July 2017 in the Southern Hemisphere

[Lesley Cox]

My fabulous time of year hasn't started yet, with heavy frost this morning and thick fog on top of it. So I'm going back in time with a picture for John Good if you are out there John, with a little bit of boasting from a few years ago. It relates to a photo on Facebook this morning and John's comment. I couldn't resist responding while my porridge cooks. (I'm up very late today.)

[Lesley Cox]

I don't remember how many flowers there were, but almost 200 I think. This above is just a small part of the plant and it's all over a trough now, winding through other things but didn't flower at all this last summer. The seedlings are from one single pod a couple of years later and there were 110 seedlings in all. I potted 2 per pot, very carefully and within a month, all but one had died off. There has been no seed since! When spring gets going properly I am going to take some chunks to put elsewhere and feed them well with tomato fertilizer.

[Lesley Cox]

Very disappointed this morning as I've just looked to see the seedlings of Eranthis hiemalis aurantiacus. The first one is flowering for the first time and it is bright - YELLOW, exactly the same as ordinary hiemalis, though a bit smaller. No vestige of orange at all. Five or six are going to flower within a few days so will report on those soon. These seedlings have taken several years to flower, much longer than I would have expected eranthis to take but my other original yellows took 5 or 6 years as well. It's a long time only to find they are not true. Seed, I now remember was given me by a Canadian (BC) Forumist.

[fermi de Sousa]

Hi Lesley,
I guess this form may not breed true from seed - however the second generation may revert to the orange coloring!
Save the seed and try again - only another 5 or 6 years to see if they do
You'll have something to look forward to
Stephen Ryan likes to mention his friend Barney Hutton who was sowing tree peony seed when he was in his 90s - it seemed to keep him going!
cheers
fermi

[fermi de Sousa]

Here are some Galanthus elwesii growing in a rock garden where it is starting to "naturalize".
In the first pic you can see there are 3 groups, the one in the middle was the original and the ones above and below are presumably seedlings.
The second pic shows the distance between the top two groups. I also presume that ants were responsible for moving the seeds uphill.
The third and fourth pics show the bottom group 2 days apart
cheers
fermi

[Lesley Cox]

Fermi your G. elwesii look great and are doing so well. They inspire me to remove my own G. e. 'Emerald Hughes' after they flower, from their crowded pot and plant them out over a reasonable space to make a good planting in a couple of years or so. I could do the same with reginae-olgae and 'Lady Beatrix Stanley which are both very vigorous for me.

[Jupiter]

Lovely pictures of your rock garden Fermi and impressive snowdrops. I can hardly wait for mine to multiply up like that.

I had a much needed day off today and spent it walking in the bush and enjoying my garden. The sunshine was glorious after so much dark, wet weather. There are signs of spring everywhere... the best time of year. Here are some of my pictures from today.

     galanthus beatrix-stanley.jpg
    beatrix-stanley-side.jpg
    Brugmannsia -sanguinea.jpg
    camellia.jpg
    Crocus chrysanthus 'zwanenburg bronze'

[Jupiter]

part 2

Galanthus.....
    dumpy-elwesii-monostictus.jpg
    Gal-rizehensis.jpg
    Gal-transcaucasicus.jpg
    Gal-woronowii.jpg
    john-gray.jpg

[Jupiter]

part 3

     Oxalis-versicolor.jpg
    Oxalis-versicolor-rock-garden.jpg
   Narcissus romieuxii-atlanticus.jpg
   Crocus  tommasinianus.jpg

[Jupiter]

Thanks for the names Maggi! The Crocus in part one is chrysanthus 'Zwanenburg Bronze'

[Jupiter]

Today 'Ophelia' opened. She's a stunner and easy here.

[Parsla]

Jamus, such beautiful photographs.
Where on earth did you get John Gray?
I am green with envy (as is john)!
 

a few from the garden

1. galanthus rizehensis flowers clumping up a little
2. crocus biflorus ssp biflorus
3. a lovely scilla ciliata- delicate blooms contrast against the wide leaves.
4. iris reticulata 'george' is the first iris up this year

[Parsla]

...and a couple more

5. crocus sieberi ssp ?
6. galanthus 'spindlestone surprise' was kindly gifted by otto.

[Jupiter]

Jacqui, nice plants! I can't believe you have retics ahead of me! I thought i was cooler over there? I guess not every year. I like your Crocus biflorus ssp. biflorus. What a beauty with those contrasting outer stripes. As for John Gray, Otto gave it to me. How lucky am I? It's extremely rare in Australia I believe. I hope it increases in my garden...

[Lesley Cox]

'George' is early because it is not reticulata, but histrioides, or at lease half histrioides. The other half is probably reticulata. My own 'George looks to be entirely histrioides however, very wide and full and the leaves barely visible with the first flowers. I always understood it to be a selection from histrioides but I may be wrong.

Otherwise, my only retic that is out is 'Harmony,' also a histrioides / reticulata cross.