Like most public institutions, Phipps Conservatory is closed for the next two weeks at least. While we wait patiently for life to return to normal, old Pa Pitt will be reaching down into his immense stash of unpublished pictures to bring us some cheery color. These three slipper orchids were blooming just a few days ago in the Orchid Room. Above: Paphiopedilum Golden Acres.
Phragmipedium After Glo ‘John’s Happy Birthday.’
Paphiopedilum Via Casa Grande x Chans Temple.
Tithonia rotundifolia, the Mexican Sunflower, is a fine garden flower if you have some room for it: it can grow six feet high and spread just about as wide. Tall flowers in hot colors are fashionable again, but old Pa Pitt never cared for fashions in flowers. He just likes big bright annuals.
Urban weeds are different from suburban or rural ones. Petunias often escape and pop up in cracks of sidewalks. Usually these volunteer seedlings have smaller flowers than their hybrid ancestors, and often in more washed-out colors. This flower was blooming from a concrete stairway on the South Side Slopes.
Butter-and-Eggs or Toadflax (Linaria vulgaris) is a kind of wild snapdragon that came from Europe as an ornamental and made itself weedily at home. These plants were growing out of sidewalk cracks on the South Side Slopes. Note the two different color phases: one with bright orange centers, the other a more uniform primrose yellow.
Morning glories (Ipomoea purpurea) came here as ornamental garden flowers and have happily adapted to the life of a weed. They are, however, one of our most beautiful weeds, and not many of us resent them. These were blooming in Beechview at the end of August.
Balsam (Impatiens balsamina) is one of those old-fashioned garden flowers you don’t see too much anymore. Here are some fine examples from a garden in Beechview.
Camera: Konica Minolta DiMAGE Z3.
It had been raining all day, but in the evening there was enough of a lull for old Pa Pitt to get out and take these pictures. The daylilies are all unnamed varieties from a planting of mixed hybrid seedlings.
Camera: Canon PowerShot A590 IS.
This American native is one of our most beloved garden flowers. It blooms most of the summer, and it tolerates a wide variety of conditions. Butterflies love it, too. You can often find it growing wild around Pittsburgh, but it is currently one of the most fashionable garden flowers. This is a semi-wild specimen: it was a volunteer seedling whose parents were deliberately planted nearby.
Drumstick Alliums (Allium sphaerocephalon) are more and more popular, but still a bit odd-looking. These grew in Beechview, where they were in full bloom at the beginning of July.
