January 2016 in the Southern Hemisphere

[fermi de Sousa]

Happy 2016!
It's already a hot day but mercifully less than sweltering!
Here are a few flowers in the garden:
Lilium 'Silk Road' is usually much taller and more floriferous but we're gratefully for any blooms this year;
Lilium 'Mr Cas';
Limonium roseum
an overview of part of the rock garden - it's going to be a dry summer!
cheers
fermi

[Parsla]

Lesley and Maggie, what a dear little narcissus. I can see why Susan would be proud to wear it. Quite a thrill I should imagine.

Fermi, you seem to have made some excellent garden choices for your dry environs.

I have selected a few things to show - of the little flowering now.

1. Aster laterifolius "Prince". Ridiculous name, but I'm so surprised at the growth on these daisy bushes over just a year. I love purple foliage, and have quite a bit, but these are the only ones that haven't collapsed in the heat and wind. With the dark foliage and such tiny flowers (less than a cm I should say) they could be said to resemble some forms of our ti-tree, but less straggly and right at home in a perennial border.
2. Past its best, this white flowered thalictrum is still looking good in a marginally shaded position.
3. Oreganum - one of my favourites for its ability to colonise a dry bed under citrus trees the diminutive "Dingle Fairy" keeps the bed looking green.
4. It is also a bee magnet. If you look closely you can see tiny flowers amongst the bracts.
5. Origanum "Bellissimo" has unusual pagoda-shaped bracts - far more pronounced than Kent beauty to my eye, and superbly colouring up in the heat.

[Mini-daffs]

 
Hi
Fermi I have found time to take a few photos even though lifting bulbs is the name of the game at the moment.
Our lilium looks like yours. It is a towering giant in our garden.

[Tasmanian Taffy]

Hi Graham,
I think that your Lilium is more likely Lilium Leslie Woodriff,
Cheers John.

[Parsla]

Just a quick post.

I was delighted to see this terribly confused cyclamen hederifolium emerge with 3 blooms and two buds.
It is very sheltered under a Michaelia, so should survive the ordeal.

A gift from Otto,  has lovely silver leaves in season. I can only imagine that being rudely disinterred from a comfortable existence in the mountains and sent to the dry environs of Eltham has upset it.

Also, the first globeflower of the season. I think Trollius europaeus, but may be mistaken. Two views - the first is a better photo but the other shows a little of the surrounds.

Oh, and a happy new year to you all.
jacqui.

[Parsla]

Our thread seems much quieter than usual - perhaps many of you are away on holidays.

Something a little different today. The view downhill through my rather dusty bathroom window taken yesterday at dusk. Possibly a little dark...

You can see clematis viticella luxuriant alba in the foreground, and rosa 'souvenir de la malmaison' at rear.
Also scorched magnolia (michaelia) and daphne odora, etc

Jacqui.

[Robert]

Jacqui,

Do you remember the name of the Michelia species in your photograph?

I have grown M. doltsopa for years. It always burns and has never bloomed for me.    Maybe I should remove it? but I keep hoping for flowers. 35 years is getting a bit long to wait!    Some of the other Michelias do just fine for us. M. figo never burns and is always loaded with flowers. For us, it can get big, but I keep cutting it back. This does not seem to stop it from blooming well.    The M. x foggii types are in a forgotten corner. They do not seem to burn either. They bloom okay considering that they are forgotten. 

I must say that all of our Michelias get shade from the hot afternoon sun. Full morning sun - so lots of flowers if they are well tended.

[Parsla]

Hi Robert,

35 years! You are far more patient than i am. I am getting very cranky with a Cornus capitata that hasn't bloomed in 7!

It is a Jury bred Michaelia hybrid sold under the moniker of "Magnolia Cream Fairy". I was lucky enough to buy one of very few larger specimens in the country 3 years ago before the official release.

Silly name but absolute winner. Gorgeous, Fragrant, evergreen and living in full sun in the hottest part of the day. While it does scorch who wouldn't at those temperatures. Very floriferous if one fertilises twice annually. Similar size flowers to Michaelia scented pearl.

