ooops soz ARF and cottage gardens, barging in again - forgot to change listings (this naming 3 forums) - have amended now (but felt a bit rude to just delete).

Why does Houzz do these random things? Pointless, bizarre and confusing.

Those magnifiers are good for seeing trichome progression too.. ??? All I'll say, too many live wires over here. I also have a seed obsession going on. The more the merrier!!! Lots of new umbrellifers.:) I saw a nice plant at the preserve. It looked like a miniature water hemlock. Sadly, I don't have any standing water. I'm wondering if that monster of a hurricane we're having will bring any much needed rain your way. Your greenhouse must be warm enough to grow your seedlings through the winter months I take it. You are like in the middle of England on the east coast or are you in Northumbria? I saw very dark spots on the drought map for that middle area. Climate is getting drier here too. I don't think any of my plants would survive without supplimental watering. Should go totally xeroscape, but I can't part with some of my tender water lovers like Impatiens and Coleus, and my mints. I don't do pinks anymore, but I'm loving collecting Silenes.

Camp, wgat is a ARF? Now I'm a bit confused, ok, more than a bit. Are you saying you don't use labels anymore? That

You are so astounding that you can identify each seed by its unique intricate sculping as seen through your jeweler's loupe? That is truly amazing!!! But when those tiny gems start to shapeshift how can you identify them then??? I distinctly recall you very recently confessing to buying a slurry of indellable gardening labels, and like 35.000 4 inch pots.(overboard???) Am I missing anything? Probably a lot. I have my scopes here. I want to see if Asclepius seeds are beautifally sculpted when magnified or if they still look like smashed cornflakes. I see the revelation, I will also have to start really looking at Lepidoptera eggs. They are quite facinating too. There are times when those extraordinary revolutionary gadgets are very useful. Thank you for showing me the light!!!!

Those savings from no more labelling misaps can go towards supporting your seed bomb habit! I think I will check ARF out and see if the rosa cultivars from my birth year are now considered antiques arf. Are we talking antique roses like the monsterous, steroid fueled 'bushes' that have completely enveloped Campanula's allotment??? Not sure I wanna go there, going overboard on enough already. I'm starting out slow and nursing a few neglected roses back to health. It's a labor of love. I've been religiously deadheading and enjoying the never ending parade of blooms like any good bud tender would. Enchante Comtessedelacouche!

Bring on the posts, Campanula! Not a seed grower myself, but I like your enthusiasm, and it's a good idea.

Hi Jay and comptesse.

Yes, I look at trichome development (and cheer) too. 35,000 is a little overboard (but over a decade is probably a fair estimate)...and yep, I can recognise a good many seeds...but mainly use my magnifier to separate seeds when cleaning (I often just stuff entire seedheads in a pocket, with others). Nonetheless, as sculptural artefacts, seeds (and pollen grains) are wonderful objects.

Ah yeah, in the middle, far to the eastern edge - the driest bit of the UK in any year...but this one was a shocker for me.

Yep, the ARF includes old species roses and more contentiously (afaic) Austins (supposedly as a (tendentious) category of 'old' roses marketed as English roses (don't like em but am in a tiny minority).

The weedy silene dioica is the main floral coloniser in my woods...so I naturally embarked on a silene trip...but none of the rather thrilling reds have been successful here.

Comptesse - I have had the woods for 6 years now and have had a torrid time of it regarding roses. Deer predation, lack of sun and water has brutally winnowed out my original plantings, cuttings and transplants, leaving me with a scant handful of survivors (including Nevada and Alba semiplena and a couple of Ayteshires, so not all bad. Am having another go round as the allotment is seriously too full.

Ah - umbellifer of the moment - molopospermum peloponnesiacum seeds on order.

What brand is your loup. Do you have a photo of it? They are good for looking for mites on cactus and stuff like that. a whole new perspective on our little critters too.

That is a very worthy looking umbrellafur. Seems like it favors a dry Medditeranean climate. I'm going to give our native cow parsnip Heracleum maximum a try. I thought it was comeparable in size to your striped hemlock, but I just saw this picture. I was told this plant would max out at 6 ft. in flower. It's at least twice that in this picture. This is like Ricinus, Gunnera territory. I did exagerate about the pots, it was more like 400 or something that seems about right. I have to order about 400 myself. Does it get cold enough there to winter sow? It gets confusing trying to understand when things grow in different areas. Winter is in the air up north here, yet Texas just got a lot of rain and is having a second spring. The milky bubbles are best. Not clear, not amber, milky bubbles. I thought the Heracleum would fit my prairie theme, but it might be more of a side show attraction. Birds could build nests in these huge ulbrells.

