Almost Spring in the Southern Hemisphere

[Lauren]

I thought the other thread was getting a bit long (nine pages!) so I thought I'd start a new thread for the last of the winter flowers before spring arrives.

Firstly, blooming for the very first time for me, is my Tecophilaea cyanocrocus! How exciting!! Such a stunning flower and I've never seen one in person.

The second photo is a Crocus that Paul Tyerman sent to me several months ago. Unfortunately the texta I used on the plant labels have completely faded So if anyone (Paul?) can tell me which one this is I would be very grateful!!

Lastly I thought I might show you a view of my main garden bed from this afternoon. Some of you may remember I am new to the house (a year next month!) and this first winter here was spent planting all my poor potbound perennials that haven't grown in open soil for nigh on 7 years. It looks a bit empty at the moment, but once everything comes into leaf & the perennials emerge I think it'll look okay. My delphiniums have already started growing, they are on either side of the Daffodils. Also planted along the right hand sign is a japanese maple, Liliums, Euphorbias, Gladiolas, Tulips, and a couple of small leafed Rhododendrons. Over in the corner it's a bit shady so I've put my Dicentras & Epimediums there, as well as my Rhodo "Fragrantissimum" and R. nuttalii, which also has flower buds for the first time. Moving over to the left of the photo I've got more Delphiniums there, 2 Roses, Irises, Peony, Dahlia, and Campanula glomerata. There's a small apple tree over there aswell. You can't see them in the photo but further to the left there is 2 raised vegetable gardens which we had to bring in soil to fill them. The soil in the garden wasn't good when we first moved in, very clay-ey and compacted. We spread a load of sandy topsoil on it after my dad cut out the lawn, and then my sister & I went to a friend's farm for an afternoon and collected a uteload of cow manure!! I turned the soil over with my fork at every opportunity, and it has helped the soil immensely and am now seeing earthworms in it for the first time. It has gone to needing a pickaxe to plant my tulips in the Autumn, to being so soft & aerated that if I walk on it (which I try not to do) my foot sinks into the earth! Much easier to plant my shrubs in now. Oh I forgot about my blueberry bushes that I planted in the beds today too :-) Apparently they have good autumn colour.

Thanks for reading :-)

[Paul T]

Lauren,

Crocus corsicus!!  Congrats on the Tecophilaea.  Brilliant!!

[Lauren]

Thanks Paul!! I will have to get a better texta. I put it in the sun today to make it open up a little. It only had 5 petals but I guess that was because the bulb is young still. So is it a spring flowering species technically? The Tecophilaea I grew from seed, from ebay of all places, I was very skeptical as to the authenticity of the seeds but my patience has paid off!

Cheers,

Lauren

[Paul T]

Lauren,

Winter/spring flowering.  They're finished here.  Those were fairly small bulbs, and fairly late in the season if I recall, so not much in the way of flowering isn't a surprise.  The others were Crocus imperatii ssp suavoleons from memory (just for your reference).  Growing the Tecs from seed is even more impressive.  Were they mixed from different colours, or all supposed to be the same?  I lost my var leichtlinii last year (it has the white throat) and was mortified, but the other varieties are still OK, with T. violiflora growing really well but never flowering for me.  Congratulation again.

[Paul T]

Lauren,

I forgot to mention re marking labels..... always write on the bottom of the label as well as the top.  That way if the top fades in the sun the bottom will still be fine.  Worthwhile investing in a 2B pencil as well, and write on the label with that too.  I tend to use pen and pencil on the label, so it doubles the chance of at least one of them not fading or rubbing off, and I always right at the bottom of the label too, so if it fades at the top or the label snaps off it is still readable at the bottom.

[Otto Fauser]

Paul ,
  I potted up a few Tecophilaea c. var. leichtlinii for you to take home , when you are down here in Olinda. As for the other species in the genus :T.violiflora , I grew it for about 15 years ,and as it never flowered ,it ended up in the rubbish bin!

[Paul T]

Thanks Otto.  I think I'll have to make sure I don't mention anything else I'm missing until I get back from visiting you.  You'll end up with nothing left in your garden by the time I leave.  I do appreciate it, but I'm feeling a bit guilty.

Interesting that your violiflora never flowered.... not sure I actually know anyone who has ever had it flower, at least in Australia anyway.  It's one of the reasons I didn't actually offer to give Lauren some of my non-flowered violiflora....... because it is a disappointment for that reason. 

[Armin]

Lauren,
wunderful flowers of Tecophilaea and C. corsicus

[fermi de Sousa]

Lauren,
looks like you'll have a great time filling all that space! A new garden is always exciting.
Here are a few pics taken yesterday in our garden;
The astoundingly beautiful Romulea hantamensis;

This is the sole survivor of a potful I started with from Gordon Julian (in Tasmania) back in 2002! And no germination from any seed so far! Would smoke water help?

Another Rod Barwick "hoop", Narcissus "Mitimoto",



Back in the rock garden, Ipheion peregrinans"Rolf Fiedler" is showing a bit of variation

This one seems a bit darker and 'true to type',

cheers
fermi

[Paul T]

Fermi,

That Romulea is amazing.   Never seen a colour combination like that before.  I must admit that if you'd not provided the genus I would probably have been stumped.  Romulea certainly isn't something that would have sprung to mind for me for that flower.  Good luck with germinating more.... they are gloriously coloured!!!

[Lesley Cox]

A beautiful Romulea Fermi.

I know now what's wrong with My Pictures that some aren't there when I go to upload them. Well no, I don't actually but the man down the road does and thinks he can fix it (maybe), so I'll take my hard drive in on Wednesday and he can have it for a few hours while I go down to Blue Mountain Nurseries to collect some Galanthus 'Emerald Hughes' which are being dug for me. Sad to say, Margaret Hughes died last week (her funeral was on Friday) but life - and nurseries - go on.

[David Nicholson]

Lesley, did you get my PM? Sent Friday, I think.

[Lesley Cox]

Oh Golly David, yes I did but forgot all about it in frantic weekend. I'm emailing pics to Tim Orpin for my Aussie talk, market, other stuff and still trying to decide what to SAY for the talk. I'll get to it later today. so sorry.

[David Nicholson]

Oh Golly David, yes I did but forgot all about it in frantic weekend. I'm emailing pics to Tim Orpin for my Aussie talk, market, other stuff and still trying to decide what to SAY for the talk. I'll get to it later today. so sorry.

What, Lesley, trying to decide WHAT TO SAY-I don't believe it!!

[Paul T]

David,

It is all about selecting which bits to say.  I did a small talk at a garden club a couple of hours north or here last month, and it was trying to keep it down to the 40 minutes that was the problem.  I warned them at the time that my friends would tell them that I could talk under water, so they were warned.  As it happens I completed discussion of each of the 70 pictures and only ran about 2 minutes over.  Pretty amazing for me!!    So it really is trying to work out which bits to say and which bits not to, and I'm assuming the same would apply to Lesley.