The warm sunshine has accelerated the development of flowers in my rock garden and alpine containers. The joy of diminutive flowers is getting up close and enjoying their form and patterning, so this week I’ve used my macro lens to try and capture the detail.
London Pride – saxifraga x urbium
I think these must be my favourite flowers up close. They have the shape, colouring and pincushion-like stamens of plum or cherry blossom but with the added interest of polka dots in yellow and cerise. 
The succulent rosette leaves are interesting in themselves but in May the multi-flowered sparkler stems look magnificent. If you’ve got some in your garden go and have a look at the flowers – you’ll be entranced.
Helianthemum ‘Wisley Primrose’
This is a very pretty rock rose in my favourite tone of yellow – primrose. I like the way the wide petals overlap in a wavy way. The flowering stems are a bit unruly at the edge of this urn but it’s so sunny and optimistic I’ll forgive it anything.
Veronica austriaca ‘Ionian Skies’
Next to the Helianthemum in the urn is a much more upright plant. It’s name and colour transports us to the Greek islands and pure blue skies. It’s bluer in real life than it looks in this photo.
I really like the colour combination of pale yellow and pale blue so I’m happy I planted these next to the Helianthemum. Sadly both will finish flowering by early July and I know I will miss them.
Linaria aeruginea ‘Neon Lights’
Whereas the name of the Veronica is spot on, this one is off beam. The label says it has “multi-coloured flowers from reds and yellows through to blues”. Multi-coloured it is but it doesn’t transport me to the neon lights of downtown Tokyo.
Strangely named it may be but it’s certainly an intriguing flower up close. I really like the patterning and the yellow and red erupting centres that look like molten lava. It’s also a very pretty shaped plant, which is spreading quickly in its rock garden crannie.
Rosularia chrysantha
A really pretty daisy-like flower this one. It opens up each day in the sunshine and closes up again each evening. The petals are coloured pinky brown on the outside so when it closes you wouldn’t know it was yellow. It’s like a two-toned umbrella.
What I also like about this is the lance-like fleshy succulent leaves which are slowly spreading across the surface of this trough. I can imagine a stone container entirely covered with this plant on a sun-soaked Mediterranean terrace.
Aquilegia flabellata
I shared a picture of this last week as I was so excited it was flowering. I was a bit premature though as a week on it’s showing is proper columbine shape. I really like the two-toned corona which almost has a tie-dyed ombre patterning.
It cost just £10 to get 23 packets of seed from the Alpine Garden Society Seed exchange and I’ve got dozens of plants from the 2018 list and yet more from the 2019 one. This one flower means so much to me.
This seasonal diary is part of a weekly link-up of garden bloggers from around the world, called Six on Saturday. For more information and links to other blogs crammed with gardening activity, check the blog of host The Propagator.
Great photos. The aquilegia is beautiful and I really like the primrose yellow rock rose. I’m a big fan of yellow.
Let’s hear it for yellow! I think it’s underrated in the garden but get it right and it’s a winner.
That’s my favourite, no that’s my favourite, no that’s my favourite. All beautiful. And I have green eyes for your fabulous urn!
Ah yes the urn. It was left behind by the previous owner – with 4 others! He moved to a smaller house and garden and didn’t have the space for them. He loved this garden so much I think he was happy to leave them for us to enjoy. When he died I went to his funeral and his family said the garden was one of the loves of his life. I hadn’t taken a tissue but I wished I had!
Oh you have some really interesting plants. I love the aquilegia.
Many of these were bought from alpine suppliers but the aquilegia, being home grown, is very special to me.
Lovely photograph of the delicate little Saxifraga. The Aquilegia flabellata is very pretty – the macro lens brings out so much detail that the eye misses.
Yes, a macro lens is a useful bit of kit. I was struggling a bit in the bright sunshine because of glare. Today is cloudier – a much better day for macro shots.
Plants we have grown from seed are very precious, as you have beautifully demonstrated with your lovely photos. The pale yellow and blue combination is very pretty and fresh.
Yes it’s a combo I like. Yellow can be difficult to get right in a garden but it’s a colour I am more and more drawn too. It’s just an optimistic colour I think.
Your rock rose is wonderful & the backdrop of the metal fixture in the background just makes it all the better. I quite like the colour combo of Neon Lights but agree, neon it is not. Beautiful, tho. However, my fav is London Pride – after years being an old friend of mine, I didn’t realise how beautiful the flowers are up close. I’ve always loved the flowers but didn’t realise they were speckled! I shall have to go out & get on my knees.
Earlier in the season it was bums in the air and now we’re on our knees looking at the speckles on London Pride. Hope you like them up close – it’s well worth it!
I have a few sun/rock roses now and can’t wait till they flower. The Aquilegia is oretty and I particularly like the Roarlis
they are lovely close up. i haven’t (yet) been bitten by the alpine bug, but i can see it happening.
They’re just plants at the end of the day and you’re a plantaholic! There’s room for alpines in any garden – even in a trough.