August in the Northern Hemisphere

[François Lambert]

Tigridia time in the garden.  For the first time 3 colors of Tigridia Pavonia, and for the very first time Tigridia Vanhouttei is flowering.  One must be on the lookout to find this one in flower, the flowers are very small and don't have spectacular colours as the Pavonia.

[Gerdk]

This is Cobaea pringlei - it is a perennial climber and perhaps hardy here (7b) - I have to test it.

Gerd

[Gabriela]

A few shots from around the garden today. The big news is that my seedling Nelumbo nucifera var. komarovii has bloomed for the first time!

Very nice! Lotus flowers are so spectacular. Have you tried our native Nelumbo lutea?
Last year I grew a seedling out of curiosity - then gifted it away, no pond to keep it.

[GordonT]

Hi Gabriela, I've been tempted to try Nelumbo lutea... a bit hesitant because to date, our choice of plants for the edges of our ponds have been over enthusiastic growers. I suspect both species of Nelumbo will be similar.

When we dug the two ponds in 2010, we envisioned nice water gardens. Now, I have to routinely get into chest waders, and take a rake to root out excessive growth of Sagittaria latifolia, Alisma subcordatum, and Mentha aquatica.

[Gabriela]

Hi Gabriela, I've been tempted to try Nelumbo lutea... a bit hesitant because to date, our choice of plants for the edges of our ponds have been over enthusiastic growers. I suspect both species of Nelumbo will be similar.

When we dug the two ponds in 2010, we envisioned nice water gardens. Now, I have to routinely get into chest waders, and take a rake to root out excessive growth of Sagittaria latifolia, Alisma subcordatum, and Mentha aquatica.

What you describe here I've seen in other gardens with ponds Gordon. So, when I first saw the pond forumist Robert Pavlis has I couldn't believe it! It is a natural pond, with no filters, pumps and the likes, no invasive species, everything grows and lives in perfect harmony. Hard to believe I know, but it's true.
I do not intend to do advertising here but he also wrote a book about building ponds; as well, he can be contacted for advice, which he always gladly provides
http://www.buildingnaturalponds.com/

[Maggi Young]

What you describe here I've seen in other gardens with ponds Gordon. So, when I first saw the pond forumist Robert Pavlis has I couldn't believe it! It is a natural pond, with no filters, pumps and the likes, no invasive species, everything grows and lives in perfect harmony. Hard to believe I know, but it's true.
I do not intend to do advertising here but he also wrote a book about building ponds; as well, he can be contacted for advice, which he always gladly provides
http://www.buildingnaturalponds.com/

The talents of SRGC forumists are pretty much endless! http://www.robertpavlis.com/

[Robert]

Cyclamen graecum



Cyclamen hederifolium out in the garden.

It looks like a 38C - 40C day today.

[shelagh]

We keep dormant bulbs in the garage over winter. Today suddenly spotted that Ipheion/Tristagma Alberto Castille is 6 inches tall.  What's happening

[François Lambert]

From time to time I have my fingers itching to add new plants to my garden.  So, this January I purchased some seeds of Paulownia on E-bay and have sown them as soon as they arrived so they get a decent cold stratification.  A prior attempt to sow Paulownia without stratification and covered with some sand had failed - I also learned they need light to germinate.  I hoped to have more success this time.  I sowed 4 species of Paulownia, only 2 germinated.  But, I'm more than rewarded with this attempt.  Although at the very start they are slow growers, once they get a certain size - and after pricking them out into decent sized pots - they really start to grow very fast - right now you can even see them growing from one day to the next.  I would have been very happy to have one tree to plant somewhere, but I couldn't just throw away all those nice seedlings, so I have almost 20 of them.
Another funny coincidence is that I reused pots where I had sown Dietes seeds 4 year ago, however they never germinated.  That was untill now, apparently the cold wet stratification finally triggered the Dietes seeds to germinate also.  So I have pots with seedlings of Dietes growing between the Paulownia seedlings.
And for the record, the fluffy foliage just behind the big leaves of Paulownia (Elongata on the pic) is Eucalyptus Pulchella - I also wanted to start a small Tasmanien corner.  These were sown at the same time & under the same conditions as the Paulownia seeds.  And of these too I have (too) many to plant out.  And they are really ready for planting out now before the roots get potbound.

[David Nicholson]

With Autumn now on our NH doorsteps there is still some colour in the garden. I don't usually go for bedding plants but the quadrant below now covered with bedding Lobelia hadn't been dug over for many years and had become very compacted and full of Chionodoxa luciliae. So, in the very early part of the Summer, I dug out all the Chionodoxa (over a bucket-full), gave the soil a good turnover, mixed it with composted bark and edged the reduced-sized quadrant with some spare stone (scrounged from a neighbour!) But, what to do with the Chionodoxa? Well, I excavated a good barrow-full of soil, tipped the bulbs from the bucket into it, spread them around a bit with my fingers and filled the hole back in. Spring next year will show if this was successful but at least I hope the stone edging will 'tame' them a bit.

It being early Summer it took a bit of thinking what to plant in the newly bare soil but a visit to a local semi-wholesale nursery bought me a couple of trays of bedding Lobelia and a couple more of pink Geraniums (all for a Fiver) filled the space nicely. Backing these is a nice patch of Crocosmia solfatare and on the far right a patch of Tulbaghia violacea.

On the other side of the garden a patch of an unknown Zantedeschia that always looks a treat at this time of tear.

The trough (plastic, sorry!) has, amongst other things a couple of patches of Cyananthus microphyllus x lobatus 'Sherrifs'. I'm very happy with these as I have significantly failed twice with straight C. microphyllus in exactly the same place.

[brianw]

We keep dormant bulbs in the garage over winter. Today suddenly spotted that Ipheion/Tristagma Alberto Castille is 6 inches tall.  What's happening

Mine are in pots outside all year. The tallest Ipheon have leaves almost a foot long at present.
Collected the first seed from Acis autumnalis today just as the last flowers are going over.
Collecting seed of Galtonia candicans. A friend bought this as upside-down snowdrop recently
Colchicum autumnale album and an unknown hybrid in full flower for some time now.
Tricyrtis macrantha ssp macranthopsis in flower.

[David Nicholson]

With Autumn now on our NH doorsteps there is still some colour in the garden. I don't usually go for bedding plants but the quadrant below now covered with bedding Lobelia hadn't been dug over for many years and had become very compacted and full of Chionodoxa luciliae. So, in the very early part of the Summer, I dug out all the Chionodoxa (over a bucket-full), gave the soil a good turnover, mixed it with composted bark and edged the reduced-sized quadrant with some spare stone (scrounged from a neighbour!) But, what to do with the Chionodoxa? Well, I excavated a good barrow-full of soil, tipped the bulbs from the bucket into it, spread them around a bit with my fingers and filled the hole back in. Spring next year will show if this was successful but at least I hope the stone edging will 'tame' them a bit.

... and here it is today

[Maggi Young]

Isn't it great when a plan comes together Cheery little things, are they not?