July in the Southern Hemisphere 2007

[Lesley Cox]

As far as I'm concerned, this will be a very short thread. Fermi and others will give it some bulk I hope. Almost nothing out here, 2 snowdrops , a few left over Cyclamen cilicium, a couple of mouldy roses and precious little else, except these crocuses, 2 seedlings from the cvijicii x veluchensis batch that started to bloom a couple of years ago. These are probably the last. Almost the same in colour but rather different in form.. 2 pics of each









And just to remind you, the one below is the first to flower from the batch. Colour is quite different.

[Maggi Young]

A very different colour from the first of the batch, Lesley, but I do like that rich butter-cream shade!

[Ian Minty]

I really like the last one Lesley, I lke the way the 2 clours blend.

[Lesley Cox]

Yes Maggi, they're pretty even if not spectacular. When they bulk up a little they should look nice in a group. Ian the last pic was from about 2 years ago I think or close to that. It's a mixture from both species and the overall effect in the pot is apricot, so a little different.

[fermi de Sousa]

Here's the last few flowers on Dianthus amurensis taken at the end of June.
cheers
fermi

[Lesley Cox]

We've had a second big snowfall last Thursday and heavy frosts since. I don't know what the temp was this morning but the 2 pics below show last night's damage to Salvia confertiflora which I've grown under the house eaves for about 7 years and it's never been touched before. Lobelia tupa is frosted too, for the first time. Not enough to kill either but messy all the same. Thankfully, Lathyrus splendens in the same place, is unscathed.





This little snowdrop which I have as Galanthus cilicicus is not getting any sun though in an open, usually sunny place, because the sun is too low in the sky to climb above Roger's pick-up truck which is (permanently) parked in the driveway, with Clematis orientalis climbing over it. He leaves it there "because the dog likes to stand on the tray when he gets brushed."



You see I have a sorrel problem in this part of the garden.

This is our coldest winter for 11 years and my son who is in a new farm near Ranfurly (inland Otago) has registered -19degC three days this last week, -21 this morning.

[ranunculus]

Brrrrrrrrrrr................................!

[fermi de Sousa]

Lesley, we can't match that for low temperatures this side of the Tasman! We've only been down to -2C at Redesdale so far this winter.
Some new flowers include my first flowering of Allium chamaemoly, which I got from the AGS Seedex in 2005 because I thought it would be like A. moly (!) but which I see from Dilys Davies's book it just means low to the ground and these blooms certainly are that! One for the alpine house in harsher climates than ours. This is the only flowering size one still in its seedpot as it only germinated 2 years ago.
The following is a progressed flowering of the Narc. romieuxii hybrid I posted last month; it's actually "Tarlatan".
cheers
fermi

[Lesley Cox]

Earlier than mine Fermi, my `Tarleton' is still in tight bud, these sitting at ground level. When we have a warm spell there will be lots of little things all ready to go. I'm ready to go too - to somewhere warmer, but I did that back in April.

[fermi de Sousa]

It's amazing to think that we are "somewhere warmer"!
Actually the sun is shining nicely now and you only need a jumper on to go outside instead of the jacket and scarf as we did earlier.
The snowdrops are enjoying the cool weather with bright sunshine and having been flaring their petals to attract the bees!
Here are two clumps of Galanthus elwesii, the first has an almost completely green inner petal; is this the one called "monostichus"? You can see by their companions that these are grown in the rock garden in full, blazing sun but remain unwatered during the summer.
I wonder if others consider sempervivums as suitable companion plants for snowdrops?
cheers
fermi

[mark smyth]

The upper photo shows elwesii elwesii. Two have eyes towards the ovary. I can see two of them in the group. The two marks can be at each end of the inner petal, large, joined or solid

Those in the lower photo are G. e. monostictus where the inner mark takes up less than half of the inner petal.

[fermi de Sousa]

Thanks, Mark.
The first clump was from a batch of seedlings grown by Phyll Bear, a member of our group who died a few years ago. They were seeds from her own garden so they are a precious link to a wonderful gardener.
cheers
fermi

[fermi de Sousa]

More winter flowers!
Three more snowdrops:
Galanthus rizenhensis;
G. "Lady Beatrix Stanley";
G. "Green Outer Tips"
Crocus korolkowii "Golden Nugget" - a Ruksans selction imported by Marcus Harvey; 3 views.
Eranthis hyemalis;
The lovely foliage of Euphorbia dulcis "Chameleon" in winter.
cheers
fermi

[Paul T]

Howdy All,

Finally some health respite for me.... best I've been in years to be honest.  Great to finally get back up here again and see the pics.  I've got various Narc. romieuxii types in flower, Eranthis hyemalis (3 weeks early), the odd Crocus, Ericas, Galanthus of various different types, Cyclamen, Hellebores, Lapierousia oreogena (flowering this year for the first time from seed) and a few other bits and pieces.  -7'C yesterday morning, the coldest for this winter so far.  Was forecast 5'C with snow today, and instead we had bright sunshine with virtually no clouds in the sky at all.  10'C instead of the 5.  Can't say I am exactly disappointed.    We've had some decent rain here this winter thankfully, putting off any harsher water restrictions until at least December now I think.  Hopefully plenty more rain before then as well.

I will post some pics as I get the chance.  I want to have a bit of a wander through and catch up with some of the threads first.  Might take me a while given how long it has been (and last time when I was up here 6 weeks ago I only got through a third of them then as well).

[Lesley Cox]

Welcome back Paul, pleased you are well again. I had a phone call yesterday from Otto (Fauser) in the Dandenongs and he had had 5 inches (or may it was centimetres) of snow over night and was chillier than he'd been for a long time. Melbourne too, has had good rain and the storage dams are back up to about half full, likewise for Sydney I believe.

One or two single crocus flowers have been out, the cvijicii x veluchensis seedlings starting very early and laevigatus is about to burst forth. Snowdrops in bud but only G. cilicicus in flower yet. My eranthis are always very late for some reason, well into August.