Autumn 2009 in the Southern Hemisphere

[Lesley Cox]

We southerners seem to have been quite quiet lately so a new start for the 1st of March, officially the first day of autumn, though the weather has felt a little autumnal for the last week or so.

I have my first colchicum coming through today following recent good rain and yesterday, when looking for something else in my tunnel house, I found this gorgeous thing, Asteranthera ovata. Dave Toole gave me some cuttings back in October 2007 and they took quite a long time to root and begin to grow, more than a year before I was quite sure. This is the first flower and I am thrilled by it.

I have never seen it in flower before but fell heavily in love with it in a coloured slide at a talk some 40 something years ago and it has never left my "wish list" since that time.

[cohan]

looks like a charmer indeed..is it a little mat type thing? small plants are my favourites...lol

[Gerdk]

Lesley,
What a surprise! Some years ago I saw this species in southern Chile in a region  which is called the Valdivian rainforest and never expected to see a cultivated plant . Very showy!

Gerd

[johnw]

Gerd -

re: Asteranthera ovata

About 8 years ago we got one at Glendoick Gardens which was supposed to be a hardier form.  It bloomed here in a pot once and as I recall it had a bit more orange in the flower but I may be mistaken. We gave it to a friend in North Vancouver who planted it against a mossy stump. It has done very well there and is now climbing all over the stump.

It may be worth a try.

johnw

[Gerdk]

Thank you John,
The hardiness is interesting but Vancouver is most probably somewhat
warmer in winter than my region.
But once again quite interesting for me that Asteranthera is known - will
look for some seeds in the future.

Gerd

[Maggi Young]

We've had lovely pix of Asteranthera ovata before from t00lie... see reply 7 here: http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=14.msg187;topicseen#msg187


 I think this plant is pretty tough, there are some folks growing it in Scotland.....or were doing so some years ago, not so sure abut now.


 Recently Celia Coller was growing and showing it in Engalnd....    http://www.srgc.org.uk/discus/messages/141/34439.html

[Lesley Cox]

What a lovely page in that link Maggi. I'd forgotten about it. Those fabulous Ourisia hybrids. I've had a few flowers over the summer on O. microphylla but not enough at once to photograph. The plant is looking well though.

The Asterantha comes from southern South America as mentioned above and is a plant of heavy shade. It should do well in conditions where Philesia magellanica is happy. I don't know about hardiness. It's fellow gesneriad Mitraria coccinea is happy enough outside in my climate and flowers very well. I know the Asteranthera grows in the central North Island, very cold in winter, but it grows under huge forrest trees in dense shade so maybe not much frost there.

Dave has his in a hanging basket with the long stems dangling down but mine is tending to loop along, not unlike Linnaea borealis v. americana. The red colour above is a little misleading. It should be more crimson, less pinkish.

[fermi de Sousa]

Lesley,
although it's "officially" autumn here it hardly feels like it!
However, we have had our first colchicum

which is possibly "Princess Astrid" or "Atropurpurea"
Flowering for the first time is Globularia bisnagarica which we got from the annual "Bunfight" Plant Exchange in 2007,

Nearby a rather healthy clump of Armeria is coming back into bloom!

In the Shadehouse a sole surviving Ipomopsis rubra (NARGS Seedex 2008) is still in bloom,

cheers
fermi

[Gerdk]

Maggi and Lesley,
Thank you for the notes about Asteranthera !

Gerd

[Lesley Cox]

The Ipomopsis is lovely Fermi. I've not had one reach flowering size before collapsing.

[fermi de Sousa]

The Ipomopsis is lovely Fermi. I've not had one reach flowering size before collapsing.

Thanks, Lesley, this one has been in the Shadehouse since October and started to flower in the middle of January.
A few flowers in the rock garden:
Yellow Rush Lily, Tricoryne elatior, a local endemic,



And the Belladonna lilies (Amaryllis belladonna) have started! Albeit half the height they should be!
A local selection is quite dark pink/carmine



We have two supposedly different forms of white Belladonna, the first came as "Hathor"


and the other as "Multiflora alba"

But I can't see a difference really; maybe it's more obvious when they aren't so starved!
Another plant that "holds its own" during this time of year is a trailing native plant called Amulla or "Trailing Emu Bush", Eremophila debilis, with its enticing cream and pink berries.


It comes from NSW/Queensland.
cheers
fermi

[Otto Fauser]

Lesley, it rained all night here , the first time since mid december, and the garden already
 looks greener -or is it my imagination ?it will also help to put out the remaining bush-
firers , so sad and horrific, with 210 lifes lost and over 2000 houses destroyed .The healing period will be long and painful .At one stage one of the fires was only 5 kilometers
 from here.
 My plants of Asteranthera ovata made large carpets over the last 35 years, enjoying cool,
moist ,almost pure leafmould, but during the last few years of drought and heat -
CLIMATE CHANGE -it has shrunk to a small patch . I must rescue it ,it is such an intense
 red .,a charmer .
       Otto.

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Great to hear you finally got some rain Otto ! That will have been more than welcome I guess ! 

Nice autumnal feeling about your plants Fermi !

[Lesley Cox]

So pleased you have some rain Fermi. It's amazing how quickly things green up. I had sprayed a patch of lawn outside the front door, thinking to plant thymes there and was all ready to go when we had the rain last week. Suddenly - literally overnight - I have a lawn again, the billions of grass seeds all germinated.

(Funny, or not so funny, how the current financial woes of the world have encouraged us to think in billions or even trillions, rather than the mere millions which seemed such huge amounts a year ago. Now, millions in debt are hardly worth a mention! )

[fermi de Sousa]

So pleased you have some rain Fermi. It's amazing how quickly things green up.

You have to remember, Lesley, that Otto and I live in two very different climatic zones. Whereas 34.2 mm has fallen in the Dandenongs where Otto lives, only 4.6 mm has fallen in Redesdale! The burned out areas through which I drive each day to work still appear quite lifeless but should recover once we get some decent rain. Unfortunately the media including the garden shows are very Melbourne-centric and once it starts to rain down there they think everything's hunky dory and the drought's over - it's a very different story north of the divide. But autumn rolls on and the bulbs respond to the change in seasons: Cyclamen graecum is just putting up a couple of buds and will soon be in flower!
cheers
fermi