May 2016 in the Southern Hemisphere

[t00lie]

It's been a wonderful autumn weather wise down here in southern NZ.Colour from yesterday.
Crocus goulimyi

Various C. ochroleucus still going strong with new blooms 2 weeks after the first flowers appeared .

Raised as C. longiflorus I split the pot of seedlings last year ? or maybe the year before so there are now 4 other small flowering clumps around the property.

Also i see buds about a day or two away from opening on C. laevigatus 'gold'.

[t00lie]

Close up of a couple of blooms on a potted Gentiana depressa. Plenty of cutting material there so I have no excuse to take a few and try it out in the sand crevice bed .

Most of the various leaf forms are over however still a few flowers on this Cyclamen hederifolium silver leaf.

A number of Helleborus hybridus are repeating as they did last autumn .The flowers at this time of the year don't show strong colour or markings as they do at peak time in late winter .......

[t00lie]

I have a couple of different Saxifraga fortunei with Mt Nachi being the more attractive of the two. I wonder when we'll see the vivid pink forms that are being grown in the Northern Hemisphere being offered here ...    

At this time of the year when the garden is slowing down I start to notice foliage more.

Here's a couple of shots of plants in the sand crevice bed .....

Aciphylla sps

Androsace marching down the slope .......towards Cyclamen coum.

Cheers Dave.

[Maggi Young]

Crocus and Gentiana depressa flowers ? What's not to love about that, eh?
The  markings on the Aciphllya foliage are very well shown in your photo - intricate little thing, isn't it?

[t00lie]

Crocus and Gentiana depressa flowers ? What's not to love about that, eh?
The  markings on the Aciphllya foliage are very well shown in your photo - intricate little thing, isn't it?

Yip Maggi thanks ,sure is .

I took the Aciphylla as a cutting from one of the northern Southland ranges years back ,(can't remember which one for the moment ),so I'm not sure on the id as the growth habit isn't as tight in cultivation here on the coast as found in the wild .I really should have a proper look tomorrow after work to see how many pairs of leaflets the plant has as that will narrow the id down .....

[Lesley Cox]

Well done Dave, on beating Fermi to the start line for a change. He must be asleep.

Keep posting crocuses and hopefully I'll re-identify a few of mine which have lost their labels. The pick of those flowering at present is C. robertianus along with serotinus salzmannii and nudiflorus. I also have 3 different pure whites out, one of which is probably boryi. As I explained elsewhere today, I'm yet to figure out how to re-size pics on my laptop programme so no new photos for now.

My Gentiana depressa is well finished a month ago but two real pleasures have been Narcissus obsoletus, (a fertile hybrid between elegans and serotinus), half a dozen bulbs which Tony Darby sent to me and these have had flat, white flowers with tiny centres on fine, thread-like stems. One has a seed pod! and the other gem has been for a couple of months and still making new buds, the tiny Acis roseum. There have been over 50 flowers so far and I've been able to harvest a few seeds as well. 

June Keeley's dwarf nerine hybrids have been better than ever before and I've rediscovered one I thought was lost, a deep crimson red spangled with gold dust. It hasn't flowered for 10 years or more but has enjoyed a summer ripening as they all have, alongside the eastern wall of the house where they've had no rain since November. There have been at least 12 different orange and red shades flower and a few pinks too. They're also setting seed which, if placed in a small paper bag, soon makes roots and if then sprinkled on a seed pot and covered lightly, make a first leaf within a few days, weeks before the non-rooted seeds.

So the autumn has been (and still is being, with 22C here today) very interesting indeed and rewarding and even though we badly need rain, it's wonderful not to have frosts yet. My Easter sown broad beans are 20cms high already!

Incidentally, G. depressa does best from spring cuttings. I do them in October but I'm trying a few now too from non flowering rosettes because for just about everything, it has been a wonderful season for cuttings. I usually don't take cuttings after the end of March to leave enough time for good rooting before winter but I'm still doing a few each day, now into May.

[t00lie]

Well done Dave, on beating Fermi to the start line for a change. He must be asleep.

 

Yes in view of the weather Lesley I'm trying Eucomis schijffii as leaf cuttings as well .......

Also i see buds about a day or two away from opening on C. laevigatus 'gold'.

Well the C. laevigatus 'gold' opened today ---small white flower with a gold vein . 

Another late bloom on one of the PC Iris raised from seed.

Foliage well advanced on Arum purpureospathum .

[Jupiter]

t00lie thanks for posting those Crocus pictures, they are superb. I've been promised seed of C. goulimyi and I'm looking forward to those lovely triangular blooms in my own garden.

I'm a little worried about fermi. Is he away on holiday or unwell? Very uncharacteristic of him not to post something here...

[t00lie]

t00lie thanks for posting those Crocus pictures, they are superb....

Thanks Jamus

A couple more different species have just opened so hopefully I'll get a photo or two over the weekend .
Also foliage is just coming through of C.oreocreticus and I see it has increased from last season since being released from its pot.

Cheers.

[Anthony Darby]

Two bulbs flowering now. Galanthus reginae-olgae, kindly dent by t00lie, and an unknown bulb that self seeded in a pot.

[Maggi Young]

Is the unknown some sort of Polyxena perhaps?

[t00lie]

flowering now. Galanthus reginae-olgae, kindly sent by t00lie,

Pleased to see it doing well Anthony . My clump is yet to reach peak flowering.

The thin wiry stems of Gladiolus priorii today .

Pink Tree Dahlia has just opened the first of it's flowers .Wasn't that keen on climbing the step ladder with wet underfoot conditions to take a closer photo  .It wasn't until later I thought I could have used the zoom lens ...Duh.

[Anthony Darby]

Galanthus corcyrensis (reginae olgae from Corfu?). These came from Bill Dijk.

Zephyranthes macrosiphon 'Hidalgo Form'. It sets plenty of seed, but what do the seedlings flower like?

[Lesley Cox]

Oh boy! Such a mild autumn right through March, April and until a few days ago when we cooled down a little. Saturday some rain, quite welcome and Sunday and today heavy unending downpour about 60mm in the rain gauge so far and it's still bucketing down. We've had a few hail showers as well but it's rain that has found a few previously unknown leaks in our elderly iron roof. So some maintenance work to be done when the rain stops.

The 'Bishop of Llandaff' dahlia has finally stopped blooming - thank goodness - and there are many cyclamen, late colchicums, crocuses (many winter/spring ones up in quantity), early narcissus. (Bill D's) N. cantabricus clusii is superb, 50 odd flowers from 8 bulbs, and (AD's) N.obsoletus has been a delight with its starry white flowers. There is some seed set as well. The late June Keeley's small Nerine hybrids have had their best ever year, some flowering for the first time in 10 years, including the gorgeous crimson-with-gold-sparkles which I thought I'd lost. Zephranthes flavissima has flowered better than ever and there are a couple of out-of-season PC irises. I expect we'll have a first frost when the rain clears but after a great autumn I can't complain. Bring it on, on fact.

[David Nicholson]

Too wet for pictures Lesley?