May 2007 in the Southern Hemisphere

[fermi de Sousa]

Mayday, mayday! Happy First of May to all the Forumists!
It's been a foggy morning here but the sun's now shining bright and we've had a bit of rain to finish off April with more promised for the weekend!
Here are a few pics from the autumn rock garden; Oxalis palmifrons which is mainly grown for its foliage and these are the first flowers I've seen in 5 years of growing it! You'll notice the label says "Narcissus" and that is because this oxalis has the unfortunate habit of roaming away from its label! Beware!
cheers
fermi

[Lesley Cox]

Well Fermi, at least you've had a flower. I haven't had even one in close to 20 years! But I had a pic from Andrew Broome in Palmerston North a couple of days ago with a lovely soft pink bloom like yours.

Oddly though, it grows perfectly well, I mean well behaved, for me, though now I come to think of it, I've never had it in the big wide world, only in pots.

Shouldn't you be packing by now?

[fermi de Sousa]

I have an hour's work left to do here then I'm off home via the bank!
Meeting Otto at the airport tomorrow at 12:30 for the 3:50 pm flight to Frankfurt in transit to Prague on Thursday.
cheers
fermi

[Anthony Darby]

From the sounds of it, you are having quite an adventure Fermi. Not sure if I'll make it to Aberdeen on the 19th (I think I have a family celebration to attend) but enjoy your trip. We have had the warmest April since records began nearly 350 years ago! I had the sprinkler on last night!

[Paul T]

Howdy All,

Some flowerings I've had during May......

This is a late form of Gladiolus dalenii, or should that be early?  It flowers late autumn into early winter.  I have others that are spring and summer variants as well.  Great colour for this time of year as they really light up in sunshine.

Various Iris unguicularis are in flower including this white form I bought as 'Snow Queen'.  Wonderful Autumn/Winter/Spring colour (some years they flower from March through until November (the latter only if I include their close relative Iris lazica which starts and finishes a little later.

I have a few jonquils that are earlier than normal this year as we have a very strange season, but also a bunch that I grew from seed from a guy in the US who was trying to extend the range of autumn colour forms by crossing all of his earliest types and species.  I always have some in flower by the end of May regardless of how the season is running.  The pic is of just one of them, which is reminiscent of the old faithful "Soliel d'Or".  Another I have opens pale yellow and fades out to white (with strong yellow cup staying the same throughout), which I don't recall having seen in jonquils before.  I must go out and photograph it as soon as I have posted these as the lgith should be just right I think.

The Tree Dahlias (Dahlia imperialis in this case) are in full flower at the moment.  Somewhere between 5 and 6 metres tall gives them quite an impact in the garden.  Great structural feature!

There are a few different Nerine species in flower at the moment so I thought I'd just post a pic of one of them.  Nerine pudica is quite distinctive as it is much more tubular in appearance than the other species.  As well as it I have Nerine undulata, flexuosa alba and humilis in flower or just finished.

[Maggi Young]

Do like that bright Glad, Paul, very cheerful and the Iris Snow Queen is a stunner! Really like the crystal white with that gold bar.  Everything looks good, I'd love to see the garden in person... I think we need more photos! Oh, that reminds me... what about the pix of that dog of yours... we're still waitng for that, too!!

[Paddy Tobin]

Paul,

Great to see such beautiful flowers. The Iris unguicularis is simply fabulous. As I. unguicularis is a plant we grow here it is particularly interesting to see a strikingly different cultivar. The dahlia is so strange to me, never seen the like of it. It seems like a bamboo with dahlia flowers on top.

Glad to see you posting your photographs again. I enjoyed them as a lurker last year and hope to see many more.


With best wishes,

Paddy