Next to it is a 'Mixed-up-miss' dolotopsa-figo hybrid, but hard to see.

I have attached a couple of photos - out of season - to show you the blooms. I hope its okay to do that.

Thank you for commenting,

Jacqui.

[Robert]

Jacqui,

I am very pleased you posted the "out-of-season" photographs. 

I have to agree 100%, 'Cream Fairy' seems an absolute winner. Very 

In our neighborhood in Sacramento there is an ancient Magnolia campbellii. It suffers die-back, leaf burn, and who knows what else. Despite the problems it buds every year and blooms with huge fragrant pink flowers - late January - early February.

It is so strange having this species in our area. Sacramento, California is definitely not a horticultural hot spot!

About 25 years ago I sold Magnolia 'Star Wars' and 'Vulcan' to Daisy Mah, at that time head gardener at the Sacramento WPA Rock Garden. They have survived the plant thieves and the hacker and are beautiful specimens now. I wish that we had more variety in our area but we just do not.

I am so impressed with the variety of plants you have available in your area....  and such keen gardeners. I will stay tuned. It is most enlightening to see what you (all) grow with your hot dry climatic conditions.

[Lesley Cox]

Some plants to follow soon but in the meantime, a Call to Arms!

Susan's tattoo but a poor picture I'm afraid, bright sun and the day conspiring to hurry the process.

I have a nice new cast, blue fibreglass. The worse break is set (other mending on its own) and in traction. The finger was pulled by hand by a very charming (but secretly sadistical) young Chinese man who kept saying "Poor Lady, Poor Lady" as I swore at him and made horrible noises. (The lidocaine anaesthetic pumped in through an enormous needle was much worse than the pulling actually.) Then a previously measured steel splint was bent to fit the angle the surgeon wanted, bound to my finger and the excess binding formed into a tube and pulled more, over the end of the steel and bound in place, so keeping the two parts of bone meeting each other but not overlapping as they had been. It doesn't hurt much but is a real nuisance and will be in place most likely for 6 weeks. Appt in two weeks to view progress. Of course I can't drive so am relying on Roger for transport, always at HIS convenience, not mine. I'm not a happy bunny. Talking of which, here's on e of the black ones. Again not a good picture, taken on a dull evening, though double glazing. He'd be in the sitting room if the door were open!

[fermi de Sousa]

I'm not a happy bunny. Talking of which, here's on e of the black ones. Again not a good picture, taken on a dull evening, though double glazing. He'd be in the sitting room if the door were open!

Not quite the Black Rabbit of Inle then?
http://watershipdown.wikia.com/wiki/Black_Rabbit_of_Inl%C3%A9
cheers
fermi

[Anthony Darby]

We have hares round us, even in the grassy areas next to the footpaths. I was going to get rabbits tattooed on my head. They look like hares from a distance.

[fermi de Sousa]

I think I showed a pic of this Seseli (?.S.gummiferum) a year or so ago and I think Tim suggested that it might be monocarpic but it didn't set any seeds and it is looking very perennial!
2 Flower heads this year!
cheers
fermi

[Jupiter]

Hi Fermi, I LOVE your Sesseli gummiferum. I germinated several, gave some away and then killed mine; re-germinated some more, and now have a couple in the garden. One in particular looks to be established now. It's lovely to see pictures of it flowering, and in the Southern Hemisphere too. What a stunning creature it is and good news to hear that you're finding it to be perennial. I have a penchant for Apiaceae, just can't resist them.

Please excuse my lack of activity on the forum guys and girls. I'm still here, just not a lot to show at the moment. We've been hit pretty hard by the early and severe start to summer. I'm enjoying your posts, Jacqui you have some magnificent shrubs and small trees; that Michaeliea is very desirable, but a bit tender for here.

[t00lie]

We have hares round us, even in the grassy areas next to the footpaths. I was going to get rabbits tattooed on my head. They look like hares from a distance.

   


A number of different Veratrums are in bud with this V.viride well ahead of the pack......