September in the Southern Hemisphere 2016

[Lesley Cox]

Ok, so I'm a little ahead of myself here but as today and tomorrow are "plantless" days I thought I'd get in early ahead of Fermi for a change (smiley here). I fly out of Auckland tomorrow by way of Bangkok and Munich to Vienna, arriving 1st September local time.

This 3 week trip to Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia is a gift from my older sister (she is 80) for my 70th birthday which was 3 years ago but it is only now that we are able to go together. There will be large public gardens but mostly music, art galleries, museums, castles and the like. I expect to enjoy it all hugely but on the other hand, it is the worst possible time for me to be away from home, with propagating getting under way and seeds still to be sown as well as all my fritillarias about to flower and most likely finished, especially the new, first flowering ones, finished when I get home. There are at least a dozen I've not seen before and some look very interesting indeed, already in bud but not open for perhaps a week. Most crocuses are at their height or already finished so I've been able to enjoy those and the Iris reticulata forms are past now. They were really good this year. Tecophilaeas are just starting.

There are many mini daffodils out but still a lot to come and of course all the other iris species will start when I'm home on the 21st Sept, with the littlest dwarf bearded forms budding up now so plenty to look forward to later in the spring. Our OAGG spring Show will be just 10 days or so after I'm home so lots to be done as soon as I arrive, to get everything ready in time.

I'll not have my laptop with me so won't post here but will put a few photos on Facebook as I have recently and hope to catch up with the Forum in late September and even get the re-sizing of photos sorted out at last. Yes David, I did try out the tool you sent me a link for and it worked perfectly, but I've not been able to find the re-sized pictures themselves. They are not showing up in any picture folder anywhere that I can see.

In the meantime, I leave my garden to the rabbits and the myriad blackbirds and will hope to find something alive and uneaten in due course. I've covered everything I can with bird netting but inevitably there will be things left unprotected. Oh well....

So - very best wishes to all Forumists and especially to those in the Southern Hemisphere where spring is happening at last.

[David Nicholson]

Lesley, you have a great trip.

COPIED
I'll not have my laptop with me so won't post here but will put a few photos on Facebook as I have recently and hope to catch up with the Forum in late September and even get the re-sizing of photos sorted out at last. Yes David, I did try out the tool you sent me a link for and it worked perfectly, but I've not been able to find the re-sized pictures themselves. They are not showing up in any picture folder anywhere that I can see.COPIED

Lesley when you use the resizing tool the pictures go back to exactly the same file that they came from. The file name given to the individual resized pictures starts with 'SRGC' and has lots of hyphens in the name.

[ashley]

Have a great trip Lesley

[ranunculus]

Enjoy, Lesley … and stop worrying.

[t00lie]

Spring is sprung .......

Erythronium caucasicum

Fritillaria minuta

3 in a row-- Narcissus at the back just opening -Clump of Crocus prins claus --- Young seedling Trillium with lovely leaf markings ......

Corydalis solida x George Baker from home seed

Corydalis malkensis

[fermi de Sousa]

Anemone pavonina grown from SRGC Seedex seed;
Muscari armeniacum ex 'Gul';
Hesperantha oligantha Silverhill Seeds 2014;
Hybrid jonquil 08-06 MJ (Demmo x 0-02 J);
Moraea bipartita from NZAGS seedex;
cheers
fermi

[Parsla]

I loved the beautiful blooms posted by toolie and fermi.
It's well and truly hayfever season now - haven't stopped sneezing all day.

1. The narcissus 'hawera' has started opening
2. English primroses starting to fill out again
3. Pulmonaria 'ensign'is a lovely deep blue
4. The flowers of the Tasmanian laurel.

[Parsla]

Oh dear, some didn't load again...something at this end I'm sure.

[Parsla]

Hawera

[David Nicholson]

3. Pulmonaria 'ensign'is a lovely deep blue

I think it's full "handle" is 'Blue Ensign'- good name really!

[ashley]

Yes it's a lovely blue, and seedlings come fairly true although the seeds are hard to gather.

[Maggi Young]

Thanks for persevering to get the pix loaded, Jacquie!

[t00lie]

Had a bit of a play with my old point and shoot camera....possibly my settings were a bit dark....

anyway here's a video of the garden this afternoon --- part 1

[t00lie]

Part two....



Cheers Dave.

[ranunculus]

Superb, Dave … wonderful to see your ever expanding collection and to hear your voice again resonating across those many thousands of miles. Best wishes to you both from Sue and I.