September 2014 in the Southern Hemisphere

[vivienne Condon]

Trillium rivale and some of it's beautiful forms. I have a very dark leaf form of Trillium rivale that just appeared in my garden which I thought had come from a friend that had passed away, but the other gardeners that her plants were divided between did not have it so I think it may have been bred from Archibald's seed and my own seed, just a chance seedling. Some one has put a name on it calling it Trillium rivale 'Purple Haze' this is not a legal name.
I'm not sure how names are put on plants I thought they had to be registered, but anyway it has lovely deep dark pink flowers deeply maroon almost black markings on the foliage, not always true from seed sometimes you may only get a few markings on leaves other times they are all marked.   

[Jupiter]

Hi Vivienne, very nice plants! Trillium rivales is a new arrival in my garden and I don't really know how it's going to react to the summer extremes. You have some gorgeous variation there...

[vivienne Condon]

Trillium rivale dark leaf form

[vivienne Condon]

Thank you Jamus, I'm afraid my photos are not up to your standard, I don't think that Trillium rivale minds the heat as long as they have shade in the summer, and a good covering of leaf mulch, that seems to do wonders for all the Trilliums.
Viv

[Robert]

Hi Vivienne, very nice plants! Trillium rivales is a new arrival in my garden and I don't really know how it's going to react to the summer extremes. You have some gorgeous variation there...

Jamus,

Trillium rivale grows in our garden. They are doing well with filtered light, excellent soil drainage (grit and sand, with some soil humus), and some moisture during the summer when they are dormant.

Good Luck with them! They are very nice!

[Jupiter]

Leaf mulch is never in short supply here, the grevillea robusta drops them in buckets and when partially decomposed they make a nice mulch. Vivienne, I'm looking forward to seeing what else you grow there.

Thanks Robert, that gives me hope I might succeed with it. My woodland garden is under the shade of a big spreading Acer negundo, I'm sure you're very familiar with these?

[Robert]

Leaf mulch is never in short supply here, the grevillea robusta drops them in buckets and when partially decomposed they make a nice mulch. Vivienne, I'm looking forward to seeing what else you grow there.

Thanks Robert, that gives me hope I might succeed with it. My woodland garden is under the shade of a big spreading Acer negundo, I'm sure you're very familiar with these?

Jamus,

Yes, I'm very familiar with Acer negundo, one of our natives.

Around here a "weed tree"!  For us the roots are terrible and very difficult to garden under. Maybe it is our terrible soil? The roots have nowhere to go.   I certainly hope that it works out much better for you in your gardening environment! 

[Maggi Young]

Every now and again garden centres here push plants of Acer negundo 'Flamingo' - a truly hideous thing which, if you are very lucky, will look good for about three days a year. The "draw" for this  tree is the multi-coloured foliage- pink, green, white and cream  - but thisis ob nly attractive for the first few days of the leaves unfurling- if that!  After that either the frost will kill them or aphids will ruin them.  Either way the foliage gets into a mangled twisted mess and looks terrible.
I hate this cultivar - can you tell? 

[Jupiter]

Haha Maggi, your vitriol is palpable! I can definitely relate! I have my own pet hates, Robinia pseudoacacia is a horrific nightmare tree which nurseries continue to sell and people continue to buy and plant!!!  .  I'm still battling suckers of this and I removed the tree three years ago, digging out the root ball by hand. Poured neat glyphosate into the stump and followed up with tree and blackberry killer. It laughed at me.    It's a horror story seriously...

Here in Adelaide Acer negundo does very well and has no blights affecting it really. It can be weedy but we are lucky enough to have a male. He is beautiful when in flower which has just happened, now we're cleaning up all the anthers raining down on the garden for a couple of weeks. I don't notice any problem with root competition at all. I think that's because we have clay soil and live close to a natural watercourse, so there is always water at depth here. It's a godsend for the summer shade it offers and I've come to appreciate box elder for it's toughness and tenaciousness. There's a new cultivar turned up recently called "sensation" which has darker green leaves and red/orange autumn colour. It's a god tree for Adelaide gardens, I think.  Maggi I also hate the variegated, weakling you're talking about. It looks sick to me, like it's got a virus.

