March 2015 in the Southern Hemisphere

[Robert]

Jamus,

This all sounds great! Hopefully there will be a good seed set this season. I will let you know when they are ready.

Off to the big city again.

[Paul T]

Jamus,

Never throw out seed pots until you've given them a good number of years.  I've had Trilliums (for example) germinate at least 6 years after sowing.... admittedly that year I had first year sowings germinate as well, so obviously the season was perfect for Trilliums.  I also find that if something hasn't germinated after a few years, disturb the pot a bit and that often triggers it.

[Jupiter]

I have 4 big trays of trillium seed purchased from John Lonsdale last spring which spent a couple of months in the refigerator, one of them partially froze (old dodgy fridge), they've been through the whole summer in a shady spot, have been keep moist (almost 100% of the time) and I'm hoping to see something this spring! I won't be throwing those away!

[Lesley Cox]

At the very least Jamus, keep any bulb seed for at least one extra season, even 2 or 3. Eight years is my record for Trillium. In fact they HAD been thrown out, into the vegetable garden but still came through eventually, after at least two crops of veg seed germinated and developed and grew before they appeared!

[vivienne Condon]

Cyclamen graecum flowers and foliage, I don't know which I love the most, and a Colchicum troodii from SRG seed exchange 1994. Thank you who ever you are.

[Paul T]

Wow Viv.  That's a lovely graecum planting.  I have a bunch of them as well, but all in pots.

[vivienne Condon]

Thanks Paul, they are quite easy once you find the right spot aren't they. What type of pots do you grow them in they would have to be quite deep I suppose, it's a wonder they haven't split the pots.

[Maggi Young]

Indeed a super C. graecum planting, Viv.   Southern hemisphere advantage being shown there!

[Anthony Darby]

These are flowering now. Narcissus obsoletus, from seed sent by Rafa and sown in May 2011, and a pot of Cyclamen graecum Rodopou seedlings, seed from the Seed Exchange.

[vivienne Condon]

Thanks Maggi, what I would really love to do is create a drift of Cyclamen rohlfsianum, but it would have to be a very dry position because the water sits in the depression where the leaves come out of the tuber, I've heard. I don't have a lot of experience with Cyclamen rohlfsianum, I know you grow and flower this Cyclamen in your garden Fermi but your climate is a lot different to ours, what do you suggest?

[Natalia]

Beautiful Cyclamens !!
In our gardens snow melts ....

[Jupiter]

Crocus banaticus, just opening for the first time here. I love them.

[vivienne Condon]

Beautiful Jamus

[Jupiter]

Some plants really are immune to the drought. Haemanthus coccineus has never flowered so well for me. Eight blooms is a record!

[Otto Fauser]

Jamus , a wonderful photo of Crocus banaticus . it should be slightly more mauve . There were hundreds opening to glorious warm autumn sunshine in my garden  today ,also drifts of Cr. nudiflorus ,both enjoying cool woodland soils amongst dwarf Rhododendron species .