October 2015 in the Southern Hemisphere

[Jupiter]

Ahhh actually Anthony in this case it really is a paddock. It's 10 acres. There are no horses thank god, only kangaroos and wallabies.

[fermi de Sousa]

Jamus,
I love the orange of that annual trop!
Paeonia cambessedesii comes from the Balearic Islands so I think its best in a frost free area (like Adelaide?) though it comes through our mild winters as long as we don't get a severe frost when they are in bud. Ours is in a raised rock garden bed with a couple of others but gets some summer shade from a nearby Catalpa (high shade).
The Puya continues to develop and the side branches are forming,
cheers
fermi

[Jupiter]

Fermi here I am pining after Paeonia cambessedesii, and I forgot that I ordered seed from Marcus and one is even up!

[Lesley Cox]

October's starting off here in NZ with hot nor'westers then an hour later, a southerly gale and savage rain! Predictable as always. It was good though, for the two day Show of Otago Alpine Garden Group, our first "stand alone" show and after weeks and months of not knowing what to expect, we had great entries, (about 250 for this first effort) of a really good quality and good crowds on each day. We had 9 plant seller stalls including one from Dunedin Botanic Garden (picked up the single plant of Camellia yunnanensis, a real beauty) and tea/coffee and home-made biscuits, muffins, slices. The local Camellia Soc put on a display too and they ran the kitchen. It went much better than we had dared to hope so will almost certainly do it again in 2016 but will need a bigger venue with more parking space.

Some pictures follow and I have to apologise because I didn't get a chance for photos until well on in the day when the best light was gone and my little camera doesn't handle flash too well.

But first - AT LAST! Diapensia lapponica in bloom. I think I've photographed just about every flower as it opened! I'm surprised how big the flowers are as I'd expected much smaller. A plant of a well-flowered plant must be really spectacular. Each flower is a good centimetre across.

[t00lie]

Congrats on the show Lesley --I had hoped to make it ,however ... maybe next year .....

As for Diapensia lapponica I'll say nothing .... . Your pictures say it all .

Cheers Dave.

[Jupiter]

Lesley, Diapensia lapponica is stunning. Can you tell us something about it? I haven't seen it before.

Pinellia tripartita has to be the hardest plant to photograph EVER!

[Lesley Cox]

Now the Show. Some of the crowd to start with then one of a number of Stuart Murray's beautiful silver natives. This first class was for a native alpine, non-flowering, about 28 entries in this class alone and Stuart had a great collection, especially of Leucogenes, Raoulia and crosses between them and related plants. I had to elbow my way through to take the photos and was joggled around quite a bit.

[Lesley Cox]

Dave you were missed but all the same, we had visitors from as far away as Invercargill and Nelson and many from Christchurch, then a group from north who had been to the South Canterbury Show on the 3rd, came to us on the 4th, making a weekend of it.

More, the auricula a really bad photo but was a superb plant. None of the local people were surprised that Louise Salmond won the Keith Kitchin Memorial prize for Most Points in the Show and very well deserved that was. She had some amazing potsful including Best in Show, a well flowered specimen of Gentiana clusii 'Alboviolacea.'

The third picture here is Androsace sempervivoides and the fourth, a yellow Cowichan primula.

[Lesley Cox]

A Saxifraga species, maybe frederici-augustii? One of that group anyway.
In the Primula class for section Auricula, this magnificent double seedling, from Louise S. Beside it again her seedling, from the white 'Linda Pope' and called 'Hokonui White.'
Trilliums including a very nice lime-green T. angustipetalum.
Pterostylis curta in the orchid class

[Lesley Cox]

A better picture of the double auricula and beside it, another auricula, a seedling from the white 'Linda Pope, named 'Hokonui White.' Actually, this one was mine and I have labelled it as a marginata  form, though still in the Auricula section of course.

Draba longisiliqua in a class for Cushions, then in a class for mat plants, suitable for an alpine lawn, Stuart's very fine Nertera depressa. For some reason this plant appealed to a number of grown men (even farming types!) who enquired where they could get it. Certainly all those little red dots deserved the much larger red dot to the side.

And to end, our Group's logo in stained glass and framed, with just part of Louise's Best in Show gentian as well. My camera card was full and I didn't have another.

The Group had three wickedly exhausting days preparing then putting it up for view with just about everyone taking part to some degree. There were many more plants worth a picture but almost everything was very crowded together as we just didn't have enough room but we'll do better next time, lessons having been learned. We made many friends and had endless compliments about the Show and enrolled several new members. Needless to say, I bought many plants from other sellers and it was wonderful to welcome stall holders from North Canterbury to Southland, as well as our local nurseries. They and our Group committee had a communal dinner and wind-down and good chat on Saturday evening at one of the lovely seafront restaurants on St Clair beach, a beautiful, warm and balmy evening.

[Lesley Cox]

I seem to have got myself mixed up with what pictures go where and can't find a couple anyway. The Pterostylis won the Orchid class. I'm still very tired so enough for now.

[Lesley Cox]

Hope my seed from Marcus arrives soon.

[ashley]

Beautifully-grown plants at the show Lesley.  Thanks for bringing us along with you, despite such busy and probably tiring days.

And congratulations on your lovely Diapensia, looking every bit as happy as it does in the mountains.

[Maggi Young]

Great Diapensia, Lesley and so good to hear that the show has gone so very well. Terrific news.
I'm looking forward to having   more time to study the show pix as I catch up after weekend away.

[Hillview croconut]

Hope my seed from Marcus arrives soon.

Hi Lesley,

If you look on my home page and my ordering page you will see there that I began posting out orders on the 24th of Septembet. That's not that long ago. 

And I get most of my orders in the first few days: so the time difference between say, order number 50 and order number 70 arriving  at my site might only be a few hours. However the time difference between actually processing and posting these orders will be considerably more.

So please be patient  ..... I am not a mega department store selling t-shirts.

Cheers,  Marcus