July 2009 in the Southern Hemisphere

[cohan]

Here's a funny little fella in flower in the eaves of my greenhouse: Aristolochia macroura (spelling?). It reminds me of an Arisaema and / or Nepenthes - the 'pipe' is approximately 10 cm deep, and the tassel - approximately 60 - 80 cm long. It has quite a pong     on close approach! Awfully cute though and well worth growing.

nice Aristolochia--it is reminiscent of nepenthes---that tassle is something else! a ladder for pollinators?
i have seed for a couple of Aris from chile, but presumed lack of room to grow them has made me not plant it!

whats in the background, a hoya?

[cohan]

That is interesting Rogan, probably wouldn't be hardy here, even under the eaves.

Are you looking forward to All Blacks v. Sprinboks? Personally, I don't think the South Africans have much to worry about.

dont know about that species, lesley, but there are european and north american species that are hardy (to your level at least

[cohan]

Howdy All,
A couple of pics taken in the last few days.....

great stuff paul--you know between us late northerners, and you early southerners, we really might see spring flowers nearly all year!

do you grow many lachenalia? i am very interested in some of the miniature odd foliage species..had one in my ill fated seed from SAfrica last year, but managed to kill those ones (one of the few species that even germinated!..lol)

[Paul T]

Cohan,

I used to have a lot of Lachenalias, but don't have many now.  I have one still remaining that has heavily pustulated leaves... very cool effect.  Can't even remember what the flowers are like, as i grow it for the leaves.  

[Rogan]

Most of the Aristolochia species I grow are not very frost hardy, and are 'burnt' by our minus 1 or 2 'C winter minimums.


"...whats in the background, a hoya?"

Hoya australis I think, Cohan. It has lovely umbels of white, red-spotted flowers which scent up the whole greenhouse when in full bloom; I have some pictures of the flowers which I will post later. The tri-lobed leaves visible in the photograph are those of the Aristolochia macroura.

[cohan]

paul--thats the kind that interest me, the pustulate, hairy etc leaves

rogan--i'm sure the hoya is divine in flower
i have just a slight knowledge of SA climate types, from studying Haworthia books, and seed lists etc; which sort of zone are you in? winter or summer rainfall?

[Rogan]

The east coast of South Africa is predominantly a summer-rainfall area - warm and humid in summer, cool and dry in winter. Where I live, winter temperatures seldom fall below freezing and the days are warm and sunny - most plants are happy to grow outdoors without any protection at all - in fact we are too warm in winter for many bulbs species to thrive, e.g. tulips, daffodils, frits, etc. However, most Cape bulbs do extremely well if watered adequately.

Here's a fuzzy picture of the Hoya I mentioned in my previous post - it's a beautiful thing:

[Paul T]

Rogan,

Is it one of the ones that produces the large amounts of nectar?  A friend up the road from here used to ahve a large one growing on a trellis just outside their front door under the cover of the eaves etc..... each flower had a large drop of nectar in the centre.  You just touched your finger to each flower and got a delicious treat.  Was lovely and sugary.

[Ragged Robin]

You Hoya is magnificent, Rogan, is it heavily scented too as well as having lots of nectar?  One of my favourite plants for scented flower is Frangipani - a wonderful tropical perfume in the evening especially 

[Rogan]

"...is it heavily scented too as well as having lots of nectar?"

Not too much nectar, but a glorious, room-filling scent. Paul, do you know if this' an Australian Hoya species - H. australis?

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Your Hoya is amazing Rogan !!!
Beautiful !!!

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Is anybody of our Southerners aware what happened to Lesley ??
 

[Luc Gilgemyn]

My money is on a computer problem... knowing she's a specialist..   

[Maggi Young]

I had wondered if the earthquake might have knocked out her phone connection and pc

[Paul T]

"...is it heavily scented too as well as having lots of nectar?"

Not too much nectar, but a glorious, room-filling scent. Paul, do you know if this' an Australian Hoya species - H. australis?

Rogan,

The "australis" doesn't always mean Australian... there are a few things from elsewhere that seem to have that species name as well, as I think in some cases it just means "southern" or something like that.  In this case though, it is an Aussie.  Come from northern New South Wales all the way up to the top of Aus apparently.  It means I guess that there would also be some variability in hardiness between the various places.  There's quite a bit of difference between northern NSW and far north Queensland.  Lovely plants, if you've got the climate )or microclimate) and space to grow them.  They'll grow here under frost cover, or indoors.