The times they are a changing .....

[ronm]

On many threads we discuss the late flowering of this or the early flowering etc. of that.
This coming week is a local landmark event for us here in East Yorkshire. Starting tonight, for one week, its Hull Fair. Its held at the same time every year ( covering the second Tuesday in October ).

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=hull+fair&hl=en&prmd=imvns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=PR1vUOyZFbCV0QWn3oHwDA&sqi=2&ved=0CB4QsAQ&biw=1366&bih=643

So What? Well its just struck Nora and I, while discussing this with elder family members, that we used to 'stomp' through piles of dropped leaves, and collect many conkers on the way to fair! Always very cold and very often frost in the air. This year the leaves are almost all still on the trees, and so are the fruits!!
My crocuses are later than ever before, but they are so small as indicators. Trees are another matter! Is this a trend across the world?

[Leon]

Here in the Heartland of the USA this past week I enjoyed the blooms of Lycoris radiata.  They usually make their display on October 1st so they were pretty much on schedule or just a bit early.  We are expecting a killing freeze tomorrow night with temperatures around 25° F (-4° C).  Generally our first hard freeze is later than this near the middle of the month. The trees all have their leaves still and not much in the way of color change has occurred.

[Maggi Young]

That sounds like a nasty chill  you are expecting, Leon. Hope that not too much damage is done.
We're getting colder temps here than we'd like at this time too. It has been such an odd year. I wonder if anything is really "normal" anymore? It's enough to drive this gardener crazy!

[johnw]

Here in the Heartland of the USA this past week I enjoyed the blooms of Lycoris radiata.  They usually make their display on October 1st so they were pretty much on schedule or just a bit early.

Leon  - Do tell me what they need......... please!

I got a dozen bulbs in 1975 from Park's or Burpee's and have grown them in pots ever since.  They have never flowered.  I have even grown them in a blistering hot greenhouse the past couple of years but still nothing yet they have multiplied like mad.   An 85 year old friend grew them in her garden in Midlothian just outside of Richmond, Virginia and they flowered relaibly every year.  I think she divided them ocassionally.   What magical flowers they are!

The Nerine sarniensis have started flowering indoors here, no sign of buds yet on N. bowdenii yet.

Are you in the Midwest of the USA?

johnw

[Leon]

John,

I am located about 25 miles west of the Kansas City Metro in Zone 5 and L. radiata is a zone 7 plant.  I only grow them in the ground not in pots.  I put them in protected areas such as on the south side of my house and on the south side of a raised bed and one batch is more exposed on the east side of a retaining wall. They all seem to do fine in these three locations.  I had about 25 blooms this year.  With warmer weather every year I keep testing zone hardiness.  Many plants want free root run.  Perhaps Lycoris is something that would rather be in the ground.   Lycoris radiata is a bulb that wants to be just under the surface of the ground.  I initially planted them 6-8 inches deep but I moved some of them 4 years later and found they had moved themselves up by 1½ inch each year.  You could see the old bulb casing from each of the prior years.

I also have some Crinums that have done well for me even though they are farther north than they would prefer.

Leon

[johnw]

Leon - Thanks so much leon.  I have tried them in protected spot here but I think the cold or winter wet get them, not much luck here flowering L. squamigera though lately it persists.

I will take a shot of the big tub of them tonight.  The half that are undergound have leafed  - up 6" maybe - and are lusty, thise atop the soil are slow and barely leafing.  Do you keep them dry or moist when dormant?

Do take some pix before that frost, I'm sure you will have everyone on the forum drooling.

johnw

[Leon]

John,

My Lycoris blooms are mostly spent. If anything remains I will try to get a photo tomorrow.  Now the forecast is to be overcast for most of the night so it will not get as cold as predicted earlier.  I assume it will only go down to about the freezing point.    I really let Mother Nature take care of my L. radiata.  Some are in a dryer location partly protected from rain from the roof overhang.  Others are in a location where water from the roof of the house runs right by them.  Both locations consistently bloom.

I have a lot of Lycoris Squamigera.  I had several hundred blooms.  Of coarse they bloom much earlier than L. radiata. 

The threat of a hard freeze sure did get me moving and I got most of my tender items indoors.   I have a huge plant of Passiflora belotii that will be gone with the first killing freeze.  I hate to see that plant go.  I enjoyed about 200 blooms on that plant this year.  Hopefully cuttings that I have taken will provide me with a replacement plant for next summer.

Leon

[ronm]

Thank you Davey for pointing me in the direction of this amazing work, by a very interesting lady,

http://www.naturescalendar.org.uk/survey/jeancombes.htm

[ronm]

wow.... shows where these SRGC Forum threads lead,

http://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/en/Pages/default.aspx

I certainly wasn't aware there was a ban on importing these sp.!!
Why aren't these diseases more widely advertised??

[ronm]

Fascinating programme on BBC4 England at the moment.
All about this sort of thing,

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/may/18/should-worried-about-weather

[Leon]

Last night was our first light freeze and killing frost.  I have lived here for 32 years and I think this is just about average for the time of first killing frost.

[Anthony Darby]

Big hooha in New Zealand recently, with botanic gardens and scientists' houses being raided because someone has renamed a variety of a species of Kauri after himself  (Agathis silbae) and it is supposedly banned. Samples and computers taken away. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=10840990

[Paul T]

How sad, and so embarrassing for the government.  I hope they appreciate that these raids are being labelled "Monty Pythonesque".... just shows how ridiculous it is making them look.