October 2015 in the Southern Hemisphere

[Maggi Young]

We've heard in the past about a number of Daphne which have been in NZ for many years now, it's good to hear some folks are keeping them going.

[Lesley Cox]

Hello Marcus

No I didn't import it, it came from a Christchurch grower whom I won't name here (pm to you) as Chch people seem overly sensitive about their internet privacy - as if such a thing existed nowadays! He grows a number of forms and species and I understand is hybridizing among them, so maybe there will be some new ones available in time. My original plant, some 30 years ago I think, came from a Dunedin man , the late Jack Scott. He sold it to me for an exorbitant price, a tiny single rosette plant complete with its own slug which I found in the pot next day when I returned home to Timaru. I have a lot of odd things in my car but don't keep slugs there so it was definitely his slug which had nibbled the little soft branchlet off. A request to Jack that he consider replacing the plant was met with raucous laughter!

[Lesley Cox]

Maggi, the Chch gentleman is doing his best and is a skilled propagator, especially with the grafting knife though I think is doing cuttings too. I find a few quite easy from cuttings if they have bottom heat, DD. arbuscula and collina especially. I believe Peter Erskine has sent seed of some to NZ in recent years.

Jacqui I have no secret for the Glaucidium. Mine is paltry compared with the amazing plant I saw in Maggi and Ian's garden in Aberdeen. I think the conditions need to be perpetually damp and as leafy as possible, shady too. Before I planted anything in that bed - I started less than 18 months ago, putting in the most precius of the potted plants I'd moved house with - I loaded it with compost and dug it in to about 40cms depth so everything had a really good start followed by a very wet winter last year. Already the compost needs topping up and I'll do this through the summer when the seeds I want have ripened and been harvested. (And when this darned Iris soc Convention is finished and I can do other things!)

[Lesley Cox]

Marcus, your lovely parcel of seed has arrived today, so far as I can see, all present and correct, and not even sniffed at by MAF (now MPI) except the Paeonia of course, that for later. So I'll be busy - even busier - tomorrow at seed sowing including the first of my own and various others as well. It's a job that seems never to stop. I've decided to spend a few days away from home after NZIS Convention, for several reasons but especially because my sister (aged 79!) is to marry in November. She's been a widow for about 15 years and has had several men wanting to marry her - which says a lot about the lovely, gentle, sweet person she is - and I'd love to be there for her. Then home for my son's second marriage on Christmas Day. When will there be a quiet time? Never, I hope.

[t00lie]

Some late Frits.

F. conica
 
F. lusitanica with a back drop of a white Draba.

Woodland setting of Pleiones ,Paris quadrifolia and Cypripedium formosanum and close up.

[Jupiter]

Wonderful photos T00lie, especially F. lusitanica, which is my favourite. Although Cyp. formosanum is very well taken too. You have a lovely cool, wet garden.

[Parsla]

Leslie, thank you for your wisdom, much appreciated. You New Zealanders seem to have green fingers with woodland plants.
I think I need to shift things around a bit. A stash of oak leaf mold is rotting down for next season and should be very useful for the woodlanders.

1.  Each petite, cupped, bloom of Mme Hardy is distinguished by a green eye. And, I now observe, is teeming with wee beasties (time to bring in the predators).
2. The same, scrambling over the compost enclosure
3. This delicate Iris sibirica hailing from Woodbridge nursery in Tasmania has slowly multiplied into several small clumps over a few years
4. The prickly foliage of Eryngium bourgatii is a favourite
5. A Japanese cultivar of hydrangea serrata

[Jupiter]

Jacqui, I was just trying to get a good photo of Eryngium bougatii last night! You did better than I did! My plants are as big as yours yet. Did you grow yours from seed or buy them as seedlings? Well photographed   

Your Iris sibirica is lovely. So pristine and pure. Is that an oriental poppy behind it? Which one? I'm looking for beauty of livermere (goliath group). I haven't found anyone selling it yet.

[rob krejzl]

Diggers?

[fermi de Sousa]

Diggers?

Rob,
we don't use the "D" word in this household
We returned home to a garden sliding into summer with ixias in full flower,
cheers
fermi

[rob krejzl]

Oh god, I've angered the horticultural thought police      .

Still, gems can be found in the strangest places; our local op shop has been selling native orchids recently....

[Parsla]

Hi Jamus,

I can't resist making a quick post while I have a cup of tea.

The E. bourgatii came from David Glenn - at least I think so - about a year ago.  Remember I'm still on L plates with seed…

And I know better than to believe for a minute that my photo is any better than yours, but you are an angel to say so.

It is indeed an oriental poppy, the first I have grown, but sadly not what you are looking for. Mine was listed as either drunken choir boy or royal wedding, but doesn't seem to have the characteristic dark splotches. It was seed (only because poppies are easy), so who knows.

Photo from a few days ago.

[Jupiter]

Jacqui, I have that poppy (Royal Wedding) also but it doesn't flower for me. Mine are under a big unruly Echium candicans and don't get enough sun.

No really, your picture of the Eryngium is MUCH better than mine! I'm not kidding. I won't post it, I have a reputation to uphold. 

Fermi, I'm with you. I refuse to give d*****s my money. Arrogance. Snobbishness. Hypocrisy!

[fermi de Sousa]

We were happy to see that the Puya still had some flowers on it when we got home.
And Jasminum parkii in the rock garden is in full bloom, so you see, Jacqui, it can spread a bit!
cheers
fermi

[Lesley Cox]

Fermi, I'm with you. I refuse to give d*****s my money. Arrogance. Snobbishness. Hypocrisy!

Really? Do tell.