Narcissus in the Southern Hemisphere - June 2016

[Mini-daffs]

 
[/Hi
The weather has been unusual this year. I was expecting an El Nino and it was an unusually hot and dry autumn but then the rain came. It is a bit more of an La Nina and there is more rain to come. Unfortunately our new underground water tank is not yet connected. If it had been it would probably have been full.
I don't think the daffodils are quite sure what time of the year it is so we have daffodils flowering somewhat earlier than normal. About 6 weeks earlier than normal for some of them. I expect to have Fyno flowering at this time but not some of the flowers that are currently flowering. It only seems like yesterday that I was judging daffodils in St Louis and looking at daffodils in the Missouri area of the US.font]

[Maggi Young]

Holy moly, Graham, is that the hole for the water tank or are you planning an olympic swimming pool ?

[Mini-daffs]

 
Hi
Maggie, water is a big issue for us as our rainfall can be quite low and we have been through a 13 year long drought. We are very water conscious as the cost of using "town water" on a large scale is prohibitive so we do what we can to reduce the cost and save what is free. The tank is a 120,000 litre tank. We are also big water recyclers and when our new system goes operational we will have two 'black water" recycling systems as well as our water tank. Essentially, we re-use our 'town water" and never give any of it back. We put the water from the main house into our dam but evaporation is a problem so the rainwater from the new cottage will go to our new underground tank. (We view buildings as water harvesting structures as much as whatever their other use may be.) The underground water tank is bigger than most swimming pools and is capable of being driven over.
We use start of the art underground drip irrigation systems to minimise the loss of water to evaporation from our water recycling systems.
Daffodils, and in particular miniature daffodils, are a good fit for our Mediterranean climate as they don't need watering in summer. In fact if we have too much water in summer we suffer losses.

[t00lie]

First of the winter Narcissus are out.

Here's a first flowering from seed I was given as Narcissus romieuxii 'Julia Jane'. The seedlings show quite a bit of variation however I'm hoping to see some flattening and roll back as the flower matures  .....

[fermi de Sousa]

Dave,
are you trying to scare Leslie!
You know you have to post a warning when showing  pic of a split-cup, even if it is a "hoop"
cheers
fermi

[Maggi Young]

Very impressive  building works, Graham.

[Lesley Cox]

Dave (and Fermi) this is like an even more scalloped 'Joy Bishop' and given how many with minute variations are distributed as named clones, you should increase this one Dave and get it around. Fermi, I'm recovering from the split cup illness I've had. Don't like them any more, but what the heck? Like's too short. I don't have to grow them after all. This little one is fine.

No doubt you both had a good look at Anne W's list. some super things there all right.

[fermi de Sousa]

No doubt you both had a good look at Anne W's list. some super things there all right.

Despite Australia being eligible for Eurovision we are not considered to be in the EU, so sadly no point in doing that!
cheers
fermi

[t00lie]

Dave,
are you trying to scare Leslie!
fermi

 

Dave (and Fermi) this is like an even more scalloped 'Joy Bishop' and given how many with minute variations are distributed as named clones, you should increase this one Dave and get it around. Fermi, I'm recovering from the split cup illness I've had. Don't like them any more, but what the heck? Like's too short. I don't have to grow them after all. This little one is fine.

That's what Joy S. in Ashburton thought as well Lesley. I've attached a marker this 'arvo' to the stem of this one and a couple of others in the clump that are similar so I can separate them out ,to grow on and pass around.   

[Anthony Darby]

This clump of Narcissus panizzianus flowers against an east facing fence, under some lollipop bushes. It doesn't get much sun, but continues to improve year on year.

[annew]

Great to see all your daffs flowering away as I'm chopping them up!

[Hoy]

Hi
Maggie, water is a big issue for us as our rainfall can be quite low and we have been through a 13 year long drought. We are very water conscious as the cost of using "town water" on a large scale is prohibitive so we do what we can to reduce the cost and save what is free. The tank is a 120,000 litre tank. We are also big water recyclers and when our new system goes operational we will have two 'black water" recycling systems as well as our water tank. Essentially, we re-use our 'town water" and never give any of it back. We put the water from the main house into our dam but evaporation is a problem so the rainwater from the new cottage will go to our new underground tank. (We view buildings as water harvesting structures as much as whatever their other use may be.) The underground water tank is bigger than most swimming pools and is capable of being driven over.
We use start of the art underground drip irrigation systems to minimise the loss of water to evaporation from our water recycling systems.
Daffodils, and in particular miniature daffodils, are a good fit for our Mediterranean climate as they don't need watering in summer. In fact if we have too much water in summer we suffer losses.

Is accumulation of salt a problem with this recycling of water?

[Lesley Cox]

Anthony, what's a lollipop bush?

[fermi de Sousa]

Please, tell me this what it means

 
cheers
fermi

[Anthony Darby]

Anthony, what's a lollipop bush?

These are Pittosporum bushes that are trimmed so they are spherical balls about a metre diam on single or multiple stems. I hate them.