Short Holiday/A lesson in Northern Horticulture

[Lesley Cox]

Another batch and that will do for today. The dog keeps hanging around to ask why don't I get a proper life? by which he means come out and throw the ball for me.

These are big, bold and spectacular things, mostly shrubby or small trees. I should think all are tender with me at least.

[Lesley Cox]

Well, those were SO quick and easy that I'll do some more before signing off for today.

These are all edible. The Annona cherimolia is cherimoya or custard apple, up to 3kg in weight so that the bag of 6 I brought home caused a few raised eyebrows when I boarded the plane. The flesh is creamy white, very sweet but with just a little tartness which stops it from being sickly and has the texture of icecream but not cold, though it's best when taken straight from the fridge. I ADORE it.

I don't think the fruit of Passiflora coccinea is edible but who would need it to be, with flowers like that. The others definitely are, and P. antioquiensis is the best of all with big, sausage-shaped fruit which hang on 30cms threads, as do the flowers. It is incredibly good to eat. This one is held up to have its picture taken. The paw-paw is in flower though others were fruiting but we'd eaten everything ripe before I got that far into the picture-taking.

[Lesley Cox]

Yes, that was easy too. Just went to modify (used to be edit post) then unchecked the one I wanted out.

[Thomas Huber]

I will try admin's tipps in Ian's "Where have I been" thread here:

This is Sternbergia lutea:


Next my Sempervivum corner:


Cyclamen purpurascens:


Crocus banaticus, my best form:


Rockgarden in October:

[Thomas Huber]

YESSSSSSS!!!!!
I have it!!!!!!

[annew]

Lesley - great pictures of beautiful things, and thanks for the (sympathetic) chuckle reading your attempts at mastering the forum. When you couldn't get that pic to post, and then it came up twice, I had a vision of you, the computer and a sledgehammer having a party! What a fighter - I'm proud of you. I might try uploading an image or two today, so you can have a laugh at me later.

[Thomas Huber]

Hello Anne - nice to meet you 

Thanks to Mr. Admin for the secret, to post photos within the text.
But  I can't see, how many times they have been opened 

[Lesley Cox]

As they say Anne, all things come to him who waits! But I felt I should have swiped Mr Admin's posting portrait (head smashed into keyboard) and taken it for myself!

Well done Thomas, it's easy once we know how isn't it?

[Ian Y]

Well done Thomas, Admin has custom added that into the forum.
I will look into the loss of the counter thingie.
If you leave the last image of the post below the line as previously, then it will have the counter and so give you a total views figure for that image as a guide.

[Lesley Cox]

I've been badly side-tracked by the need to attend to 2 seedlists (AGS came yesterday) and doing a newsletter for my market, a Publisher document which took hours as I'm still teaching myself - without a manual - to use that. Looks good though when finished.

So back to the far north (of NZ) and yes, I'll forgive Ian and Thomas for putting other stuff here. I don't mind at all but if someone needs it later, they won't know where to look.

First a few of Theo's orchids. I can't love these but they are certainly spectacular.

Then a member of the cactus family, Pereskia aculeata or aculeatissima. It's very tender with its greenless leaves which are thick textured like a hoya. I have a plant home to try though. It climbs.

Hibbertia volubilis is also a climber and one I've grown before so I hope I can get my new cuttings going. The lower pic is Thunbergia mysorensis, very tender and unfortunately just beginning to flower. It opens red and yellow from dark red calyces. The racemes lengthen until they are a full 3 metres. Ray said that last summer the flowers fell in a curtain right to the ground, totally enclosing their patio. It can be very rampant if happy.

I used the same method as before, of including text with relevant pics but this time it didn't work. Also forgot to upload the pereskia. Trying again.

[Maggi Young]

Love the orchids, so rich on colour.
Still working out how to move things around this forum......I had cracked that in the last one, eventually!! So we may be able to shift Thomas and Ian's "extras" elsewhere...one way or another!

[Lesley Cox]

Mmmm, yes, well, all right.

I've had another look at Admin's notes re posting pics in text and tried to print it for reference but 3 pages printed, all of the first part of that Q and A thread (such a good idea) and the last bit but the Admin bit was missing so I'll have to write it by hand. Later.

Now, some leafy, trunky things.

Monstera deliciosa is edible of course but usually grown as an indoor plant. Ray's has fruit but not ripe at the moment. My mother who ate this in Australia years ago said that the fruit ripens in segments which can be prized out individually and consumed.

Two figs. The first started as an indoor plant but threatened to take off the roof so went into the garden. Mature leaves are black and very glossy but the new foliage is bright scarlet. It is 6 metres high now.

The second fig has magnificent foliage too. It is Ficus auriculata and the fruit looks good but isn't edible or not these anyway, the right insect to pollinate not being present.

I very much liked the paw-paw trunk (above) but this is a stunner. Ray says it is called Colissa but I can't find any reference by gooling or elsewhere, except people's names and a fish.

[Maggi Young]

Great stuff, Lesley.. and how nice to "see" you!
In one of your earlier posts, No. 44. the other day on this thread, before you conquered the multiple posting snag, you said :
"these   ......  are temperate things which I can or do grow in Otago :
A variegated euphorbia whose name I've forgotten. It's around though
A lovely tawny gold ixia hybrid"
We got the text but not the pix.... can I ask you to post them now, seing you're doing so well?

[Lesley Cox]

Oh God, she's done it!

A few oddments now then a winding up with what surprisingly turned out to be my favourite plants in the whole garden. Trying Admin's method here but not sure if I've got it right.



On the beach the grass is rough and sandy but at this cottage gazanias had seeded into the grass to make it more interesting





This is Amorphophallus kukushima, which I think is a Japanese speces. Forget the giant and rather ugly species that are occasionally grown here in warm gardens, or in tropical glasshouses. This one is quiet, unassuming and dwarf (about 45cms high) and would be very much in keeping with a group of arisaemas. I brought home a pot with about 300 seedlings, from last year's fruit which Theo says are pink to start with then red and fully ripen at magenta.



This is the lovely house which Theo and Allan moved - in three pieces - to their garden then spent 3 years totally renovating it. It is quite beautiful inside and out and sits in a formal garden now, courtesy the new owners.





A little bit of not very wild life, Teddy and a fantail who flitted around me everywhere I went. Because they move all the time, twisting and turning as they catch airborne insects, they're hard to photograph.

[Lesley Cox]

Still lots to learn.
 
Had my last post done but got the pics tangled up so went to modify (back and forth several times) and well, to cut a long story short, have been told a) I couldn't post any more pics (presumably because I'd done 10, but had already deleted 7 of those, just trying to re-post the ones in the wrong place) then b)that the page was now expired..... so, have removed the text bits and will try again tomorrow. I'll try the ixia etc too Maggi.