September 2014 in the Southern Hemisphere

[vivienne Condon]

I have found that very few market stalls have very much for sale, but Leslie when I saw what you sell at your stalls I was shocked with Meconopsis punicea and Campanula Maie Blyth (which I still have) for sale I'm surprised your not rushed off your feet with sales.
Viv

[vivienne Condon]

Some more Trilliums hope your not bored by all the Trilliums all are from seed
Viv

[Maggi Young]

Some more Trilliums hope your not bored by all the Trilliums all are from seed
Viv

  No chance of that - lots of trillium fans here!

[Jupiter]

Beautiful Vivienne and I'm both impressed and encouraged by the fact that you raised these from seed. You're on the same path as me but years ahead, I've been sowing many different trillium species this year and have yet to have a germination (I don't expect germinations until next spring in all probability, but anything is possible I suppose), which will only be the beginning of the long and rocky path to mature plants, 4 or 5 years from now or more.

[vivienne Condon]

Thank you Maggi. Jamus if they set seed I will send you some it always depends on how hot summer is.

[Robert]

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.

Lesley,

So sorry taking so long to reply. Your comment are important to me! My wife and I were out of town for the day.

The situation at our farmers' markets is complex. I'm one of the "old timers" have been at the market for decades. During the 1990's plants sold very well for me - 10 to 15 times what I sell now. Things changed after September 2001 and the U.S. involvement in the Middle East - plant sales slowed considerably. After the 2007 economic melt down, plants sales basically ended and I was glad to be a farmer selling produce - even though this is extremely hard work. I would like to semi-retire from farming (farmers never quit farming) and spend more time working with the ornamental plants and doing field work with our native plants. I've always been a wanderer, like John Muir, hiking in the mountains every chance I get.

Another consideration at farmers' market is the fact that, for me, it is all about the plants, being creative and innovative with them. Business and money-making is not part of the equation for me. I always get positive comments about how nice my display looks and how well the hand printed descriptions of the plants are. The display looks like a garden, I never put the same plants all together in rows. Also, I'm offering plants that folks have never seen before. There are plenty of other plant vendors at the market these days, all very nice people, however they are offering plants that the public are familiar with - Grafted Japanese Maples, Native Plants (the same ones that have been offered for the last 40 years), bedding annuals (more of the "same ol' same old"), Tropical Orchids, etc. Their plants are offered in neat rows, the same type of plants all together. I'm sure that they have excellent business practices. With a variety of plant vendor there is a variety a plants for folks to choose from -  all very good in my mind.

I'm sure that there is more to this - but business really doesn't interest me. I bring the plants because of my passion for plants and the few "plant people" that show up "once in a blue moon".

[Otto Fauser]

Viv , I'm indebted to you for enjoying this pot of your dark leaved , dark flowered  Trillium rivale  , raised  from your seed ,sown 4 years ago . Every visitor would like a plant but there is not enough to share .

    You have to be the only one here to grow the yellow form of T. chloropetalum - very attractive .

[Tim Ingram]

Robert - what you say certainly rings bells here with those of us who grow and sell more unusual and home raised plants. (And that even though the UK must be, with Japan, the great home of gardeners). Occasionally one comes across those for whom plants carry a more considered and detailed interest. We have a garden with thousands of plants which we do open for charity and have had plenty of stimulating people visiting over the years, but we take plants to the local 'Best of Faversham' market down town and meet just a few - and of these virtually none walk the half-mile to our garden to see more. So nice to come across a Wayne Roderick or Ron Ratko or Sally Walker every now and again - what's so great about this Forum!

This is a picture from our front garden in the summer of 2013 - it doesn't always look as good as this, but these plants are great fun (as Frank Kingdon-Ward wrote in one of his books and quite a few gardeners do find out for themselves!) as well as teaching you a lot along the way.

[vivienne Condon]

Otto thank you for your comments. Trillium rivale dark leaf  is building up slowly. A few people have it now in New Zealand so it is slowly spreading,
See you at our Alpine meeting on Saturday night.

[Maggi Young]

My word, Tim - that Eryngium is SINGING - what a great colour. Which is it?

[Anthony Darby]

I've got a couple of Eryngium "Blue Hobbit" from Joy Plants in the front garden. Hope they flower this year.

[Jupiter]

I raised a lot of little Eryngium giganteum 'Miss Willmott's Ghost' from seed a couple of years ago but they didn't flower in the second season (last summer) like I thought they would. I hope they flower this season!

Vivienne, thank you for the offer of seed of your dark T. rivale. I'd love to try them. Fingers crossed they set seed.

[Tim Ingram]

Maggi - it's straight Eryngium bourgatii captured at its high point of flower. The reason they are so good is that they have self-seeded into a narrow crevice between the grass and a tamacadam/gravelled drive, so they are growing in virtually nothing! They are joined at different times by Oenothera stricta and Papaver atlanticum which love the same harsh treatment, and less comfortably by dandelions and wild carrot which I am forever weeding out.

[Maggi Young]

Thank you Tim - I was sure it must be some fancy cultivar.  Excellent plant - and clever too, to place itself somewhere that suits it so well!

Hope the Rainham Show goes well tomorrow, by the way.

[Robert]

Robert - what you say certainly rings bells here with those of us who grow and sell more unusual and home raised plants. (And that even though the UK must be, with Japan, the great home of gardeners). Occasionally one comes across those for whom plants carry a more considered and detailed interest. We have a garden with thousands of plants which we do open for charity and have had plenty of stimulating people visiting over the years, but we take plants to the local 'Best of Faversham' market down town and meet just a few - and of these virtually none walk the half-mile to our garden to see more. So nice to come across a Wayne Roderick or Ron Ratko or Sally Walker every now and again - what's so great about this Forum!

Tim,

I especially appreciate your comments. 40 years ago I was very fortunate to be mentored by Marshall Olbrich and Lester Hawkins and their Western Hills Nursery in Occidental, California. I think that I lament the loss. If one goes to an internet search, one can see photographs of the ghost of what was once an outstanding nursery and garden. I have photographs of how it was! If anyone is interested I will post them.

Wayne was a personal friend. I also was friendly with Ed Carmen and his Carmen's Nursery in Los Gatos, California. I also have memories of Victor Reiter sinking in his chair at the California Horticultural Society Meetings in San Francisco as he talked about the fantastic plants he brought to the meetings.

For me, those were the "Golden Days" of horticulture in California. Now it seems as if there in nothing of that world left or maybe this is just my issue. Whatever it is, I do appreciate the like-minded folks in this forum.

Thank you again for sharing your experience and putting up with my public lament (everyone). You do have some sort of thread about your nursery on the forum, don't you? I'll have to spend more time looking around. Your garden does look great. I also appreciate Ian's (Bulb log) comments about "how a garden looks". California, and I bet all Mediterranean type climates, have that dead and brown look of various plants at certain seasons. I plant purposely for this look. We just had our first major fall rainfall. The dead tarweed smells great! and this is part of California. I look forward to this event every autumn and will continue to plant tarweed and leave their dead corpus in the garden until winter, along with other "dead plants" (to me they are not dead but very much alive!) The garden wouldn't be right without it. But, then again everybody has their likes and dislikes.