April in the Southern Hemisphere

[Lesley Cox]

Starting a new topic for these pictures from my Australian holiday. I've decided NOT to go with the title Fermi suggested but will be quite conservative and stick with the tried and true format. So here goes, a first batch.

These were in fact taken at the last place I visited and stayed, with my friend Don Schofield in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales, west of Sydney. Don gardens at around 1000 metres I think and certainly gets some frost and snow in the winter so is able to grow at least some alpines, in spite of being at a latitude a little north of Sydney. His temperatures go well into the 30s in summer and like all of Australia it seems, is suffering from a distinct lack of good rain, though better than many areas.

Don was my travelling companion for the week after I left Otto and Tim in Victoria, with me in Tasmania before we flew north to Sydney and then to his home at Mt Tomah.

Firstly, the man himself (with his permission).

[Lesley Cox]

As you see, Don has a great interest in the breeding of Nerines and had produced many superb colours and forms with good strong stems, very weather resistant. My camera doesn't do red well and certainly hasn't done justice to these wonderful flowers. He also grows many species and after the gorgeous smoked colour seedling below, there is N. pudica and then N. humilis. Katie is Don's cat, and a lovely lady she is, though spoiled rotten. (I had an email today from Don, saying that when Katie had to go out (it was raining lightly) he also had to go out - to hold the umbrella!)

[Maggi Young]

I do like to see these nerines here and in Fermi's pix.... I love the variation... I could feel an addiction coming on but I don't think they would be happy with  Aberdeen's climate. Too cold and damp, for the most part, I reckon. Those hot colours just glow, though, don't they?
Nice to hear that Katie Kat has got Don properly trained! Ian's office cat, Copper, always said she was amazed how simple it was to train a human, when she put her mind to it!

[Lesley Cox]

I've just removed the last batch, totally pranged up the pictures. I'll have another go in the morning. Just too tired now.

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Get a good rest Lesley and then show us more of these beauties !!!
Thanks in advance !

[Paddy Tobin]

Lesley,

Great to see your photographs. Your friend has a lovely collection of nerine, some interesting colours.

Maggi, would your climate be much harsher than ours? Nerine grow with great ease here.

Paddy

[Maggi Young]

Paddy, Scotland is a different world to yours! We can grow Nerine bowdenii outside, but not many more  types here in Aberdeen. We are quite apart from even Mark in the North......I would, for instance, never DREAM of putting any half-hardy bedding out until late May at the least, or even early June... Mark has his in now! That's  a banana belt you're living in, if you didn't realise it!

[David Nicholson]

Lovely pictures Lesley. Nerines!- makes you want to spit! I've tried them three or four times and they have all died on me.

[Joakim B]

These really is nice compared with the tiny ones seen in Portugal with lamer colors and fewer flowers as well as weak stems.
But then again that is what happens when a plant is bred properly.
Those are almost like agapantus in size and the sirdy stems and those grow like almost weed in Portugal.
Actually they are used as ground cover nowadays instead of the earlier used irises. 
Thanks for this and hope more is to come 
Joakim

[Lesley Cox]

Finding it really hard to get time to myself to post pics. The downsizing takes a lot of time. Here are a few bulby things from Don's garden. First Crocus niveus and C longiflorus.






Spiloxene alba is quite lovely in a patch like this.



This tall, autumn flowering Gynandiris species - almost to a metre - comes from Iran. I think I was told the specific name, but it escaped me now. There was good seed forming.

[Lesley Cox]

Then some little plants, a very tight and compact form of Daphne cneorum album



and an attractive edelweiss, from China, Leontopodium ?sinensis? The foliage is as good as the flowers.





Then there is a native plant called Milligania. In foliage it's very like the smaller Astelias but the flowers are more interesting, little red centered, white lilies. Don bought one at a native plant nursery in Tasmania with the hope that seeds will form in time.



The hostas were dying away but many had beautifully coloured foliage even in their death throes.

[Lesley Cox]

Don's garden is based on superb trees, most planted by him but also great beeches, gums and others from before his time at Mt Tomah. The austumn colour in the Blue Mountain was outstanding, in particular because since it had started there had been no wind and the leaves stayed on the trees. The carpet, when they fall mill be magnificent.



He has many Fothergillas, all superbly coloured







This weeping larch is being trained carefully into a fountain



And a superb Cornus



This is a most unusual Rhododendron species. Again, the name has left me. Someone please?

[Lesley Cox]

And a final small batch from `Winterwood,' Don's garden in the mountains.

This round, wheel-like structure made from box hedging, is fully developed now, but when I was there 3 and a half years ago it was not obvious at all, just a lot of little buxus plants. Don's plan is to plant the "floors" in each segment with massed Nerine bowdenii but I'm doing my best to persuade him to use Lycoris aurea, a less aggressive colour. He has plenty Lycoris to do the job.



There are thousands of Cyclamen around everywhere and these two had particularly good foliage.





The head, slightly smaller than the other sections, is at the front of this plump caterpillar and Don was very happy with it until someone told him that the upright bit should be at the very back section. It's still lots of fun but I bet it gets through a lot of chewing in a night!



And a last look, at the view from the back door, with Nyssa Chinensis and other good trees.

[rob krejzl]

I think the rhodo is R. stenopetalum 'Linearifolium'.

Seeing the Milligania (I think it's M. lindoniana, but I could be wrong) is very nice, yet another endemic worth growing.

[razvan chisu]

Lesley, great pictures. Keep them coming.
I usually dislike Rhodos (the hybrids) but the one you showed, has just made top on my desire list.