November 2013 in the northern hemisphere

[johnralphcarpenter]

Amazingly, on 1st November we still have a few Crocosmia in flower (sort of)!

Camellia oleifera.

[johnw]

Amazingly, on 1st November we still have a few Crocosmia in flower (sort of)!Camellia oleifera.

Very nice Camellia John.  I did not expect such a nice flower on oleifera from what I've read.  I finally have buds formed on August-produced shoots on RHS RCM seed.  Are your leaves matte?  Have here are matte and the others semi-matte, leaves are rather elongated compared to japonica.

johnw - +17c and blowing a gale here. 

[johnralphcarpenter]

Very nice Camellia John.  I did not expect such a nice flower on oleifera from what I've read.  I finally have buds formed on August-produced shoots on RHS RCM seed.  Are your leaves matte?  Have here are matte and the others semi-matte, leaves are rather elongated compared to japonica.

johnw - +17c and blowing a gale here.

No, leaves are glossy; picture attached. The only one I have with sort of matte leaves is Camellia granthamiana, and even these are shiny matte, if that is possible (also pictured)

[cohan]

Although I still had a few alpines in flower, everything is now buried! We had around 10-15cm on Oct 28, though a lot of that melted, then sat/sunday we got another around 35cm....
1- part of some new xeric beds/berms - showing part of why this is the right spot for xeric beds- there is less snow cover at this end of the yard, and in front of a large spruce..
2-rock gardens, berms etc in the lower, wetter end of the acreage, much deeper snow...

[Maggi Young]

Ah well, no more weeding or grass-cutting for this season then, cohan?  ( always a silver lining of some kind!)

[johnw]

John

Seems as if I have a problem then.  I have 5 or 6 labelled oleifera from the RHS RCM Group.  One of those has glossy leaves resembling japonica but the others have matte narrowish foliage.  I photograph the narrow flower buds and foliage tomorrow.

johnw

[astragalus]

Cohan, I love your pictures of the snow with the blue shadows, beautiful.  At least you can say that your plants are now protected.  Does your snow cover usually stay through the winter?

[cohan]

Maggi- indeed, no more outdoor gardening for months to come! I can't complain since we had a good fall stretch of dry warmish weather, good for working outdoors but enough frosty nights to get most plants ready for dormancy.. Now the work shifts to shovelling snow and cutting/hauling firewood!

Anne- thanks- yes, there is lots of beauty in this season, thank goodness- need some kind of upside! I was already building my gardens in ridges and berms to enhance drainage etc, but realised over winter that the mounds add greatly to the winter interest under the snow. As to snow remaining- we usually have pretty consistent cover in mid-winter, though plants need to be able to take some pretty low temperatures exposed, as it can happen in fall, spring or worst of all, late winter. We can get to at least -20C before snow cover stays, though this year, we only got to around -14C or so before the snow came.
Most at risk are dry areas of the property- along south edge of spruce trees, fences, walls etc (such as where I've put my xeric beds (so far for native and other western North American plants), also at the higher/drier end of the yard), and certain parts of the woods (don't have any plantings in there yet) where snow never seems to settle more than a few inches, and can easily become exposed during warmish spells. Natives such as Pyrolas and to a lesser extent Linnaea and Mitella, are often exposed in these late winter  warm-ups and are still able to survive with temps that go back down to -20 to -30C or worse, and sit very dry during the warm spells with the ground still frozen.
My eurasian rock gardens and berms (second photo in my previous post) are in the lower wetter end of the property, and mid-winter snow cover usually remains at around/over a foot during the coldest months, though likely a bit less on raised/sloped plantings.

[shelagh]

Here is the last of Sax. fortunei in pots to come into flower it's called Conwy Snow and if you look carefully some of the flowers seem to be semi double. Rather pretty.  The ones in the garden were ruined by a very heavy hailstorm last Saturday.

[David Nicholson]

Shelagh, I'm quite taken with Sax. fortunei. I have one in the garden that does reasonably well. I can't remember it's name but in the unlikely event that it doesn't chuck it down tomorrow I'll check on it. Do you grow yours in pots for showing or do they do better than in the garden?

[shelagh]

Morning David,

We have 3 or 4 in pots for the late Shows and about the same number in the garden.  Sax. fortunei Early Ruby is the largest specimen and when it flowers well looks like an old fashioned Roman Candle.  We haven't tried this one outside.  Sax. fortunei Mount Naachi does well outside as do S. f. obtusocuneatum which is just about the smallest of them all.  They certainly seem to survive all our weather up here in Bury and ofcourse the Aberconwy varieties all seem pretty hardy.  Those in pots stay in the cold frames all year unless we are trying to bring out the flowers for Shows when they have a short sojourn in the greenhouse.

[David Nicholson]

Thanks for that Shelagh, I shall look out for some more. Mine is 'Rubrifolia', way past it's best now but it's a good doer.

[dominique]

this year, cold don't want to come here in Burgundy, then autumn leaves are not so nice than classic years, but Corylus americana has so nice nuts ! Acer cissifolium and Betula lenta

[shelagh]

Lovely mellow colours Dominique.

[johnralphcarpenter]

Camellia sasanqua 'Maiden's Blush' looks good next to the autumn colours of Rhdodendron luteum