardy gesneriads that has settled nicely into my garden. I might even live long enough to see it in the wil ..read more
Prairie Break
1M ago
Snowcapped Achillea filipendulina (01-05-2017)
If I hadn't removed this sizeable clump of a common, summer-blooming yarrow from this spot (I still grow it elsewhere) it would probably look pretty much like this today--after our first snow in a long time...funny to think I took that picture almost precisely seven years ago today. Yarrows are not the most glamorous of plants. But they possess many layers of meaning and significance for me--our gardens are microcosms of the World, but also macrocosms of our souls...and this post (one I think you'll like if you hang in there),,,
Achillea m ..read more
Prairie Break
1M ago
California Lecture Tour
Tuesday Jan. 21
(meeting starts at 7 pm at the County Fair Building in Golden Gate Park)
San Francisco Cactus club: “The OTHER South Africa”
More information HERE
Succulent lovers are so smitten with the extraordinary biodiversity of the Western Cape that they often neglect to visit the eastern parts of South Africa. I hope to show how wrong this is. The great bulk of plants most often seen in Temperate Gardens from South Africa grow mostly in the Eastern parts of the country: Agapanthus, Watsonia, Crocosmia and no end of Kniphofia a ..read more
Prairie Break
1M ago
Surely I'm not the only person who, in the heat of summer, phantasizes about a cool winter's day. On January 1 in Denver, we can hardly say we've had TOO much of a winter--daytime temperatures for months now have been balmy enough so I've left my jacket in my office when returning home. Why, then, am I yearning for a toasty summer day?
Lilies for me epitomize summer: we are so lucky thus far to have escaped the plague of Lily beetle, so I have indulged in my love of these elegant spires. This album features various "Martagon" hybrids with fancy cultivar names I have jumbled. They're ridic ..read more
Prairie Break
2M ago
Castilleja rhexifolia by Esther Reed
Not altogether lost yet--more like in limbo. This rather gorgeous watercolor is one of dozens residing (today) on my desk at work. They deserve (and will certainly) get better treatment...but first I must mourn books that I have lost....
I know, with a library of around 5000 books I shouldn't be pained by the half dozen that got away--mostly due to my own stupidity. Eventually, who knows what will happen to my precious little library...I can imagine several scenarios:
1) If I died tomorrow, my children would inherit it (of cours ..read more
Prairie Break
2M ago
Penstemon cyaneus
In the course of my life I've grown no end of penstemons: not merely dozens of species and hybrids--I'll bet I've grown nearly a hundred. But it wasn't till this past summer I encountered one of the most dazzling. Penstemon cyaneus has a rather large range in the Middle Rockies, as you can see below.
I've criss-crossed that region more times than I can think of, but this is the first time I found a mother-load of this wonderful taxon. Now...to get seed and GROW it! I know there are a lot of pictures of this...but how do you pick?
P. cyaneus next to the ..read more