October 2009 in the Southern Hemisphere

[Tecophilaea King]

For a change of scenery, here are a couple of Camelia pictures flowering in our garden, to brighten up your NH people, where the days are getting shorter, darker, gardens becoming dormant, and bulbophiles dreaming of the next spring display to come.
When it comes to spectacular flowers, attractive evergreen foliage and shrubs that are hardy and will flower almost in every position as well, camelia's are hard to beat.

[Lesley Cox]

Those two are really brilliant Bill and photographed at the peak of perfection before there's a brown flower. Or have you been up a ladder all morning, removing the marked ones? For that reason I generally prefer the "self-cleaning" camellias like 'Cornish Snow' and transnokoensis whose flowers just drop off when they're ready and don't go brown first.

[Tecophilaea King]

Luc, with the best will in the world, I'd have to say that 'Kirigamene' is not REALLY as intense as that but it is a very good deep violet-blue with wide, full-bodied petals. It is, in fact, Iris setosa var hondoensis, found at Kirigamene in Japan in 1930 and marketed in the USA as 'Kirigamene.'

Lesley,it may be my photography, my bias or the climate up here in the north island, but I still think Iris setosa var.hondoensis is really a stunning, breathtaking flower, the purest, strongest deep violet-blue colour I have come accross, this species is still one of my favourites. At least we agree to disagree 
Thanks anyway for the correction, the explanation and the background to this beautiful flower, when you buy plants, names are not always correct and sometimes confusing or misspelled.
No, I have not been up the ladder as yet to remove the spent flowers, especially when it is raining cats and dogs up here, but agree with you that they can be messy when they start dropping the flowers, it will make good compost and keep me out of mischief when cleaning up. .

[cohan]

to brighten up your NH people, where the days are getting shorter, darker, gardens becoming dormant, and bulbophiles dreaming of the next spring display to come.

you really know how to rub it in 
the camellias are lovely; indoor plants only here, and not very suitable for that...lol

[Tecophilaea King]

to brighten up your NH people, where the days are getting shorter, darker, gardens becoming dormant, and bulbophiles dreaming of the next spring display to come.

you really know how to rub it in 
the camellias are lovely; indoor plants only here, and not very suitable for that...lol

Cohan, you will return the favour one day next spring 

[cohan]

somehow i feel your winter will just not be that long and oppressive
i know lesley had some nasty days, but it seemed there were already flowers againwhen i thought the winter had just started... and i gather you are in a milder area?

my contribution will more likely be to extend spring flowering into what everyone else thinks is mid-summer...lol

[fermi de Sousa]

Bill,
stop teasing the Northerners , they can't help it!

My favourite evening primrose, Oenothera acaulis, is just coming into bloom again.


cheers
fermi

[Tecophilaea King]

Yesterday I had a look at some of the other juno irises, like the delicate I.Sindpers and beautiful I.orchioides, both of them are not going to flower this year  
Not to disappoint you, I will show you the pictures taken last season

[Paul T]

Bill,

Wow, I love the orchioides.

[Tecophilaea King]

Just to fill in a dreary, miserable wet day, I will show a few pictures of the colourful winter flowering Oxalis species (finished flowering now)
This is a very large genus which unfortunately gained a bad reputation because of the invasive tendencies of some species, especially here up north in the North Island. Many are delightful plants which do not become weeds. Some of those which become troublesome can be safely contained if grown in pots or containers. Many species make a superb display when grown in in shallow containers in the middle of the winter, when not much is flowering in the garden.
Here are just a few species we grow, but just recently got rid of 90% of the whole Oxalis collection, cutting down on the work load.

[Tecophilaea King]

Just a few more closeups of the Oxalis species.

[Tecophilaea King]

OK, found a few more Oxalis closeups, you must be getting sick of them by now.

[Tecophilaea King]

How do you Aussie cobbers get on with the Oxalis species in Australia, do you grow them?   

[Tecophilaea King]

I just discovered I got 3 stars now and a full member, wow, what does that mean?
That nobody will hassle me anymore and always agree with me?  

[Paul T]

Bill,

It just means you posted a certain number of posts.... sorry to burst your bubble like that. 

As to Oxalis.... I grow a bunch of them, but not having a nursery or your sort of space to grow masses of them like that, I never get anything like your wonderful colour palette.   The big advantage you have with so many of your things is that you obviously have the space so that you can grow a lot of everything.  it certainly makes for breathtaking pictures!!  I look at these and feel embarrassed at my poor little pots of Oxalis...... they'll hide their heads in shame.