April 2014 in the Southern Hemisphere

[fermi de Sousa]

The start of April and this fool is still awake so I may as well start the new thread!
In the garden another Sprekelia formosissima has opened - quite an achievement in our dry garden! I'll move some of these down to where they'll get more regular summer watering and hopefully they'll bloom more regularly.
Also the first Sternbergias are out - S. sicula is first this year with the first S. lutea not far behind!
cheers
fermi

[Maggi Young]

Ah, what a difference 12 thousand or so miles makes! If I could flower a Sprekelia in the open garden I'd be amazed-the poor thing would have to learn to swim as well as suffer the cold! It is just so exciting to see these exotic tender plants growing so happily in a garden setting.  Mind you, I could say that of a very large percentage of what you have growing happily at Redesdale, fermi!  It is a pleasure to see them, for sure.
As you move into autumn we have large clumps of colchicum foliage everywhere among the spring flowers - and today, the sun is shining so perhaps it is spring!

[David Nicholson]

.....................If I could flower a Sprekelia in the open garden I'd be amazed-the poor thing would have to learn to swim as well as suffer the cold!.......................

I struggled with it in the greenhouse for three years or so and never got it to flower before it finally bit the dust.

[Otto Fauser]

enjoying our "Indian Summer " days (as I am too ) are two "common " Cyclamen species that proliferate here in the open . The 52 year old tuber of graecum , (seed sown in 1961) has lost its vigour in old age and is no longer free flowering .

[Otto Fauser]

and a few Colchicums

[meanie]

I struggled with it in the greenhouse for three years or so and never got it to flower before it finally bit the dust.

For me, benign neglect works. Shove them somewhere where they can enjoy warm (not hot) days and cool(ish) nights and forget about them. They've caught me out and bloomed in their winter boxes in the shed before now.

[Tim Ingram]

These are not plants in the S. Hemisphere but from the S. Hemisphere. A nice little parcel from Lesley containing Richea scoparia and Hypericum kelleri. The former I have always wanted to grow ever since walking through swathes of it in Tasmania - I've tried and lost plants during hot summers (along with Richea dracophylla). These will be nurtured in a cooler spot near the nursery where they can get more watering in dry spells. The latter is a tiny endemic from Crete which has a fascinating range of hypericums (described by Nicholas Turland in the AGS Bulletin Vol. 58, p.310, 1990 and in 'The Flowers of Crete' with John Fielding and Brian Mathew). We are steadily collecting and growing more of these and it's great to add this rare plant to those we already have. They have been potted up in sandy cutting compost and put in a cool place to get going. Thank you Lesley!

[Paul T]

Lovely photos, Otto.

And well done, Tim.  I hope they grow brilliantly for you.

[fermi de Sousa]

Flowering seems to be all too much for this Brunvigia which has decided to lie down on the job!
It is what's been doing the rounds as B. josephinae but is likley to be a hybrid,
cheers
fermi

[Paul T]

Fermi,

If it is like the usual one doing the rounds then as far as I know it is an x Amarygia as it doesn't have the glaucus leaves of B. josephinae.  The leaves look pretty much like a normal belladonna on yours? (when they appear of course, not now)

[fermi de Sousa]

 Yes, Paul, I suspect that you're right about this hybrid.

... the first Sternbergias are out - S. sicula is first this year with the first S. lutea not far behind!

This row of Sternbergia lutea is growing in "rough grass" at the base of a rock wall and have been content to flower and even seed themselves there,
cheers
fermi

[fermi de Sousa]

At our AGS Vic group and FCHS Rock Garden Group Joint meeting there were plenty of great plants on the bench.
A close-up of a dark flowered Cyclamen hederifolium raised from seed by Andrew, a keen cyclamen grower,
cheers
fermi

[Paul T]

Thats a great dark hederifolium.

[Maggi Young]

Thats a great dark hederifolium.

... and the foliage is well marked too - a bonus!

[fermi de Sousa]

A few more from the garden today:
Biarum davisii
Sternbergia sicula - in a bed which has been invaded by couch-grass
Zephyranthes drummondii

cheers
fermi