August 2014 in the Southern Hemisphere

[Jupiter]

A few from this afternoon. I got home from work and it was still light! What a novelty...

[Maggi Young]

Otto - your black hellebore is indeed deliciously black - and so is the foliage. I think it is quite unusual to have such very dark foliage, even on a good dark-flowered plant. We have often been disappointed that dark flowers do not come along with dark leaves.

[Maggi Young]

Jamus - great photos. The Zantedeschia is so elegant and mysterious. Speaking of mysterious, I thought for a moment you had a garden full of Zebra  - so many patterned legs 
But no, wrong  kind of black and white      A stunning shot - but I'm not sure  what it is - an aroid of some sort?

[Jupiter]

Dracunculus vulgaris stems rapidly expanding. It's one of my favourites, such a strange and wonderful beast. My wife isn't so keen on it. The smell puts her off a bit.   

[Maggi Young]

Dracunculus vulgaris stems rapidly expanding. It's one of my favourites, such a strange and wonderful beast. My wife isn't so keen on it. The smell puts her off a bit.   

Oh wow! Seems early in the season- are they getting an early start this year?  I wasn't thinking of something quite so "chunky" as Dracunculus.  Fab stems  - hope you don't have them too close to the house?

[Jupiter]

Close enough Maggi... close enough.     I love the plant and bought it with us when we moved house. Do you grow it up there in Scotland?

[Maggi Young]

Plenty do have it - we don't cos we've more than enough stinky aroids as it is! Ian delights in planting Arum dioscoridis near the back door, for instance  - "sigh"!!

[Jupiter]

I bought Arum dioscoridis from Marcus a few months ago. It's growing well but I don't think I'll get a flower this year. Do the flowers come before the leaves or after?

[Maggi Young]

Leaves grow then as they are going back it flowers. But in some years it flowers as the foliage is still quite fresh.

[Jupiter]

Oh that's promising! I think I'll feed it tomorrow morning and move it to a sunnier spot. You've made my night Maggi. 

[Stephen Vella]

Jamus your dracunculus stems look awesome..

[Jeffnz]

Colour description of hellebore flowers is a highly debatable topic.
I have engaged in discussions on 'black' hellebores on other forums and do not wish to cause any offence but the only way to verify the degree of blackness is to place a matt black card behind the flower and compare. The main anthocyanins in dark hellebores are reds and possibly blue which makes a true black unlikely. The same pigments are present in reds (not really a primary red) and dark hellebores, but the darker flowers have a higher concentration of pigment, the pigment colour can be changed by altering the pH  of the pigment extract becoming very dark when  the pH is highly alkaline.
While I seek and aim to breed the darkest of dark hellebores I refer to these as dark purple but not black.

[Jupiter]

Stephen, the stems are as weird and wonderful as the rest of the plant. I have a young clump of Dracunculus canariensis as well but haven't seen a flower yet. I'm told that one smells sweet, like vanilla ice cream or custard!    We shall see.

[Lesley Cox]

No offence is taken Jeff, regarding your "black" colour comments. Colour, like much else, is in the eye of the beholder. I have a TRULY black viola, a local seedling from way back, called, not surprisingly, 'All Black. And there's Viola 'Molly Sanderson' as well, really black. These are matt black while Viola 'Bowles' Black' tends to be a "gloss" colour and is annual or short-lived at least (a form of V. tricolor) while the other two are fully perennial. I'll post a picture later when mine are in bloom.

But Otto's Hellebore is that wonderful BLUE black with no sign of red or purple in it and one of my seedlings from it is the same. I guess it's like the search for a primary red or primary blue iris. Without the genes for those colours, they're not going to happen but no-one could say Iris histrioides isn't blue or Iris 'Concerto Grosso' (an arilbred) isn't red.

Your double yellow is a wonderful thing. 

[Jeffnz]

Lesley
My colour comments unfortunately are tainted by my  employment in the paint  industry where colour definition is strict and can be measured using a spectrophometer  and placed within a clearly defined colour space. Notwithstanding this I do turn a blind eye when the mood takes and blue black hellebores are a case in point, now is that blue black or slate?
I have 2 primrose doubles from the cross that gave rises to the primrose posted earlier, the other plant gives flowers with only 2 rows of sepals and has not flowered this year as hoped so I could cross the 2.
Pollen production by many of my doubles this years has been poor which I can only put down to the weatherS conditions.