December 2009 in the Southern Hemisphere

[Lesley Cox]

A very nice hybrid Bill. I do like the hairiness on it.

Andrew, is the Utricularia much the same size as the one we have down here, U. monanthos? And do you grow it in water?

[angie]

Bill, very nice Haemanthus Albiflos

Andrew is Weldenia Candida hard to flower and could I grow it in my greenhouse, I love white flowers.
Angie

[Lesley Cox]

Angie, the Weldenia is not at all hard to flower and if, in the meantime, no-one closer to home has offered you one, I'll send one next year, perhaps around August. It may be happier in a glasshouse in Aberdeen though it is quite hardy here. This clone comes from Mexico. Let me know later.

[Paul T]

Bill,

Do you grow both the orange and the yellow Ornithogalum dubium?  I find the orange is impossible to break dormancy of after it goes dormant the first year when you buy it in flower.  The yellow on the other hand is almost a weed if you let it, setting and dropping seed as you say.  I love the orange and wish I could get a decent version of it, but I know I am not alone in having problems with it.  The yellow form is almost evergreen for me here, and extremely reliable.  The orange, despite buying a couple of times never managed to come out of dormancy again, even though some of the bulbs lasted for 7 years before they finally died.

[fermi de Sousa]

Andrew,
Nice stuff!
Bill,
what's not to like about haemanthus! Have you looked at the other threads under "Amaryllidaceae"?
Here are some more pics taken this morning:
Salvia cryptantha in silver and mauve


This Habranthus robustus (ex) "Russell Manning" thinks it's a zephyranthes!


One of the variegated, broad-leafed Yuccas in flower,


And a closer look at the Alstroemeria hookeri


cheers
fermi

[Paul T]

Nice Salvia, Fermi.  Great colour combination by the look of it.  I love the Alstro as well. 

[Lvandelft]

Salvia cryptantha in silver and mauve

cheers
fermi

What a beautiful Salvia Fermi! The grey leaves with mauve flowers look great.
But curious as I am about plants never seen before, I googled a little to learn more about this species.
I found this:
Attractive 8" high perennial herb, classic sage leaves with large yellow-green bracts.

So your plant possibly might have another name??

PS. Even found there is a Victoria Study Group of Salvia. (They don't mention it)

[Tecophilaea King]

Bill,  what's not to like about haemanthus! Have you looked at the other threads under "Amaryllidaceae"?
cheers  fermi

Thanks for the tip fermi, I just had a look, great stuff.  Bill

[Tecophilaea King]

Bill,  Do you grow both the orange and the yellow Ornithogalum dubium?  I find the orange is impossible to break dormancy of after it goes dormant the first year when you buy it in flower.  The yellow on the other hand is almost a weed if you let it, setting and dropping seed as you say.  I love the orange and wish I could get a decent version of it, but I know I am not alone in having problems with it.  The yellow form is almost evergreen for me here, and extremely reliable.  The orange, despite buying a couple of times never managed to come out of dormancy again, even though some of the bulbs lasted for 7 years before they finally died.

Paul, I don't have any problem with the orange O.dubium flowering most of the times, I am not doing anything different, perhaps its suits our climate, or the potting mix, which is on the sandy side, and always store them dry.
I also grow O.maculatum, this one can be temperamental, needs to be dried off almost bonedry when dormant.
Will show a picture, do you grow it?

[Tecophilaea King]

While shopping,these pictures were snapped in one of the borders of our local Countdown supermarket car park.
It shows a couple of our native colourful Phormium hybrid flaxes.
Cultivars grown for ornamental display, are available in a wide range of foliage colour and growth forms, they are amongst the most useful of our native plants, being equally at home in the shrub border, in pebble or bark garden and as container plants.
Phormium "Jester"
Phormium  "Rainbow Maiden"

[Paul T]

Bill,

I love the O. maculata.  No, I don't grow it.  The orange I am used to (bought at least as dubium) has a black centre, but similar orange to that one.  I would love to get a reliable form of the orange and I much prefer the colour to the yellow one, but it seems to be a problem to a lot of people.  The yellow on the other hand is generally (although not exclusively) reliable.

[Lesley Cox]

The phormiums are great Bill. Much nicer than at our local supermarkets! It pays to have the camera handy at all times, doesn't it?

[ajbroome]

Lesley said...

> ... is the Utricularia much the same size as the one we have down here, U. monanthos?

Both Utric. monanthos and Utric. novae-zelandiae are  now considered to be U. dichotoma.  There are several different forms in NZ, one on the west coast of the South Island has huge flowers whereas most of the ones I've seen are like mine, about 7 or 8mm across I'd say.

> And do you grow it in water?

Generally there's about 1cm of water covering the plants but during summer this may dry out such that the water level is a few cm below the leaves.  I grow it in a tray with Utric. sandersonii, Utric. 2 forms of Utric. livida, Utric. arenaria and Utric. laterifolia. I must start off fresh pots of each at some stage soon as the pots easily get invaded by the weedy Utric. bisquamata.

I'd like to get the other NZ native terrestrial species, Utric. delicatula but it only grows in the far north of the North Island as far as I know (I've seen it at Ahipara, years ago, along with a large form of Drosera spatulata).

BTW:  The guy who wrote the book on NZ carnivorous plants (literally) is staying at my house tomorrow and Saturday night along with a couple of other people.  Should be an interesting weekend.  Needless to say I'm weeding the glasshouse today...

Andrew.

[cohan]

While shopping,these pictures were snapped in one of the borders of our local Countdown supermarket car park.
It shows a couple of our native colourful Phormium hybrid flaxes.
Cultivars grown for ornamental display, are available in a wide range of foliage colour and growth forms, they are amongst the most useful of our native plants, being equally at home in the shrub border, in pebble or bark garden and as container plants.
Phormium "Jester"
Phormium  "Rainbow Maiden"

nice when you can get some good   public plantings, most are so awful...
interestingly, the phormiums are grown here for planters and beds---clearly as annual bedding plants, though..less of a colour range, i imagine, i mostly have seen a nice dark red, mostly sold as an alternative to dracaenas  as 'spikes' in planters etc

[kiwi]

Something a bit different but really cool - Sarracenia X.