April 2008 in the Southern Hemisphere

[fermi de Sousa]

You're welcome, Maggi!
I do have a few of my own pics! Here's one I took in otto's garden! Lilium primulinum ssp primulinum:


And now, for Thomas especially! The flower of the not crocus nudiflorus:(Now identified as C.kotschyanus, with thanks to Lesley and Thomas)




And Saturday night at our AGS Vic group meeting, we had a talk from Peter Genat  whose nursery we visited last year http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=249.30
here's a small selection of some of the flowers he had


As we were allowed to take some of the exhibits home, I'll post some more pics when I can get some better shots.
cheers
fermi

[Lesley Cox]

That not nudiflorus looks to me like C. kotschyanus Fermi. Are the anthers white?

I have a bulb of Lilium majoense (syn. primulinum I think) which is from John Humphries' seed 3 years ago. I'm hoping it may flower next summer. Otto's is certainly gorgeous.

[Thomas Huber]

Now it's clear, Fermi - and Lesley is right: This is Crocus kotschyanus!

[Paul T]

Otto (and Fermi),

Thanks for the lovely Crocus photos.  Does the C. caspius open white and fade to pink, or are there two colour forms in the one clump?  I don't know the species other than from pictures I've seen, but the combination of colours in your picture is lovely.  That pale banaticus is very speccy too.... I've seen the normal blue, the bicolour (white smaller inner petals and blue outer petals) and the alba (now deceased unfortunately), but I haven't seen a paler blue self like that before.  Any chance of a more closeup picture of that flower?

Thanks Fermi for taking the photos for us to enjoy.  Some lovely species in there that I don't grow, and some lovely reminders of flowers that might pop up any time now in my crocus garden.    Great stuff!!

[fermi de Sousa]

Thanks, Thomas and Lesley for the ID.
Paul, you'll have to wait for an answer from Otto about the colour of the Crocus caspius.
cheers
fermi

[Paul T]

Thanks Fermi

[Lesley Cox]

Here are a couple of small bulbs in flower now. Colchicum pusillum here is paler than David's. It will be best in a small trough I think.


This is my best Cyclamen cilicium. The leaves are not so good as some others but it flowers furiously for 5 months and is a deeper shade of pink than the others, deeper than it appears here. The corm is around 20 years old now and measures over 15cms across, big, for cilicium. I wonder if it may be triploid as it has never set any seed even when hand pollinated from the others. It is never watered, relying on what little rain we get nowadays.


I have 3 small plants of Rhodo. camtschaticum, from OAGG seed doanated by the Sutherlands of Ardfearn in Scotland. The packet said Red Form. Only one has flowered and it was a pure white. This first pic shows its yellow autumn leaf colour, as it is deciduous. The 2nd plant is also yellow now so may also be white flowered but the 3rd is orangey/red in autumn leaf so I'm hoping it may be pinkish or at least different from the white. This is a tiny plant which I almost lost in the summer of 06/07 due to its being too dry. I'm surprised I was able to rescue it, just 2cms across at the time.

[johnw]

. Only one has flowered and it was a pure white. This first pic shows its yellow autumn leaf colour, as it is deciduous.

Nasty bit of luck there Leslie. For years I tried the grow the white form and hope I have it going now. It has a reputation for being very miffy. A friend on the coast here grew some type camtschaticum seed from the lady on Kodiak Island who also found the white form. In those days he could never get seed of the white form. One day a friend came to his garden to see his dwarf willows and spied 2-3 white seedlings that appeared as volunteers. He was stunned.

Count yourself very lucky!

johnw

[Lesley Cox]

I do, John, very much so. I love white flowers and had wanted this one since seeing a lovely picture on the Forum a while back, posted by Ian Christie. I was thrilled when my first flower was white. It set a seed pod too. Half went to Otto Fauser in Australia and I sowed the rest. It will be interesting to see how true they come. But I have 8 cuttings in as a precaution.

[johnw]

But I have 8 cuttings in as a precaution.

Leslie - Do tell us you when and how you rooted them. I rely on self-layering and my supposed-white one has not done that yet.

johnw

[Paul T]

This Gentiana picture is thanks to Yvonne yesterday morning.  It's closed whenever I'm home, but more flowers are opening and hopefully some good viewing on the weekend! 

I am running on memory as to what this Peterostylis is.  if the name is wrong I'll report it here so that it's fixed.  It's an autumn flowering species, not a strange occurrence for a spring flowering one.

And lastly a pic from my garden this afternoon... the white fluffy bright bit is one of the grasses 'Sarabande'.

[ranunculus]

Imagine the nerve of it?  Grabbing Yvonne's copyright without a qualm!! 

Wonderful stuff Paul, looks like you have competition for the camera?

[Paul T]

Ah, I forgot this time.  If you notice the Crocus asuminae pic I deliberately put a different watermark on it.  Forgot this time though.  Have taken pics myself this afternoon (home early for a change) of both the Gentiana and the C. asuminae.  Won't bore you with them as have already posted Yvonne's.  The gentian is the only one I have ever managed to flower a second year.  I have an x acaulis that I've had for about 3 or 4 years now without a flower on it, but the 'Sri Krishna' is right near it and obviously is happier in warmer conditions.  Will move my acaulis into the shadehouse I think, as the back verandah obviously doesn't quite suit. 

[Otto Fauser]

Paul, glad you enjoyed the Crocus in my garden- there was just this one pale blue seedling of  Cr. banaticus ,now finnished , so can't take a closeup . I will send you a couple of the white form next week . Cr. banaticus is one of the easiest species in my garden - both the deep purple form and the other with the 3 inner tepals a much paler colour, there are hundreds in the woodland.As to Cr, caspius :it also is so easy here ,all my stock is from P.F.5035 , which Paul Furse sent me in the 19sixties ,and seedlings appear in the most unexpected places, must be ants transporting the seed. They vary from pure white to pinkish-mauve{not on the same flower} ,and last year a deep pink-mauve seedling made its appearance .I will also include some caspius corms in your parcel. I'm surprised you can't keep any Gentians for a number of years. G. acaulis , dinarica , kochii, septemfida, etc. are very permanent here, also paradoxa, and for autumn flowers ternifolia, and sino-ornata and its hybrids .I thought with your cold winters in Canberra, you should succeed to flower them regularly.
    Ciao Otto.

[Lesley Cox]

Good morning Otto, nice to have you here again.

A little - very little - snow here overnight. Distinctly chilly!

John I have the cuttings in, but far from rooted as yet. They are in pure gritty sand with a sandy/humusy compost underneath. They were taken too late I think because like their parent, they're now losing their leaves. But the stems are still quite turgid so I hope they may last through the winter and make roots in the spring. There was so much new growth in Feb/March that I couldn't resist a few cuttings, some of top growth and a couple from runners. These came up a good 15cms away from the plant so I can see that if happy, it could cover a big area quite quickly. Fingers crossed.

My pot with Crocus asumaniae burst into flower yesterday - AS KOTSCHYANUS, 2 quite widely separated flowers so not the same corm.  Don't know how this happened. The other was in there last year, maybe still to come through. But where did kotschyanus come from?