January 2014 in the Southern Hemisphere

[Lesley Cox]

A cool day to start the new year so I'll go out later maybe but for now am enjoying a little bit of a break on the Forum and am pleased to start a new thread for the Southern Hemisphere. Of course there's a One Day Cricket match on in Queenstown which I may listen to on the radio (not televised on Free-to-Air) and I'm also listening to "Settling the Score," a twelve hour (8am-8pm) radio programme of classical music chosen by the station's listeners, (each listing his/her 3 favourite works for the year) and the most chosen 60 are played, sometimes not in full which is a bit frustrating. A real mixture of works from the 12th century until the present time and not necessarily what one might expect so always some surprises. I think the programme is in its 15th year now.

Cool and wet weather through Nov/Dec have meant that I'm living in a temperate jungle at present. The weeds are legion and more happily, what I've so far planted is thriving and growing like...Weeds! Seeds too are continuing to germinate when in other years they stop around October until another burst in the autumn. Primula seeds from Barnhaven were sown the first week of November, started to germinate 3 weeks later and some are already potted up. I bought a total of 31 packets, mainly as future nursery plants and almost all have germinated well, especially the acaulis types but also sieboldii forms and a selection of different auriculas. Only a mix of marginata/allionii forms has yet to germinate.

A few pictures below of things which have been good recently. The little perennial violas are such good value. I have a locally produced black called, not surprisingly, 'All Black' but it's difficult to photograph. It and 'Haslemere' are sterile which is good because with 'Major Primrose' picking dead heads with developing seed is a daily task. Alas, I have lost my precious 'Jackanapes.' The penstemoon is photographed too late for its best, a pure colour but tending purple in its last flowers. It will bloom again if I trim off these stems. I bought the pale yellow hosta while filling in time between salestable shifts at the rose show where our Iris group were invited to have a stall and the white centred one was here when we came. I don't know its name

[Lesley Cox]

The Iris ensata cultivar may well be called 'Emperor.' It's very sumptuous and velvety. I didn't like these huge flat flowers much for many years but they've grown on me and this year I've been able to obtain several. They're liking the damp conditions here. Before I went to the Cz Rep I planted in a great hurry, 7 different forms of Gladiolus nanus, modern cultivars and hoped for a great show. Only one has obliged with 12 stems from the 5 corms. 3 others are up but not flowering and the remaining 3 haven't showed at all, perhaps because of the drowning winter we had. It's quite likely the corms rotted. I'll get more this coming autumn and plant them in big pots because this one, called 'Impressive' is truly a wonderful thing, the colour being a soft creamy salmon shade, prettier than in the picture. Chocolate Cosmos forms are doing really well, the black here being a seedling and already with seed forming as I'm hand pollinating each flower. The redder form is called 'Coco Chanel' and seems to be sterile but I'm trying its pollen on the darker flower in hope of getting seed that will bloom redder. The eryngium is called 'Picos Blue,' grown a few years ago from Marcus Harvey's seed. It is viciously prickly but I love the silver and steely blue combination.

[Lesley Cox]

This super little blue daisy is called Charieis heterophylla and I've had it off and on for many years. It can be sown where it is to flower as it is an annual unfortunately but so easy and the seed is easy to gather and hold until frost is past. It is often confused with Felecia bergeriana whose rays are peacock blue and whose disc is yellow. I am filling in spaces with the Charieis so there will be masses of seed later in the summer if anyone would like it to try. Ajuga 'Arctic Fox is cute and takes on a beetroot colour to replace the white, in very cold or winter conditions, whitening again when the spring comes. There's just a touch of pink there now. I like the ground orchids which are so easy and seeded around in the Saddle Hill garden so that when I moved I had about 100 in small pots. I hoped they do it here too. They make popular plants for sale and all of my transported lot have now gone. I have this one as Dactylorhiza foliosa but I'm not sure that the specific name is correct. They do hybridize somewhat, My favourite is D. maculata with richly spotted leaves. I have to show a rose I suppose. In fact there have been some really good ones and I'll certainly keep what I believe (I'm told by the Rose Soc people) is probably a relatively modern Bourbon rose bred by Kordes in Germany in the early 50s, and called 'Robusta.' It is about 2 metres high at present, heading for the heights by way of a cherry tree and had no sooner finished flowering in late October than there were new buds, still out now. A final picture for the moment, the first stages of my little nursery. There are three beds occupied, all with shade loving plants, the furthest of my own things for planting out ASAP and the nearer two with a few things from the garden but most from the first cuttings I took here of moved plants, and seedlings. The one disadvantage about this position is that while the shade is superb, under the trees (huge plums) there are drips, leaf, flower and fruit fall and roots popping through everywhere. It would be a massive and very expensive job to remove them and of course I'd have to arrange other shade so some protection will be needed, especially from heavy rain and dripping. But everything's growing like crazy and I'll be able to do a list very soon I think. The nearest bed, - the gravel bottom is visible at the front - is also in shade but then there will be 4-6 differently shaped beds in full sun. Roger is building these for me and I'm doing the gravel then filling with plants. The divided driveway has a V-shaped planted out area at the far end, also very shady and it, like everything else must have anti rabbit protection all the time, a nuisance but the little brutes dig and undermine things which fall into the holes, and they eat a large selection as well. As seen in several pictures, there is netting of various kinds, put down in a hurry mostly, to combat a new outrage.