[Maggi Young]

I might be prepared to think reasonably kindly about the species, Jamus - though I can think of other trees I'd rather have - but I do indeed hate 'Flamingo' with a passion 
There must be somewhere where it thrives and looks good - but  that is not in here Scotland!

I suppose we might all have some poor plant that drives us completely up the wall - can't love 'em all the same, eh?

[Jupiter]

Oh no Maggi, you ought to hate it in the context of Scottish conditions. It's the wrong tree for where you are, clearly... I confess I scoff when people plant Japanese maples in their front lawns in the suburbs. Bloody waste of money and a failing on the part of the nursery industry to properly advise their customers. Our summer sun fries Japanese maples to a crisp and the drought will kill them unless you pour the water onto them all summer long.

[Robert]

The nurseries have been offering 'Flamingo' around here for years as some sort of exotic, rare plant, at high prices. They are generally trucked in from western Oregon and start going down hill the minute they are off-loaded from the truck. It is so sad that the nurseries can do nothing more than hoodwink the public with such terrible offerings as Black Locust (yes, here too), silver maple, Lombardy popular (they are better in a Monet painting), Mulberry, Wax Privet (the birds will plant them for you around here) and other weedy trees and shrubs. I'm sure this is part of the reason that most of the nurseries have gone out of business in our area. Now we have the mass merchandisers selling the same and worse.

One more story:

For years I have always brought a few plants to the farmers' market to sell after all the produce is sold out. I rarely sell anything but I enjoy playing with the plants, arranging them in ways that look good. I get lots of comments along these lines: "Oh, this looks so nice." "What are they?" "I've never heard of any of this stuff!"

Well last week as I was resting in my chair (I get up at 4:00 a.m.) waiting for the end of market. "Sir, I would like to buy a few plants, I never expected to see Cypella coelestis or C. peruviana offered anywhere, especially the farmers' market! I'm glad that you are here. You have should interesting plants. I'll take these."

I needed the smelling salts, as I felt I was going to pass-out! It must have been a "Blue Moon!"

I've been long winded enough!

[Jupiter]

Haha Robert, we are out there us wacky plant collectors, few and far between but that could have been me wandering around a country market here. Occasionally someone turns up with interesting plants and often it can lead to friendships; for instance I met my friend Mick Brew at just such a stall at a market selling rare and interesting plants. I bought my Humulus lupulus aureus from him that day and the next time our paths crossed I exchanged details with him. Now we swap plants regularly and what's more he is a self employed gardener working at some absolutely fabulous private gardens on wealthy estates in the Adelaide hills. I've been treated to some tours of such gardens by him and a few cuttings and divisions always come from such visits as well. In short I look out for people like you in my travels...

[Lesley Cox]

I agree with Maggi!

I have "Candystripe" here in the garden. 'Tamaongalei' caught my attention too! Such a beautiful little plant. I wish my 'Candystripe' did look like 'Tamaongalei'. It looks kind'a the same.

Jamus,

I would love to see photos of your native plants. I hope that you can find the time to do so, however I do understand how it can be easier said than done. We have many other responsibilities.

A local nursery calls it 'Tammy,' so that we don't have to make an effort to learn the correct name. No wonder NZers are rotten linguists!

[Lesley Cox]

Robert, I'm surprised you don't sell very much at the Farmers' Market. Here, such markets are favourite places for something different, and at the local Otago Farmers' Market stalls, there are about 6 plants stalls among the fruit, veg, meat etc, and are very popular now. It was as a stall holder with alpines that I first started there in 2003 and then went on to be Manager when, one winter (it's hard to sell plants that are totally underground), the Manager's job became available and I decided to go for it. In theory, the plant stalls concentrate on edible plants but they all have a selection of different things and often something one has been looking for, for years.