August 2014 in the Southern Hemisphere

[Jupiter]

A few from tonight. Spring is creeping in, but not fast enough for me! Tired of the cold and we're all looking forward to more sunshine.

This little Ipheion was a gift from Trevor Nottle, but I cant remember what he said it was called... shame on me. 




Hermodactylus tuberosus; must be the hardest flower to capture faithfully in a photograph, EVER! I'll try again when the sun is shining, that might help with the translucency.




And the first image of my series on Cerinthe "Purpurascens", as it looks now.




And a closeup here showing the merest beginning of blue on the smallest bract.

[arillady]

Hermodactylus tuberosus here yesterday.

[Jupiter]

Lovely warm light in your photo Pat. It was almost dark when I took mine. It has an indescribable colour doesn't it?

[arillady]

Yes I do love it's strange colour combination.

[Anthony Darby]

Hermodactylus tuberosus here yesterday.

I'm on the look out for seeds, unless someone in New Zealand has tubers?

[Jupiter]

Anthony if you don't find anyone with tubers you're welcome to seed from mine when they are ripe.

[fermi de Sousa]

Hi Jamus,
The Ipheion looks like 'Rolf Feidler' sometimes called I.peregrinans, though not everyone agrees!
I think that the Cerinthe major varies greatly in the colouration of the bracts and you need to select for the best colour - it's like the way "all the gladdies have turned white" because the white ones are more prolific in reproducing.
cheers
fermi

[David Nicholson]

Jamus, you take a lovely picture.

[Jupiter]

Thanks fermi. I have a lot of plants this year so I'll see what variation I see between them once they all come into flower. I'm expecting to see some development of colour as well.

Thank you David, I enjoy photography and would love to have time to do more. When I started I used to shoot black and white on film and develop them in the laundry with the window taped up. Ahhh those were the days. 

[Lesley Cox]

I can't help with tubers(?)/bulbs of the Hermodactylus Anthony but if you have joined NZAGS, several people in Chch grow it well. I'm thinking particularly of Peg Tocher who has or had a lovely flowering patch a while back when I was there. Maybe a small ad in the NZAGS newsletter would produce a result. I can't flower the darned thing.

[Hillview croconut]

I have TONS of seed. Send PM and we can go from there.

Lovely photos on this thread. I think I should be getting you to take my catalogue pictures Jamus!

Wet cold day today so I'll post a few pics to cheer myself up:

A series of common Cyclamen coum pictures and two crocus that I have already posted this season, Crocus gargaricus, a tough little customer from western Turkey with varnished yellow flowers and C. biflorus ssp pulchricolor, another great little plant from the colder NW of Turkey.

Cheers, Marcus

[Hillview croconut]

PS I meant to address this to Anthony. I will have a seed list out soon which will include this species plus lots of others.

A few more pictures:

Fritillaria forbesii is an elegant plant from the SW of Turkey under threat from loss of habitat.
Fritillaria davisii isn't always chocolate brown. This one is from Kalou in the Inner Mani where most of its native range has been cleared to make way for olive groves.
Fritillaria spetsiotica from the island of Spetses. This particular population has almost been entirely wiped out by forest fires and subsequent reforestation.
Oh, and a better close up of Cyclamen coum et. al.

Cheers, M

[Anthony Darby]

I can't help with tubers(?)/bulbs of the Hermodactylus Anthony but if you have joined NZAGS, several people in Chch grow it well. I'm thinking particularly of Peg Tocher who has or had a lovely flowering patch a while back when I was there. Maybe a small ad in the NZAGS newsletter would produce a result. I can't flower the darned thing.

I suppose they are tuberous bulbs, but I'm surprised you can't flower it Lesley. My sister used to have it growing and flowering in an unkempt part of her garden in Essex, but it's now gone. I will investigate NZAGS. Thanks. BTW, Kew seem to have dumped it back into Iris. 

[Jupiter]

Yep I did notice the reclas. I like fancy names like Hermodactylus, so much more fun than Iris. Like they seem to have moved Isoplexis into Digitalis. Why!? Isoplexis is an awesome Genus name.

[Anthony Darby]

Bought this Cymbidium with two flowering spikes last year and plonked it into the back border. Five flowering spikes now.