May 2009 in the Southern Hemisphere

[fermi de Sousa]

Heavens! A week into the month and no new topic for the South!

[fermi de Sousa]

Last month I posted a pic of what I presumed was Nerine "Ariel", this is a seedling I raised from "Ariel" many years ago but have only just got to flower, it has thinner petals and (I think) is better suited to the rock garden than the "improved" hybrids.


cheers
fermi

[fermi de Sousa]

Paul posted a pic of this Nothoscordum hirtellum (edited after advice from Alberto C) which was previously known as Ipheion hirtellum,




When I bought it I was asked if I liked garlic - because even a small pot of it will fill your car with that scent on a mild to warm autumn day! - no need to even bruise a leaf either!
cheers
fermi

[Lesley Cox]

Your rock garden might like some of my smaller, finer stemmed Nerines Fermi. Don't know how I could get them to you though. Every shade imaginable from a pure white through various pinks, apricots and oranges, scarlets, corals, crimson etc. some of the pinks have that lavender shading through them too. what my original (late) donor caler "Art" colours.

Talking of which, you may have read that a couple of very rich Americans who rather like New Zealand, are donating to the Auckland Art Gallery, a collection of paintings - 15 I think - by Picasso, Mondrian, Matisse and others. Total value around $M115 American. We saw them last night on the box. Enough to make shivers up and down the spine, though my most favourite painting is Chagall's "Green Violinist."

[johnw]

Talking of which, you may have read that a couple of very rich Americans who rather like New Zealand, are donating to the Auckland Art Gallery, a collection of paintings - 15 I think - by Picasso, Mondrian, Matisse and others. Total value around $115 American. We saw them last night on the box. Enough to make shivers up and down the spine, though my most favourite painting is Chagall's "Green Violinist."

Good grief, I'd donate $500 to the gallery if they'd throw in the paintings.

My favourite is Mrs. Matisse, the one with the green nose.  Saw her in Cologne once.

johnw

[johnw]

Now Lesley we want some photos of those colour forms of your Nerines.

johnw

[Lesley Cox]

I'm really sorry John, I have none at all and they are just about finished now. I took a lot last year but the subtle differences among many were quite lost with digital pictures. I'll try again next year though. In general, the stems are between 20 and 40 cms tall and thin but the heads of flowers are small in proportion so that they look quite in keeping. They are a race bred by an old friend who died some years ago now and her stock was sent to a well-known Auckland grower and breeder of Nerines. A few years ago I asked him what was he doing with them and he replied that he "threw the lot out. Too small for me." Those of us who knew the original collection were utterly flabbergasted and outraged because they could so easily have been returned south to the people interested in smaller plants. I have about 20 different shades and a few others have some as well, including some different from mine.

[Paul T]

Lesley,

Do they set seed for you?  I find that the nerine hybrids so rarely do for me, yet the species do easily.  I too would like to see pics at some point as they sound VERY interesting.  I like the smaller nerines, particularly the species but different coloured hybrids of a smaller stature sound brilliant.

By the way, I am assuming that you missed a million in the sentence about the art collection donation?  I would be happy to pay $115 for 15 painting by the great masters, but I am doubting they'd take me up on the offer? 

[Lesley Cox]

Sorry about the lack of an M. I've modified that post. Certainly $115 or even 500 would be a good deal.
I've had what I thought would be seed but this has always shrivelled and yellowed before it matures properly but this last year I cut the stems as the flowers were dying off and kept them in a jar of water in the kitchen, adding stems every day ot two. These DID mature their seeds and were duly sown and have come though. It may just be that having flowered, I wasn't worried about watering much but the kitchen stems had plenty for seed formation. Nerines have this nice habit of the seeds suddenly being small bulbs without any action being taken on the grower's part. They seem to change especially if kept in a paper bag for a couple of weeks. And after all, June Keeley's original collection with its many colours, was all developed from seed and selecting.

[Paul T]

By the sound of it if the main collection is lost you need to produce and sow as many seed as possible just to find out what other genetics are in there colour-wise.  They sound so nice.

Yes, it is handy how the Nerines can produce bulbs if left in a packet accidentally.  I discovered Nerine undulata that had been sitting in a packet for 12 months (yes, a full year) and the tiny bulbs they had produced mostly still grew.  Absolutely amazing.

[fermi de Sousa]

That reminds me that I still have some seeds to send you, Lesley!
Well, white fever strikes again at Redesdale with the re-emergence of Galanthus peshmenii, grown from seed from Rannweig Wallis in 1998 - after I saw her Farrar Medal winning entry of it the previous year.
Here it is last Thursday,

and a couple of days later,


Oxalis flava in its mauve-pink incarnation is looking lovely despite the cobwebs the redbacks spin over it!


One of Peter Genat's hybrid nerines is also putting a bit of colour into the garden,

cheers
fermi

[Ezeiza]

Hi Fermi:

            Sorry I owe you a couple of responses but in a haste, that one with the "tall" stem is Nothoscordum hirtellum (at times Ipheion hirtellum). Sorry to report that most hills in which it grew in swarms have been plowed over for soybean. It may become a rare species in years to come.

[Paul T]

Howdy All,

Here's some recent flowerings and autumn colour in my garden.  The include Haemanthus albiflos, Assorted Maples etc, a Kniphofia of unknown name, the first hoop petticoat daff (Narcissus 'Fyno' which has opened in the last couple of days, and the first of the "Autumn Colour" strain of seedlings of tazetta daffs (this one started opening the second last week of April)....

[Paul T]

And some Nerines......  The first shots are of the Nerine pudica that I have been growing for years.  I had always thought that this species was more trumpet shaped, but I recall seeing a pic recently of this species that showed it opening out normally like a Nerine?  Does this mean that mine is a strange clone that doesn't open properly?  I love it, but it would be interesting to know whether it was supposed to look like this or not.

Also attached are a couple of pics of some seedlings that are flowering for the first time.  These are from my friend Lyn here in Canberra and were seed from her N. pudica (the same as mine, from the same source, and opens the same way for her I think).  I wasn't expecting hybrids, but I rather like them.  The one on the left looks much like the colour of the species we grow, but the flower is larger, and the pink one is very pretty.  I'm quite pleased that they were hybrids, in that they are both different to the parent and are both very nice Nerines in their own right.  I am wondering now though whether the parent is a defective clone or not?

Any feedback would be appreciated.

I will also load a pic or two over in the Galanthus section, in case anyone is interested.

[Gerdk]

Hi Paul,
Love your autumn color daffodils - superb pic!

Gerd