March 2014 in the Southern Hemisphere

[fermi de Sousa]

It's officially autumn down here and we woke to the sound of rain!
Only 8mm so far but that's the heaviest we've had in this part of the country since the beginning of December. Still some hot weather (30oC) predicted for the next week, but I hope the heat wave conditions we endured earlier are finished for this season.
The first colchicum is out and I'm sure the Cyclamen hederifolium won't be far behind. During the week I was at the Victorian Bulb Group and saw that many "harbingers" of autumn already in flower, but they'd had rain the week before.
We have to hope for much more rain to put an end to the fire danger period,
cheers
fermi

[Anthony Darby]

I was up at 6.30 a.m. to take my daughter and a friend to play a school tennis match (her school's girls' B team) against Pakuranga College. Matches started just before 8.30 and with a southerly wind and an air temperature of 19^oC it felt decidedly Baltic!

[Lesley Cox]

You'll be very happy with that rain Fermi. I hope you have some more soon.

Anthony you're getting soft up there in the tropics. We'd be grateful for 19 over the last few days. Down to 12 on a couple of days and that was still in the official summer. We didn't really HAVE a summer in the far south this year, only occasional really warm days. (Inland was better). Yesterday, 1st of March, was a bitterly cold southerly which kept the crowds away from the little Milton market I've been selling at, so a miserable day all round really. We've had 40 mm of rain over the last two weeks, mostly in savage downpours which didn't last long but were heavy while they did.

[Anthony Darby]

We're having a drought Lesley. No meaningful rain since Christmas. Not exactly the tropics though. Don't think we've reached 30^oC this summer. We keep getting the odd shower, but the pavements are so warm they dry within a few minutes and nothing penetrates the soil. I have Cyclamen africanum flowering, still in the pot they were sowed less than three years ago. Mix of white and pink flowers. It's the only Cyclamen sp. I have flowering though. I have leaves on graecum, cyprium, libanoticum, repandum and persicum. Terry Hatch used to grow all the then known species until a neighbour ripped out his vineyard and all the vineweevils marched over to his nursery and wiped them all out. He still has hederifolium, which was in flower when I visited last week. He was down in Christchurch judging at the Ellerslie Flower Show. I would take a picture of my plants, but camera number one has a smashed screen glass, so is at the repairers and camera number two suffered from being placed on top of my computer and has a purple haze over the display. 

[Maggi Young]

.........at the Ellerslie Flower Show.........

Where I believe the NZAGS won a Silver medal for their display. Congratulations to all involved in that after what seems to have been a tricky season all round. 

[fermi de Sousa]

On Sunday the first of the cerise form of Amaryllis belladonna came into flower - apart from the 10mm of rain the day before they hadn't received any water since the start of summer which may account for their short stature!
cheers
fermi

[Otto Fauser]

As Fermi wrote autumn has arrived here and it started with Colchicum bivonae in my garden a few days ago . Cyclamen purpurascens are still performing strong and I was amazed how well they stood up a few weeks ago to several days over 40 C  shaded by trees and shrubs .
   and a couple of natives : Triplardenia cunninghammii growing in rain forests and the very slow growing Tasmanian alpine shrublet  Prionetes cerinthoides (Epacridacea ) ,which may after many years start to climb up a tree fern trunk .

[Maggi Young]

Especially interesting to see these beautiful Australian native plants, Otto.
Triplardenia cunninghammii  with the pristine white against the  deep green foliage is lovely -  are there many native Australian  members of the Colchicaceae ?


As you might imagine, the  Prionetes cerinthoides is something else that "ticks all the boxes" for my plant likes!

[Lesley Cox]

The Prionotes is especially beautiful. I saw it up tree trunks in the Mt Field National Park a few years ago. Marcus has listed seed of it. Otto, is the Triplardenia the thing from the garden at the Flower Show venue? I've momentarily lost the name of the garden, sorry. I grew just one seedling for about 5 years but it then died out. Didn't flower though.

Anthony poor old Christchurch has had a shocking time this week with flooding, gales and tornadoes, roof taken off and so on. We've had a lot of wind and rain but no damage worth speaking of. A bit of snow on the hills though. Early winter it seems and I've hardly started to sort out my potted bulbs yet. Wanted to get them repotted or planted out but mostly too late now as everything has roots. Daphne petraea is in flower again but still a mass of tiny bud growths for a good spring display I hope. Rabbits are flourishing too.

Cyclamen cilicium has joined hederifolium but C. coum foliage is almost a groundcover under the Magnolia. Very early but due to a wet summer I suppose.

[fermi de Sousa]

We paid a quick visit to Lambley Nursery, Ascot, yesterday as we were in the area; here are a few pics from their "Dry Garden"
cheers
fermi

[fermi de Sousa]

a few more pics from Lambley Nursery,

[fermi de Sousa]

The last few are of
the path up to the perennial border,
a couple of the border
and the last is in the Potager,
cheers
fermi

[Maggi Young]

Fermi, what is the plant in reply 10, * P1260121, please ?

[fermi de Sousa]

Fermi, what is the plant in reply 10, * P1260121, please ?

Hi Maggi,
I think that it's Cotyledon orbiculata, a succulent from South Africa,
cheers
fermi

[Maggi Young]

Hi Maggi,
I think that it's Cotyledon orbiculata, a succulent from South Africa,
cheers
fermi

Oh! I must have mis-read the scale completely- I thought it was something much bigger.