November Downunder

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Great Ranunculus lyally Susan - beautiful !
Maybe you should try R. glacialis now with all these icebergs around...

[Andrew]

Lesley, is the magnet operation painful when us 'up here' come to visit 'down there'.

[Lesley Cox]

Maggi, I believe 1931 was the last time icebergs were seen from mainland NZ. I wasn't (quite) here then so missed that lot. But from the road above our house the first in a series was visible at the beginning of the week. Several more, some enormous (Ikm long) are on their way. Far from extreme cold, global warming is the factor here.  A huge chunk broke away from the continental ice shelf and circled round and started heading up towards NZ. And wouldn't you know it, after flying out from Dunedin in a helicopter, some darned Aussies went and stuck their flag in OUR iceberg!  An idiot couple are planning to be married on one shortly. They'll have to go equipped with crampons.

[Lesley Cox]

Andrew, it's something MAF do as you arrive in the country and you'll hardly feel a thing, unless you have undeclared seeds in your pocket in which case it's not only very painful but VERY expensive!

[t00lie]

Mark--If i can go back a day or two to your comment on my posting of the Glady. above.

There doesn't appear to have been a name change to my knowledge.Unfortunately my reference book doesn't show a pic of the said plant.
Maybe as you say it's wrongly named, (another one --sigh!.).

It certainly looks like a Tritonia and if i can use an old addage,(slightly amended ofcourse)--------------If it grows like a rat--smells like a rat--and looks like a rat, then it must be a rat.(big smile).
Have a good day mate.
Cheers Dave.

[Lesley Cox]

Mark and Dave, I have exactly the same bulb as Tritonia species. I think it came from Agnes Sutherland in the first place.

[t00lie]

Lesley --i presume when you say our above you are refering to Otago .If so i'd like to point out it is a well known fact that the icebergs in question just didn't arrive up your way by chance.They first drifted through Southland ,(my home province) ,waters and once we were finished with them we sent them on their way.So they are ours not yours.

Your comment is just another example of the injustices /greviences/mistruths stretching back many many years that this province has suffered from areas futher north.It's bad enough the *Aussies refusing to acknowledge that money was loaned from NZ ,(and Southland --because we've always been a wealthy province.) ,to build the Sydney harbour bridge ,(other wise it would never have been built),and that the famous racehorse Far Lap was a NZer ,without having to cop it repeatedly from just over the border.

We,(i) ,will not accept a verbal apology .Actions only, not words will help heal the hurt we (i) are /am feeling.
May i suggest a courier bag full of some of your plant treasures be forwarded forthwith priority delivery.
Ps *Please make it a big bag as i no doubt will have to smooth matters across the ditch.
Cheers Dave --Iceberg Commissioner Southland (Aka muck stirrer.).  [/i][/i][/i][/i]

[Lesley Cox]

Well really, Dave. There I was having a gentle dig at our friends across the ditch and I get it in the neck from you! As it happens I was referring to NZ rather than just Otago when I said "our" icebergs and I fully accept that you had first crack at them and let's face it, Southland being at the bottom of the country, it is much colder there and I'm sure the bergs felt very much at home. They only come north looking for warmer hearts and climes. I'm perfectly happy to acknowledge that you have everything before we do, ESPECIALLY the filthy weather and if you were nice people - as nice as we are in Otago - you'd keep it there and not dump it on us. We in turn, only occasionally send it up the road to Canterbury.

As for courier bags of plants - you know you can have anything you want, if not always when you want it.

Cheers Lesley

PS My AGS seedlist arrived today too and I haven't even opened it yet. Can't get to fill in either until I finish a darned Newsletter for Saturday's Market, and I shouldn't be wasting time HERE! So there!

[Susan]

Dave, looking at your avatar, I'd be a bit careful.  In that outfit you could find yourself kidnapped and left on one of those icebergs. As self styled Iceberg Commissioner Southland, your photo does you justice  and  I  have to say it is a very good likeness of you.

Susan

[t00lie]

Message to Susan from the avatar--------"To (g)no-me is to love me".
Right enough of this sillyness.

A few of the geraniums are out.I wouldn't have a clue to the specific names of the following 3 plants.


Pic 4--Calochortus uniflorus is such a good doer here .It rapidly increases by underground stylons.

Pics 5 and 6--A different Nomocharis species from the ones i posted on the old forum which has opened up in the last few days.

Finally-- Lesley you mentioned recently of your acquisition of Sarracenia Sps.
These are hardy down this end of the country.The secret is to ensure a constant moisture level by growing them in a holeless concrete tub ,(or similar).They will grow in shade but to get the best flowering need full sun.I have found the best growing medium to be peat mixed with pineneedles/leafmould and spag. moss.
Mine always look very tatty at this time of the year until the new grow comes up.
I read somewhere fertilisers are to be avoided? so i,ve never tried feeding them.Interestingly although the Venus Fly Trap is normally seen as a house plant this has survived outside in the tub with the other plants.
PIC 7 -Concrete tub of Sarracenias

Cheers Dave.

[Lesley Cox]

Hi Dave, thanks for the advice re Sarracenias. Ray has his in a pond so I guessed water was essential. I think your No 3 pic above is Geranium dalmaticum. couldn't say about the others though.

[fermi de Sousa]

I don't know, Lesley, if the colour is true I'd suspect that Geranium to be G macrorhizum, possibly "Ingwersen's Variety"; if the foliage is strongly scented ("pongy") it most likely is.

Dave, we've just created a peat bog in full sun and have planted out Sarracenia which are currently in flower; it remains to be seen if they survive the summer but we're prepared to top up the water level daily to give them a chance!
cheers
fermi

[Lesley Cox]

Well, G. dalmaticum is strongly scented too, sort of spicy with a bit of citrus, but I don't knopw G. macrorhizum so can't argue about that.

[Lesley Cox]

I see I'm now a junior member. Someone has stripped 45 years off me. I like that!

Our current climate doesn't know whether to be spring or summer so by and large is opting for winter. 25degC one day, 11 the next. I'm surprised anything is showing its nose at all.

But a few things are toughing it out so here we go.

I can't resist a final picture of Crambe maritima, it has been so good, though well past its best now. In other years I've had some seed but not this year. The seeds are very large and round and light so that as they get caught in the tide they can be bounced along the beaches without sinking, and come to rest on another beach and so start a colony there. But you know all this. It's a British native.

[Lesley Cox]

I forgot to do the attachthumb bit so it didn't turn out quite as intended. Trying again.

Saxifraga `Snowdrift' would, I would have thought, have a thicker-looking flowering than this. Perhaps it's wrongly named though the clump looks right. It's very pretty with red stems and there are lots of seedlings about from last year's bloom.


I just love the fluffy blueness of Paedorota bonarota. It's beginning to creep about considerably but I'm happy with that. It's in a raised bed, very warm and gritty but with a thick topping of mixed gravel to keep the compost cool.


I think the genus Saponaria is badly under-rated. It contains super plants which are easy, showy but classy enough to be "choice" to my mind. Two favourites here are S. `Olivana' and it's offspring S. `Gala Day,' my own seedling whose other parent (Dad) was S. ocymoides. Said to be sterile, I find a little seed on `Olivana' most years and it has given very interesting and worthwhile seedlings.






And a firm favourite with me, Weldenia candida. This year it's giving a few flowers here, a few there instead of the usual mass which I especially wanted for the AGS online photo competition. The best laid plans.....