I have one of those loop things with a light. I have found that they are perfect when you have one of those rose thorns or splinters which are totally invisible to the naked eye, but hurt when you brush against them. When you look at them with the loop, they look gigantic, and then it is easy to pull them out with good tweezers.

I also use them too look at marks on silver, which can be teeny tiny and impossible to read.

Jackie

Its really a great Idea..

Oh no, you brought this up. Good omen!

Campanula, my sleep patterns are all reversed and I'm up all night. I was just wondering if you have ever grown Angelica acutiloba or Angelica taiwaniana. I was researching and found them. I was going to avoid Angelicas because they are so big, but I'm growing Heracleum maximum so that's not a good excuse lol! The A. acutiloba looks like it might have multiple flowering stems. If I do grow one it will be A. atropurpurea. It's our native and I love the purple coloring. Strange I know, this early in the morning,(even for you) but I wanted to ask you, couldn't get access, and then this opportunity just magically presented itself lol.

Angelica taiwaniana

Angelica acutiloba

Cool! Could also use to look at insects close up - that could be fascinating, I could probably spend hours out there LOL!

I looooooooooove the excitement of learning new things, all stages of life. So fantastic! Wish I had been there to witness the astounding "wow" moment, Camp. There are so many beautiful things in life we have no idea about.

Looking out my window has emphasized to me in my "old age" how much I don't know. The tide comes in and out, never the same levels from day to day. The unpredictable wind creates unique patterns that mix with the always shifting current. And the sky changes colors and clouds. It's amazing that one simple spot of water can never look the same, all because of things I used to think were so simple and explainable. Then, the wildlife is icing on the cake.

Your first pic, Jay, looks disturbingly similar to the worrying heracleum mantegazzaneum, aka giant hogweed - a nasty, coumarin-laden thug - not remotely like our native hogweed, heracleum spondylium. I also grew a.taiwaniana, but forgot to save seeds - as a monocarpic umbel, I lost my chance of propagation. Mostly, I recall the stems looked a lot like old fashioned stripey pyjamas.

O Deanna - so much of my 20s, 30s, 40s was spent tearing around, eyes fixed on some distant horizon, failing to see what was all about me. Just standing still, observing without inserting myself into every situation, has been...illuminating.

I grew Angelica, Jay, in Alaska and here. They are magical. They always looked good.

Oh, so the mantegazzanianum(don't you just love saying that) isn't native for you either. And you do have your own native Heracleum which I never knew about, wow! Another surprise. What do you think of the Angelica acutiloba? I like it, it reminds me of Queen Annes Lace but nicer. No more seeds for now. I have Sium sauve I should be doing cartwheels just for that lol. I'm getting ready to sow some sedum glaucophyllum seeds. Those smoke partical sized seeds are so fun to work with. I'm going to look at one in my mini scope so I can see what they actually look like.

http://www.nonnativespecies.org/downloadDocument.cfm?id=30

Don't be tempted by H mantegazzaneum, Jay. The kid in shorts is headed for a horrendous blistering rash on his legs if he touches it. It's an alien invasive in the British Isles.

Returning to the OP, I don't have any revolutionary gadgets. Not even anything worthy of the name gadget. Basic tools only.

I would never floral. It's already gotten a bad reputation over here. Our native H. maximum is said to cause skin problems also, just not to the degree of mantegazzaneum. They just recorded the killer hogweed's spread into Michigan. Better watch out all you Michiganites!

I think the mantegazzaneum spreads mostly by seed , dying after setting (copious) seeds (monocarpic)...which does give you a chance of control by timely deadheading (got rid of conium maculatum in one season) but unfortunately, has a habit of growing near hard to reach estuaries, reedbeds and fens...and has that typical flat umbellifer seed which will raft along river courses until it finds a nifty berth further downstream. Heracleum spondylium does affect some people with skin sensitivities (not I) but I did get some really nasty, sunlight activated blistering from rue (ruta graveolens) a few years ago.