May 2009 in the Southern Hemisphere

[Paul T]

Maggi,

Come on, do you have to think so far in the future?  Let him live his life now, instead of having to think far enough ahead to when he is actually old. 

[Maggi Young]

Maggi,

Come on, do you have to think so far in the future?  Let him live his life now, instead of having to think far enough ahead to when he is actually old. 

Yes, Paul, you are right.... I'll leave it now and remind Otto in twenty or thirty years about the ikebana.

[Otto Fauser]

Maggi,

Come on, do you have to think so far in the future?  Let him live his life now, instead of having to think far enough ahead to when he is actually old. 

Yes, Paul, you are right.... I'll leave it now and remind Otto in twenty or thirty years about the ikebana.

    Maggi , in20 or 30 years I will send you kisses from above xxx 

[Maggi Young]

Perhaps by then we will both be canoodling in the hereafter, Otto    Meantime I look forward to kisses in 2011 at the Conference!! 

[Paul T]

Er, Maggi. Are you sure that you should be discussing canoodling with Otto in the afterlife..... I'm not sure that Ian will be entirely pleased about that prospect? 

[Maggi Young]

No, Paul, Ian is never done cuddling women, left right and centre.... he'll never notice me indulging in a little canoodling here and there   

[Paul T]

Ah, so what is good for the gander is good for the goose? 

[cohan]

thanks all for sharing these things.. a few questions--
so how small are 'small' nerines?
6m dahlias? how do you get up there to photograph the flowers?
paul and others, how cold does it get in those hills with the lovely fall colour?

[fermi de Sousa]

thanks all for sharing these things.. a few questions--
so how small are 'small' nerines?

To me small nerines for the rock garden are around 12" (30cm) or less tall and have a more natural, less "refined" look, like this one, Nerine filifolia (or is it filimentosa??)



And what are these about to emerge? And I won't be there to take their pic


I've already posted this one to the Narcissus thread, but here it is again, N. viridiflorus,


And the Oxalis palmifrons is now producing its foliage to accompany the last flowers,


cheers
fermi

[Paul T]

Fermi,

I've never had a flower on my palmifrons in all the years I've been growing it.    Your Nerine is filifolia... filamentosa from memory has elongated naughty bits, extending well out the front of the flower making it quite distinctive.  That is if my memory is correct as I only flowered mine once, and that must be close to 10 years ago now.  N. filifolia on the other hand flowers brilliantly every year, stopping only if badly disturbed or repotted.

So... if you aren't there to be photographing the Crocus, does that mean that you are you off on holidays yet again?

[cohan]

To me small nerines for the rock garden are around 12" (30cm) or less tall and have a more natural, less "refined" look, like this one, Nerine filifolia (or is it filimentosa??)
cheers
fermi

tks..i like smaller and less refined as a general principle

[Lesley Cox]

What are these? One of the crocuses obviously but I can't remember which of my (now finished) autumn species had a yellow throat. Niveus maybe?

Cohan, the race of nerines which I have vary in height from about 15cms to perhaps 35 or 40 cms. In essence they look just like the big, modern hybrids but everything is smaller in proportion,; height, slimmer stems, smaller flowers.

[Lesley Cox]

I adore your Narcissus viridiflorus Fermi. I got three from Otto/Marcus this summer but there's no sign of them so far I'll have to go looking in the pot.

And HOW DARE you have all those flowers on O. palmifrons when no-one else gets any at all?

More snow overnight and rain/hail now. I want to go back to bed.

[Paul T]

thanks all for sharing these things.. a few questions--
so how small are 'small' nerines?
6m dahlias? how do you get up there to photograph the flowers?
paul and others, how cold does it get in those hills with the lovely fall colour?

Cohan,

I just realised that I forgot to respond to these questions.......

The 6m dahlia photography is made much easier by the fact that my newer camera has a 12x optical zoom lense.  I could never get anywhere near as close on the old camera.  I've taken more photos since then with a whole bunch of flowers out, but haven't had a chance to take them off the memory card as yet.

I'm with the others on the Nerine definitions.  One of my favourites is N. masoniorum which has flowers about 1cm or so wide, but perfectly shaped with ruffled petal edges etc.  Grows to less than 30cm tall and is absolutely delightful.  Some of the species are just amazing!!

Our autumn colour has been excellent here this year because we've had a slow descent into the cold.  Some years it is far too dry and goes straight to frosts, so we end up with everything rapidly going brown instead of good colour.  This year we've had a lot of the last month hovering overnight at 1-4'C and this has been perfect for colour formation.  We end up during winter at down to -8 or -9'C extreme, but the colour forms best when the temps slowly drop to let the plants know it is autumn and time to drop the leaves.  The slow cold we've had has been perfect for that.  Once the frosts start to hit properly everything that is still colouring will just toast and go brown, but so far it's been spot on temperature-wise.

Is that the sort of information you were after?

[fermi de Sousa]

Fermi,

I've never had a flower on my palmifrons in all the years I've been growing it.    Your Nerine is filifolia... filamentosa from memory has elongated naughty bits, extending well out the front of the flower making it quite distinctive.  That is if my memory is correct as I only flowered mine once, and that must be close to 10 years ago now.  N. filifolia on the other hand flowers brilliantly every year, stopping only if badly disturbed or repotted.

So... if you aren't there to be photographing the Crocus, does that mean that you are you off on holidays yet again?

Paul and Lesley,
I haven't done anything special with this Oxalis palmifrons but it seems to be the only one that flowers - each year, the same part of the bed and only one bulb seems to put up any flowers. But it is planted into a raised bed like a "natural" trough which is lucky as it spreads rather vigorously!
The crocus was received as C. specious "albus" but I'm pretty sure it's actually C. pulchellus "albus" - which is good because I didn't have it and I got the other soon afterwards but it flowers a month earlier. I won't be able to photograph it because it'll be open while I'm at work - unless it lasts till the weekend! We won't be on holidays for months yet!
cheers
fermi