January 2015 in the Southern Hemisphere

[johnralphcarpenter]

Theft by humans?

[Paul T]

Lesley,

Commiserations!!

I've had exactly that neat removal by something in my garden.  I am assuming birds, rather than possums.  Always completely gone, nothing left behind, not that I've had it happen very often (I rarely get seeds on my Trilliums).  I know it isn't humans removing mine.

[Hillview croconut]

Hi Lesley,

What about rats?  They will have a go at trilliums and just about anything but its usually opportunistic rather than sustained. Sorry to hear of your misfortune.  It's a downer when something like this happens.

Re the earlier conversation regarding degrees of difficulty,  etc. I guess we all have our  "holy grail" and I too will have to concede that oncos take up too much space and to much of my time than they should.  The only thing I can say in my defence is that they are so damn beautiful why wouldn't I. But there is more to it than that. When oncos like you there there's nothing stopping them,  its easy, when they don't, they are a pack of miserable bast ....ds! Its a constant learning curve. It's being able to "unpick" those factors that drive these two opposite states. There are people on this thread that show the way,  they've gone further along that path, and they are shining examples of what is possible. Occasionally it brings out the "green eyes" when one is "down" but mostly they are an inspiration. Us southerners don't use controlled environments because we are blessed with a naturally more benign climate but these outdoor conditions bring with it their own set of problems (and solutions). Its complicated!  But very interesting.
Cheers, M

[illingworth]

Here ants will harvest trillium seed and sometimes plant them in rather strange places, so watch for unexpected seedlings after a couple of years.  Rob will sometimes pick the seedpods just before they seem ripe, with a short piece of stem, and put them in a glass of water until the pods drop off.
- S.

[Lesley Cox]

Not ants. They wouldn't have taken the whole, unbroken pods! And I don't think rats either Marcus. We have found old rat droppings in the ceilings but the house was treated for pests before we came here and haven't seen either mice or rats since we arrived, even in the winter when they would come in. No sign of them in the various outbuildings either. If I knew that any specific person had been here while I was away and if that person recognised or had an interest in trilliums, that would seem most likely but Roger says he didn't see anyone. Next year I'll take measures to protect the pods better. I do, fortunately, have seed germinated from 2012 and sown from 2013 but I had hoped to send this lot   to the NZ Trillium Group.

[Lesley Cox]

But Paul, you are probably right and it's birds. We have masses of birds here especially blackbirds and thrushes and they take kilos of every kind of fruit. We never got a single cherry or strawberry or currant this spring/summer. They should all be netted of course but the cost of that is prohibitive. Birds take those red plums from the re-leaved Prunus trees (of which there are about a dozen here), and they're about the same size as the trillium pods. In fact, that seems even MORE likely now that I think of it as they are not too dissimilar in colour and being a bit softer, the birds would have thought they'd hit the jackpot. The b's and s's pick the plums from the trees then smash them against something to open up the still hard flesh. All day we hear tap-tap-tap as the birds apply plums to rocks, concrete blacks or even the side of a time shed.

[fermi de Sousa]

Bad luck with the seed "theft", Lesley - time to get some gauze bags like Viv uses to protect her trillium seeds from the thieving wasps!
The first of only two stems on Lycoris incarnata this year (none last year but better in earlier years)
cheers
fermi

[Anthony Darby]

I've adopted a new policy. Feed the birds. Not with expensive bird food, but scraps. Solved my "blackbirds pinching the tomatoes" problem. Might not work with more tempting fruit though, but cherry growers in England find bird feeders cheaper than a student with a tin of marbles!

[johnralphcarpenter]

Cherry growers in Kent now net the entire garden or grow in polytunnels. (Round here a cherry orchard is called a cherry garden). I'll try to remember to  take  pictures this summer.

[Hillview croconut]

Hi,  its the same here in Tasmania where cherries are a multi million dollar export business.  But as an interesting aside,  in Greek Macedonia the orchards are never netted and the branches are groaning under the weight of their fruit.  So what's going on here?  Hehe they killed and eaten all their blackbirds or they just don't exist in the region?

Cheers,  Marcus

[ArnoldT]

Marcus:

Cherries may be native to Macedonia whereas they are introduced to Tasmania.

Could be the cherries in Europe have been there so long they found a way to co-exist with birds.

[Hoy]

Cherries are important for some farmers in Norway too. They use to cover the trees with tarpaulins when the fruits ripen to avoid splitting in rainy weather. Water is absorbed through the skin of the fruit, not the roots.

I have cherries at my summer house but there the fruits are eaten by both thrushes (not only blackbirds) and seagulls.

[Lesley Cox]

Our commercial cherries are netted, often fully, as in an area with netting walls and "roof" entirely enclosing the crop of trees but sometimes just by row on row of net applied each season as the fruit sets. I'll have to do something like that next year. Roger put netting to enclose the currants, red and black and they seemed fully protected but blackbirds found a way in by scratching the soil out at the base of the netting.  This morning it's that damned rooster, scratching out new plantings of bearded irises early today. The rhizomes and their labels are thrown back and everywhere, leaving the disturbed, newly cultivated and composed soil for him to dig for whatever may be there, only some general fertilizer I think as there is virtually no fauna in the area, the occasional worm maybe.

[Paul T]

Blackbirds..... darn rotary hoes with wings. #$@@%@###$#$#!!!!%^  And thieving mongrels.  There are periods of time where I give up completely on doing work in my garden due to their predations..... just no point doing anything when it is destroyed every morning.  Sigh!  I love birds of all sorts, but Blackbirds are an exception.  Their song is lovely, but unfortunately not worth the effort and the sheer cost of lost plants from their destruction.  Such a shame, as they'd be lovely otherwise. 

[Hoy]

Paul,

your blackbirds are the same as the European? (and descendants of immigrants as well . . .)

I have had problems with sparrows in addition to blackbirds in a new bed last summer. Also the sparrows like to dig in the soil and tear out newly planted seedlings. A lot of plants were lost

Lesley,

I used to protect my currants with nets but they always found a way in. When the neighbour's cats came they were scared and was caught in the net. They were usually dead when I found them so I got rid of the nets eventually.
I have a flock of blackbirds in my garden all winter and they ransack every square inch of ground searching for worms etc. It loosens the soil but destroy especially delicate plants.