March 2015 in the Southern Hemisphere

[Jupiter]

Hi Otto, my camera (I think digital cameras in general) struggle to capture violet/mauve/purple accurately. I didn't correct it in photoshop as I should have done.

Your cool woodland sounds so attractive right now. We took the kids for a walk at Mount Lofty botanic gardens this morning which was beautiful. Drifts of Cyclamen, various species... I can't wait to have a garden like that myself.

[fermi de Sousa]

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?

Hi Viv,
I don't have a lot of experience with it either and I think the flowers earlier in the year were a bit of an aberration - it has now produced a few more, so I hope it is settling in,
cheers
fermi

[Paul T]

Fermi,

That is a fascinatingly different rohlfsianum form to the ones I have.  Yours have much broader, flatter petals that are held more outwards.  Mine has thinner petals that spiral elegantly and recurve right back.  Beautiful.

[Lesley Cox]

A really bright spot here at present and for the last several weeks, has been the old dahlia 'Bishop of Llandaff. I imported it years ago from Beth Chatto and it's only now when planted out at last instead of potted, that the Bishop is coming into his own. The flowers as they come out are genuinely blood red!

Can someone identify for me please, this lovely autumn gentian which is flowering in the garden of Steve Newall's dad, in Palmerston where I visited last weekend but one. The leaves are unlike those of say G. sino-ornata, stiffer and almost like thin branches of a conifer, It was a big plant and really lovely overhanging rocks.

On the same trip (Kindred Day, when Otago garden groups get together for a day of socializing and garden visits. The food on these occasions is always noteworthy, being supplied by the host group's members and oin this case, mostly by farmers' wives, so excellent and substantial home baking. It's good to meet other like-minded people too and keep up to date on what's happening around the province), was this super Dianella species. I was given a chunk of it on a Kindred Day last year and it's doing well. I think it may be an Australian species rather than a NZer?

[Jupiter]

Lesley that gentiana is a ripper! Do you reckon it'd cope with 40degree summer weather in Adelaide?   

[Anthony Darby]

Could be Gentiana paradoxa? I tried to grow it in Dunblane.

[jandals]

I'm fairly sure it is Gentiana paradoxa and I have plants at my place now grown from seed collected from that plant . Only problem is Dad has lots of G.septemfida not far away and there were lots of hybrids . I've weeded those out and now have a small patch of G.paradoxa flowering for the first time

If there was a gentian species capable of coping with 40C I think it would be either of these two mentioned .

I have seen G.septemfida flowering in amenity plantings in Denver CO and it gets fairly warm there over the summer

I have seed of both if you want to try Jupiter

[Tim Ingram]

This is G. paradoxa at the Botanics last August - must be one of the best of all gentians for the garden! We have grown the hybrids that Steve mentions from Jelitto seed and these were superb too but had smaller clustered flowers like septemfida. Our garden is relatively warm and dry but we don't usually go above 30°C in summer. This is a plant we should introduce to the gardeners in our town!

Exciting to be able to grow Cyclamen rohlfsianum outside Fermi.

[Lesley Cox]

Thanks gentlemen for the notes re Gent. paradoxa. Definitely one for my "wanted" list.

Exciting yesterday, en email from a North Island Iris grower of whom I'd heard but never met. He sent pictures of onco and regelia species and hybrids which he's growing with much success and says I can use them on the Forum. Will do so shortly, when the washing is done, the front border is weeded and my 3-hours-a-week-lady has had her morning tea. They look stunning and in some cases at least, are, I think, imported from Israel.

Anthony, wasn't that a great cricket match on Tuesday? Hardy a ball bowled that wasn't a thriller. I truly felt for the South Africans. They fought so hard and so well they deserved to win quite as much as we did. But...roll on the Aussies. Maybe India will win that semi but it would be fitting if Australia does, setting up a final between the two host nations. The one time I wish we had Sky TV!

[Jupiter]

How this for different? Ceropegia succulenta, flowering in my bathroom at the moment. This flower is about 5cm long and quite alien looking.

[Lesley Cox]

Looks like something anatomical Jamus!

[Paul T]

Nice, Jamus.  Not a species I've seen before.  The flowers on Ceropegia are just so cool.

[fermi de Sousa]

Anthony, wasn't that a great cricket match on Tuesday?

Apparently there was one today as well but we were outside gardening so didn't bother with it. The Sterbergia sicula are coming into full flower and I'll try to post more pics soon,
cheers
fermi

[Lesley Cox]

Apparently there was one today as well
fermi

I don't want to talk about it.

[fermi de Sousa]

Nevermind, Lesley,
NZ won one and Aus won one - we're even!
Here are the Sternbergia sicula pics I promised (did you get any of those seeds to germinate, Lesley?); they were raised from seed from Rannweig Wallis - I think they were originally from Crete,
cheers
fermi