[Lesley Cox]

Just out of picture at the very top of the last one, is the railway line so you can see, it's very close. Sometimes I think the trains are coming in!

Well, that's the morning of New Year's Day totally gone. Time for a tomato sandwich.

[Anthony Darby]

We tried, and failed, to find a New Year's eve TV programme that would bring in the New Year. Ended up watching the news to see the fireworks from the Sky Tower. There was nothing cheery on the TV. Bring back Scotch and Wry.

[Lesley Cox]

I couldn't find anything either Anthony, nor on radio. Roger went to bed about 10pm so I ended up reading until midnight, had a small Glenfiddich then went to bed myself. Slept quite well.

[Anthony Darby]

We can see the Sky Tower from the end of our street. First time it's been clear enough to see the fireworks! Lots of fireworks going off around us. Heidi was neither up nor down. We stayed up because James's all night party finished at 1 a.m. as the hostess (his school friend) was working today, so I had to go an pick him up. It was supposed to be an overnighter! As usual, his friend from two streets away asked for a lift. No problem, but it seems to be always my turn.  My wife's niece from Bridge of Allan is staying, and she brought a bottle of Deanston single malt from our former neighbours.  I've yet to sample it.

[David Nicholson]

HNY to both of you

[Anthony Darby]

And the same to you David.

[fenius]

Happy New Year then!! On the subject of new year cheer, we went to the movies yesterday and watched 12 years a slave.. Leslie, the violas and gladiolus are very pretty, speechless for the cosmos atrosanguineus; I ordered a very expensive (due to weight) rootstock this year as I was led to believe by T&M  that its seeds occur as often as a unicorn with two tails..

[Lesley Cox]

As often as a unicorn with two tails? That's possibly even rarer than a unicorn with a twisted horn on its head. T and M should know better as a certain daffodil grower in Yorkshire - a Forumist - let them have seed a couple of years ago, but they applied conditions of non-supply to her. Those don't apply to me however, so if all goes well I'll have some seed later in the summer in which case you may like to try some? I have about 50 young plants in my new little nursery, coming along nicely, all from last summer's seed. Was it from T and M that you bought your tuber Fenius? If so, there's a possibility that it was from the seed they were sent in which case your tuber could be fertile. They take a couple of years from seed to make a decent tuber which of course can subsequently be divided, as with a dahlia. Even if they have grown on their seedlings and are using them for propagation, the young ones could be fertile. It's worth hand pollinating. I sowed seed in October when frosts were just about finished and these are the result. I see this morning that some already have buds in them!

[fenius]

that's what I read when I searched seeds http://www.thompson-morgan.com/cosmos-article
It's an older article but seeds were not to be found on ebay or elsewhere.. Anyway, I ended up ordering it from someone on ebay, not t&m because I'm in greece and I think they only send seeds here..  It's a good sized plant in a 2lt pot, I keep it inside for now and it grows new leaves every day.
I'm gardening on my balconies, Leslie, so I try to stick to the no room for more than one of each species policy but thank you for offering (again!  ), if I kill it I'll come to you begging for seeds eventually! If I don't and mine sets seeds too I'll spread the word (&seeds!)

[Maggi Young]

Lesley has some Poppy pictures in the animal thread  - it's a long story!! -
http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=6476.msg289908#msg289908

[Lesley Cox]

Thank you Maggi. I can just hear you saying "this b...... woman' and sighing deeply. 

I meant to post this picture earlier then couldn't find it in my pictures, to resize enough to post. So
here it is now but a bit out of season.

Back in October 2011, Davy P sent me some seed of Gladiolus floribundus. It started to flower in Oct 2013, just 2 years after sowing. Not bad! There were 3 stems and another 4 or 5 which haven't bloomed yet. A pretty pale creamy colour with reddish lines and large for the height of the plant, about 15 cms in these seedlings. No seed yet.

[fermi de Sousa]

We saw this native eryngium on the road-side yesterday and I plucked a stem to bring home as I didn't have the camera with me (hopefully some seed might ripen as well!)
I think this is Eryngium ovinum, commonly called "Blue devil" and you know it if you aren't careful when handling it - it bites!
The first pic is taken against a background of the imported Eryngium planum (or is it E. maritimum?) which is the third pic,
cheers
fermi