August 2010 in the Southern Hemisphere

[Maggi Young]

Viv Condon put on a display .... as well as some superb auricula primulas.
Remember these are my pictures but the plants are grown by Viv Condon!

those prims are interesting, i don't know anything about these---interesting colours/textures

 Have a look at this Wisley log to see some more, cohan...
http://www.srgc.org.uk/wisley/2008/240508/log.html

[Lesley Cox]

This is what I love about your rockery Fermi, everything socialises so well 

Fermi does too Robin.

That's a lovely colourful lot of Romuleas. Hope I get a chance to see these. Otto may well have thousands of snowdrops at present, but I bet in a couple of weeks he'll do a Ruth Draper on me.

[Lvandelft]

Oooh, such Romulea's! They are really beautiful Fermi.

[fermi de Sousa]

Oooh, such Romulea's! They are really beautiful Fermi.

Thanks, Luit,
unfortunately because the area is infested with weed species of romulea I have to grow most of the "ornamental" ones in pots to stop them being weeded out of the garden! Of course Romulea tetragona would be okay but I only have one flowering-size one of it!


Another hazard for romuleas in the ground is the fact that our native parrots, the sulphur-crested cockatoos, have learned to dig down to the corms for a bit of extra feed!

This is what I love about your rockery Fermi, everything socialises so well  

Fermi does too Robin.

That's a lovely colourful lot of Romuleas. Hope I get a chance to see these. Otto may well have thousands of snowdrops at present, but I bet in a couple of weeks he'll do a Ruth Draper on me.

Thanks, Robin and Lesley,
but Lesley, you'll have to explain the RD reference!
cheers
fermi

[rob krejzl]

I bet in a couple of weeks he'll do a Ruth Draper on me.

Sorry. Can't resist.

“As a matter of fact, you know I am rather sorry you should see the garden now, because, alas! it is not looking at its best. Oh, it doesn't compare to what it was last year.”

Some of us get 'em even when we say nothing.

[Tecophilaea King]

Just before the rain came down again I managed to take a few pictures of the always welcome Lachenalia contaminata, Lachenalia splendida and a rather nice spike of Lachenalia mutabilis.

[Tecophilaea King]

Wont be long before the beautiful Irises start flowering again, in the meantime the first of the Iris Sindpers and a container of the the Pacifis Coast iris seedlings coming into flower, one of our own from seed. 

[Tecophilaea King]

No need to say that I am always looking forward to the Tropaeolums showing their colours, like the Tropaeolum brachyceras and especially the exquisite Tropaeolum azureum.
Will take more pics of the Trops when the weather improves, I am getting sick of the rain now, and the blasted weeds grow twice as fast.  

[Lesley Cox]

Fermi, Rob is right. Ruth Draper was the (presumably English) woman who famously said,"Oh but you should have been here last Thursday...(or whenever). In other words, it was always better, or will be, than it is now.

A good form of Saxifraga oppositifolia is named for her.

[cohan]

Viv Condon put on a display .... as well as some superb auricula primulas.
Remember these are my pictures but the plants are grown by Viv Condon!

those prims are interesting, i don't know anything about these---interesting colours/textures

 Have a look at this Wisley log to see some more, cohan...
http://www.srgc.org.uk/wisley/2008/240508/log.html

thanks maggi..i did a little googling as well--hard to see how some of these forms arose from the species! not generally a fan of hybrids (which is prob why i didn't pay attention to this group before), but it is intellectually fascinating to see what some plants are capable of... in the case of this group, i do like the natural yellow species, and then some of those odd sort of non-flower coloured things are interesting ....don't care for the pretty frilly ones, but the browns, greys, off-yellows are rather cool..i wonder if there is any way to make those make visual sense in the open garden , maybe they must be in pots? interestingly, the species is hardy to zone 2-3 reliably! don't know about the fancy ones, but wrightman's offers some...