March 2010 in the Southern Hemisphere

[fermi de Sousa]

The cooler weather over the weekend makes it feel like autumn, but we'll wait to see if the fire season is really over!
Still flowering nicely in the Rock garden are the Colchicums, this one is grown in our group as "Mrs Craig's Colchicum"; it's possibly a form of C. cilicium


This is the C. cilicium I posted last month


Cyclamen graecum is still in full swing


Amongst the Aussie native plants, Halgania caerulea cyanea is impressively blue,




cheers
fermi

[Maggi Young]

Nice Halgania, fermi... what family is it? Looks like boraginaceae 

[TheOnionMan]

Nice Halgania, fermi... what family is it? Looks like boraginaceae  

Love them borags!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halgania

I note there appears not to be a Halgania caerulea, but there is a Halgania cyanea in the link above, that looks similar.

[fermi de Sousa]

Thanks, Mark!
I've corrected the original post.
cheers
fermi

[Lesley Cox]

Does it set seed Fermi?

[Lesley Cox]

Oh what a relief to see me in my less glamourous but more natural form.

[cohan]

Oh what a relief to see me in my less glamourous but more natural form.

lol--i couldn't quite tell what was going on in that other pic.....

[Lesley Cox]

Mark McD had given me gilt hair with tsunami-type waves, and earings like snowdrops but as I couldn't enlarge the avatar, I kept seeing them as those fat rollers women use (still?) to roll some bends into their hair. They never worked on me anyway.

I see he's smoking heavily now. I guess the nicotine may be useful in the control of aphids.

[cohan]

Mark McD had given me gilt hair with tsunami-type waves, and earings like snowdrops but as I couldn't enlarge the avatar, I kept seeing them as those fat rollers women use (still?) to roll some bends into their hair. They never worked on me anyway.

I see he's smoking heavily now. I guess the nicotine may be useful in the control of aphids.

ah, is that what was going on! i thought it might be a joke, but couldn't be sure you hadn't gone all dame edna on us!

[Tecophilaea King]

After a well deserved fortnight holiday away with the camper, touring the North Island with my brother and his wife from the old country, well rested and sunburned, we came home to find the nursery almost overgrown with weeds while we were away enjoying ourselves.
Anyway after a big cleanup for the last week, and a few knapsacks of roundup, its back to tipping, cleaning, sorting and generally getting ready for dispatching of the mail-orders again.
Although very busy, I found time to snap a few pictures of some of the autumn flowering genera like the Worsleya, Brunsvigia, Bessera, and the Lycoris. 
One of these of course is the beautiful Worsleya rayneri, a large spectacular native of Brasil and rare in cultivation.
Successful cultivation depends on providing suitable conditions, we grow ours in a large container in a well-drained and aerated, acid  potting mix, for best results.
Also flowering at the moment are the magnificient and striking Brunsvigia orientalis and  Brunsvigia marginata.
They normally grow in a variety of soils in their habitats, but all have long resting periods during the summer drought.
In cultivation they should have well-drained soil or containers and full sun in a position which remains relatively dry during summer.
Usually some of the the bulbs are very large, and may take up to 10 years to reach flowering size.

[Luc Gilgemyn]

We missed your explosions of colour on the Forum Bill !!
Nice to have you back with these beauties !

[Ragged Robin]

Bill, your Worsleya rayneri is absolutely stunning - what a flower!

Great to see your postings again 

[Lesley Cox]

Just as well I hadn't post frit bulbs to you Bill, if you weren't there to receive them. I'll get some away early next week with luck.

[Armin]

Bill,
I concur Robin. Worsleya rayneri is a stunner

[Otto Fauser]

Bill ,
 you are very fortunate to own and let alone flower the elusive Worsleya raineri.
    on the rare occasions when a flowering bulb was available here for sale ,the asking price was up to 2000 (two thousand !) dollars . -far beyond my finances .

      Otto.