September 2009 - Southern Hemisphere- Spring

[Lesley Cox]

One little detail Bill. We NEVER mention the rugby on the Forum.

Stephen, I doubt if the pale yellow trillium is a named one. There are a lot of more or less yellows around, all seedlings and I'm not aware of any named except Val Mulvihill's incredible plant. Certainly none are distributed with names, so far as I know.

[Lesley Cox]

Robin, the oxalis is quite tough and hardy here but in your very different climate may need protection from winter wetness. Snow cover should be OK I would think. Funnily enough, the only one of the weldenias which have been distributed from my nursery, about 200 now I think, to be lost in the winter, was at the nursery of one of the best growers in NZ. He had it in a big clay pot and put it on its side for the winter to keep excess water off. A nursery staff member concerned that a pot had fallen over, put it upright, but under a drip from leaky spouting. Goodbye Weldenia.

[Lesley Cox]

Most of the frits look OK Bill. I'm not sure of the first as it looks like camtschcensis but it's way too early for that. I think the pudica may be conica and I'm not sure about the davisii but.....I'm no expert either.

[Lesley Cox]

Frit. 'Charon' is, of course, a named form of F. meleagris but unless it has come into NZ as tissue cultured stock from Holland, it is most likely to be a seedling, in which case, can't be called by the cultivar name. I see little point in giving such names to plants which are raised from seed for the most part.

[Lesley Cox]

These 3 little irises are among the many I bought this last summer. In succession they are 'Orange Surprise,' 'April Flirt' and 'Orchid Flair' but I think OF is wrongly named. It looks exactly like what I have as 'Blue Beret' and I think that is wrongly named too. When I had OF years ago, it was a bright, rosy lilac shade.

[Lesley Cox]

Three frits out recently are sibthorpiana, davisii and bithynica.







Bill, is your first one there F. biflora by any chance?

[Tecophilaea King]

Bill, is your first one there F. biflora by any chance?

Yes you could be right Lesley: Frit.biflora (the chocolate lily) also known as Fritillaria roderickii is a disputed name for a plant that is also sometimes referred to as Fritillaria grayana and was sunk in the Jepson Manual into Fritillaria biflora var. biflora. This variable plant is still known as Fritillaria roderickii by the state of California where it is listed as endangered and was last found in Mendocino County. The coastal population which some people thought different from the inland population may be gone. These plants were grown from seed from some of those last coastal populations. Wayne Roderick sent bulbs to the Dutch who have tissue cultured this plant and sell it as Fritillaria 'Martha Roderick'.
It differs from Fritillaria biflora in that it forms rice grains around the bulbs and F. biflora does not usually increase vegetatively.

If you want to have a look at some of those variable F.biflora var.biflora photos, go to this CallPhotos link:
http://calphotos.berkeley.edu/cgi-bin/img_query?rel-taxon=contains&where-taxon=Fritillaria+biflora&where-anno=1
In the meantime I will stick with Frit.biflora var. biflora.

[Tecophilaea King]

Stephen, I doubt if the pale yellow trillium is a named one. There are a lot of more or less yellows around, all seedlings and I'm not aware of any named except Val Mulvihill's incredible plant. Certainly none are distributed with names, so far as I know.

Yes I agree, Val Mulvihill's beautiful Trillium chloropetalum is an fabulous plant.
We had the pleasure to meet Val again, and show her around our nursery, when she came to Taurangs to visit a good friend in the Mount. Look forward meeting her again when next time we come down to the South Island for a holiday.
Don't forget the magnificient Trillium luteum just starting to flower for us here up north.

[Tecophilaea King]

Rob , in case you can't obtain any bulbs in England , I could send you a few each of cyanocrocus , var. violacea and var. leichtlinii . They will go dormant soon , so I could send them to you then- however you will have the problem to adjust them to the Northen Hemisphere growths cycle. Otto.

Rob , Iwill send you the promised bulbs after Christmas , when they they have gone dormant .,please let me have your address in due time .
I do not need anything in exchange , but , should you ever have a few seeds to spare of :
any Ophrys species, also of Galanthus koenenianus , platyphyllus and krasnovii, these would be most welcome,     Otto.

Hi Otto,(or Rob) In the forum "Bulb wanted" last year, I came accross this posting about your generous offer of Tecophilaeas to Rob.
Could you please tell us how Rob got on with acclimatising the Tecophilaea's, how did he manage and was he succesful?
Would be interesting to hear from other members, how they manage to adjust/turn around bulbs to the hemispheres in question?
Look forward to hearing from other members experiences.

[Lesley Cox]

There are various schools of thought on this tricky subject Bill. I subscribe to the "plant them and hope for the best" school while others refrigerate, dry early or do other things to encourage the bulbs to turn their seasons. In my experience, refrigerating for a period may well bring the bulbs up at the right time for the new hemisphere but the period without growth has so weakened them that they seldom thrive thereafter, often dying in fact, when they first die down. It happens time and time again with importations of Dutch Iris reticulata vars, especially I. danfordiae.

To my mind it is better to pot the bulbs when received and let them grow out of season until they die down in their own time and they will usually come through again at the "right" time.

[Paul T]

Fantastic photos Bill and everyone else who has posted as well.  Decided I couldn't hold out any longer and came back to the forum today.  This is the first main topic I've looked at.  Bill, your pics are stunning as always.  I wish I could get my Tecophilaeas to do well.    And that beautiful yellow Trillium of Val's is glorious.  I've seen it here before, and it is so striking.  I've got all sorts of things flowering here, but after seeing the pics throughout this topic already, I'd be embarrassed to post any of mine.  Some crackers of plants here everyone.  Very, very cool.  

Thanks everyone.

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Welcome back Paul !!   
We all missed you badly ! 

[Paul T]

Yeah right.  You guys would have all enjoyed the peace and quiet for a change.

[Luc Gilgemyn]

 

[Ragged Robin]

Yeah right.  You guys would have all enjoyed the peace and quiet for a change.

No, no, Paul - far too quiet fro me    Your presence was greatly missed, your photos and comments, so welcome back!  I have to have a daily dose on the Forum to keep my mind nimble in the mountains or I'd be well and truly lost