Foliage now- October 2009

[johnw]

Oh well, there's hope yet then, as that would be December here.

In your climate you might count on three weeks earlier. We must have the longest spring on the continent here, it's so cool at night and daytime for that matter!

johnw

[cohan]

Oh well, there's hope yet then, as that would be December here. It is very acidic where it will be going and there's quite a lot of accumulated leaf litter so maybe it will feel at home. My late mother had flowers at least sometimes, but so long ago I'd forgotten when. She never had fruit but it was a single clone. That's why I'll plant out all 7 in a patch. The odds in favour of both male and female must be quite high.

i'm working on a photo set of cornus, esp canadensis, from flower through fruit and autumn colours, so you will be able to see by the photo dates when it was in flower; as john says, its not that early, our spring is slow and cold too, though maybe sunnier than john's, but our first flowers (of other plants) are late april in a really good year, early may, otherwise, but the cornus is quite a bit later than that; its super abundant here as well, if you want more seed to scatter about, let me know...

[ranunculus]

As to P. nitida, mine has produced a single flower in maybe 15 years. Why haven't I thrown it out?

Move your garden a little higher perhaps, Lesley?   

POTENTILLA NITIDA RUBRA for Lesley

[cohan]

As to P. nitida, mine has produced a single flower in maybe 15 years. Why haven't I thrown it out?

Move your garden a little higher perhaps, Lesley?   

POTENTILLA NITIDA RUBRA for Lesley

wouldnt mind having one of those in my garden! the rock face, i mean though the potentilla is lovely..

[Lesley Cox]

Cohan I'll look forward to your photos in due course. They'll make me feel wildly envious I expect.

Cruel, cruel Cliff, but so beautiful all the same and I thank you for showing them. I'm thinking of growing one of those pink-flowered strawberry plants nearby and stripping most of its leaves away in hope the flowers will be mistaken for potentilla.

[ranunculus]

Image showing a host of garden visitors leaving Lesley's place after they discover her deception.

[Lesley Cox]

Did they jump or were they pushed? I don't see an abseiling rope there.

[Paul T]

Cruel, cruel Cliff, but so beautiful all the same and I thank you for showing them. I'm thinking of growing one of those pink-flowered strawberry plants nearby and stripping most of its leaves away in hope the flowers will be mistaken for potentilla.

Lesley,

Shouldn't that be "Cruel, Cruel Cliff, Cliff"?  That is one heck of a cliff to look over, Cliff. 

[Luc Gilgemyn]

I believe this should be removed from the "Foliage now" thread... 
Lesley talks about stripping plants of their leaves and Cliff keeps showing pictures with plants of Potentilla nitida with too many flowers hiding the foliage... 

[Maggi Young]

I believe this should be removed from the "Foliage now" thread... 
Lesley talks about stripping plants of their leaves and Cliff keeps showing pictures with plants of Potentilla nitida with too many flowers hiding the foliage... 

Quite right, Luc.... what are these folk thinking of?  There is abuse of foliage here... it must stop!

[Anthony Darby]

I take it you wouldn't go watering those plants at night Cliff?

[Anthony Darby]

Here's what the wind can do. These are pine trees at the back of the beach east of Ca'n Picafort, Mallorca.

[Lesley Cox]

The wind is certainly a great leveller isn't it? I remember the plants at the very south of the South Island, of Leptospermum scoparium (source of manuka honey). Shorn by winds of the great southern ocean they are just a few centimetres high compared with inland places where they reach up to 10 metres.

Tragically, a large part of this coastal conservation reservation was gutted by fire a few days ago, around 1000 hectares destroyed by what is believed to be a spark from the vehicle of a weed control contactor. DOC people say it will take 5 decades to regenerate. Among tthe manuka plants there were little blue Thelymitra orchids, a bladderwort, Utricularia monanthos with little purple apron flowers and Gentiana saxosa, flowering right on the wave line along with many other native plants, many thought of as "alpine" even though growing right at sea level, but still above the non-existent tree line.

[mark smyth]

Whay is Manuka honey so expensive. Does it taste better than Gales?

[Maggi Young]

I suppose it is hard to get a lot of it and the shipping costs must be high, but YES, it tastes fantastic and is full of goodness!