March 2013 in the Southern Hemisphere

[cohan]

Otto- a few square inches of that would be pretty striking!

[Hoy]

Hoy I should imagine that no self respecting Meconopsis would even grow here. At least the Habranthus will give  the weedy Romulea a run for its money. We all have our own weedy plants.

Well, sometimes I think other peoples weeds are prettier than mine

[Mini bulb lover]

Otto,

My Rhodophiala bifida from Ferny Creek looks like it's just starting to send up a flower bud. Hopefully it will bloom well now that the continuous days of 30°C+ heat have come to an end (thank goodness). 

[fermi de Sousa]

No Rhodophialas out here either!
More autumn blooms:
Lycoris elsae
A white Amaryllis belladonna hybrid
cheers
fermi

[arillady]

I thought when the first flower came out on a belladonna in the garden that it was pure white but then the pink came to the edges as the flower aged. It is growing in a lot of shade.

[anita]

Hi,
Rhodophiala bifida are blooming on the Adelaide plains.. in fact they were blooming in February, the attached photo was taken on February 21. Odd little story to go with these bulbs.. I bought three bulbs from Drewitts bulbs back in 09, I've had one flower scape a year and just leaves from the other two bulbs. This year all three bulbs flowered and produced two scapes each. Now I'm wondering whether I had different bulbs flower each year but assumed because of their proximity that the same bulb flowered while the others sulked. Anyway this year was great. A random feather blew onto the lawn while the bulbs were flowering so I transferred the pollen.. and now there is seed setting for the first time!
And this is cheating a little... because I didn't get a chance to post in February here are a couple of others that bloomed then Amarine and Lycoris (supposed to be aurea but I'm not sure - they certainly are the brightest of yellows) and a few blooming now Sternbergia lutea and two colchicium species (again these are common in old Adelaide gardens but I'm not certain of the species. I think Colchium 1 is byzantium and 2 is agrippinum).

[anita]

Continuing post .. to add Colchicium pics

[Hillview croconut]

Hi,

Apologies for breaking the flow of flowers. Couldn't resist showing the snake I trod on in January. Finally caught him lurking by the sternbergias. Just knelt down to pollinate the little blighters and out of the corner of my eye I caught sight of Mr Tiger slipping away along the line of the boxes. Thank God it was going away! It caught itself in some bird netting and put on a very muscular show until I called Reptile Rescue. They had to snip him out of the netting with some scissors I lent them. He turned out to be she - apparently a pregnant she!

Cheers, Marcus

[arillady]

She is certainly a fine specimen! Glad you didn't get bitten. A friend uses bird netting to catch snakes but she also despatches them with a shotgun.

[Anthony Darby]

 I would have thought snakes would be useful in keeping rodent numbers down. Having seen YouTube of mouse plagues in Oz. Killing rattlers in the US is producing populations of silent snakes, as the rattle gives them away and brings instant death.

[Hillview croconut]

Hi Anthony,

Yes they probably are. I wasn't trying to get rid of it and would have left it alone except it had caught itself in the netting ... And I wasn't interested in giving it a hand to extricate itself. The snake was relocated by the guy who caught it. I think there is a lot of fear and loathing about these animals and in the bad old days people destroyed them at every opportunity. I can understand this if a snake takes up residence close to one's home and there are small children or pets about. Tassie has only 3 species and all of them are quite shy and fairly unaggressive. I may have a different view of them if I lived where Pat or Fermi are. I believe the King Brown is very aggressive and a dangerous proposition.

Cheers, Marcus

[Hillview croconut]

Hi Anita,

What are you growing the colchicums through? I ask this because Michael McCoy has a piece on his blog asking gardeners how they dealt with the problem of companion planting with these plants. Here is the link: http://thegardenist.com.au/2013/03/rsvplant/

Cheers, Marcus

[Anthony Darby]

Hi Anthony,

Yes they probably are. I wasn't trying to get rid of it and would have left it alone except it had caught itself in the netting ... And I wasn't interested in giving it a hand to extricate itself. The snake was relocated by the guy who caught it. I think there is a lot of fear and loathing about these animals and in the bad old days people destroyed them at every opportunity. I can understand this if a snake takes up residence close to one's home and there are small children or pets about. Tassie has only 3 species and all of them are quite shy and fairly unaggressive. I may have a different view of them if I lived where Pat or Fermi are. I believe the King Brown is very aggressive and a dangerous proposition.

Cheers, Marcus

I realise that Marcus and was impressed you went to the trouble. My view is if you have a problem with local snakes you either live with it or move. Certain parts of the world are now over run with rats because snakes have been eradicated.

[arillady]

Yes I say live with it ... now that the brown snake seems to have moved on out of the garden. But snakes are fascinating to watch from a safe distance. Like traveling around the pots in the pond looking for frogs or digging into clumps of kangaroo grass to find a toad to eat.
Seeing archival footage recently of mouse plagues certainly opened my eyes to how bad they can get. Also rabbit plague footage was amazing.

[arillady]

What a difference a day or two makes. Oxtongue lilies emerging and being being stepped on by chooks or kangaroos.
Otto your bulb has flowered for me - lovely.
The Belladonna which ages to soft pink from a crystal clear white