November 2010 in the Southern Hemisphere

[Maggi Young]

The Bainbridges were here, I think in the sumer of 1995-6 for the NZ version of next year's conference. I remember they were very interested in Dunedin's Royal Albatross colony. Although our little city has many fine buildings and other merits, it's best known, especially to overseas people for very non-city things, like the albatrosses, penguins, seals etc.

Exactly! That's right... well remembered, Lesley.

[t00lie]

I meant to add Bill, that I have a few seeds, still green yet, on your Trop. azureum. They will be sown VERY fresh in due course.

Thought the following might be of interest to you Lesley ,(and others).

Back in July of this year Bill sent me seed of Trop azureum and Trop brachyceras which i sowed all together  . I presume this was fresh seed .
When germination occured in early August i decided to check an old pot of Trop azureum seed that Mike Ireland had sent from the UK in June 2009 .
Although the seed in this old pot had been sown over 12 months previously it still looked okay ,so i nicked the wall ,(with a razorblade),of a couple of seeds and left the rest--result ---2 have germinated.

I cannot say for certain that these two seedlings are a result of my experiment however when i get the time i'm going to try and locate the rest of the untouched seed in the pot and continue using the razorblade.....

Cheers dave. 

[Tecophilaea King]

I meant to add Bill, that I have a few seeds, still green yet, on your Trop. azureum. They will be sown VERY fresh in due course.

Lesley, I am pleased to hear that the Trop. azureum has flowered successfully for you and set seed as an added bonus.
Do you think that sowing them VERY fresh ASAP, as oppose to normal autumn/winter sowing of older, drier seed would make any difference in germination?
 
Dave, I am also pleased with your Trop.azureum great seed germination, and your interesting experiment with nicking the seed, I will try the same procedure myself next time, and will see and report, if it will makes any difference.

[Lesley Cox]

Well I don't really know Bill, and I'd probably take Ian Y's advice on that, but I'll have to look back through the Bulb Logs to see what he says on the subject. I think there are 4 seeds from two dead flowers.

Re Mike's seed, 1 germinated quite quickly after sowing and grew until dying off time but didn't come up this season, so I presume it died. No others have germinated though it was lovely seed so I'll do a look through and see if I can find some to nick. But it may be too late now to be effective or even advisable. Maybe I could nick a few now and leave some until the autumn for the same treatment.

[Lesley Cox]

In flower at present is Rhododendron camtschaticum album. For 3 years I've had just 1, 2 and 1 flower on two plants, side by side. In spite of this I've had seed on two flowers (different years) and I hope for more this year as I have - should have had - 13 flowers. While weeding around it I knocked off a branch with 2 flowers and 2 buds. It also had 6 cuttings so I've taken those, along with 20 others I took about 3 weeks ago. The only other to survive from a small batch of seedlings from seed donated to OAGG by the Sutherlands of Ardfearn, is, I hope, pink or red or purplish (the seed came as Red Form), but I was thrilled to get two whites.

As you see from the pictures here, the remaining seedling is much smaller and less vigorous (right in the centre of the third picture). I think it will be coloured, as the tinier leaves get slightly reddish as the weather warms and the autumn colour is orange/scarlet while the two white turn a rich gold colour. The whites especially are spreading underground and the shoot just beneath the reddish one, is from the white, not the reddish. I just wish it would grow a bit faster.






I bought two alliums this year, packets from a garden centre. The first is 'Purple Sensation,' 3 bulbs, 3 stems about 80cms in height. It's a pity the leaves are going tatty as it flowers.


The second is 'Gladiator,' 1 bulb, 5 stems (!), the last of which has come though low and curled so is almost on the ground. The tallest stem is a metre in height and just one stems has some small bulblets among the florets.

[TheOnionMan]

Lesley, congratulations on your Rhododendron camtschaticum album, I don't believe I have ever seen the white form, but I think I like it better than the brighter rose-red form.

Regarding the Alliums, I find those types (the big-ball Melanocrommyum types) useful to grow up through some sort of non-competitive groundcover to help conceal the drying foliage.  In nature, many of these types do start showing senescent foliage as the flowers expand.  So far as the one with a few bulbils, on the Melanocrommyums this can happen (rarely), but typically it's a freak occurrence and should not repeat itself in subsequent years.

[Tecophilaea King]

Flowering at the momement are Dichelostemma ida-maia, aka as firecracker flower, producing scarlet flowers with green tips in late spring and summer.
 
Sandersonia aurentiaca aka Chinese lantern lily, is universally admired, and highly prized as long-lasting, rich golden bell-shaped cut flowers and graceful container plant.
 
Albuca canadensis has pendulous flowers of pale yellow flushed green with distinctive green stripe along each petal, very good for picking.

[Lesley Cox]

Mark, if there is seed on the white rhodo? would you like some. I'm not promising, too soo yet to tell. I raised one batch of about 50 seedlings then lost the lost when my tunnel dried out more than I realized.

I'll save the allium babies and grow them on and see what happens later.

In the second allium picture there is a small white patch and that is the label of Muscari muscarimi or, you know, the blue one with yellow, and very fragrant. I get them mixed up. Anyway I planted the 12 bulbs that I'd bought in the winter of 2009, in flower, so forced I suppose or imported from Holland, and they were sitting very high - half exposed - in their 3 pots. So I planted the dormant bulbs just below the surface of the ground and not a single one came up. But poking around this morning, I found that all the bulbs, or 11 of them anyway, couldn't find the other, were still there and very healthy-looking, no rot or disintegration at all. So what's going on? Maybe just a year off because of perhaps being made to flower too early last year? I'm hopeful they'll grow away next year now.

[Lesley Cox]

So it seems we'll have another Forumist from NZ quite soon. NZ 1, Scotland -1. (though that will not be the score this coming Saturday night. )

[TheOnionMan]

Mark, if there is seed on the white rhodo? would you like some. I'm not promising, too soo yet to tell. I raised one batch of about 50 seedlings then lost the lost when my tunnel dried out more than I realized.

Thanks for the offer, but no thank you... my yard atop a hill is exposed, windy, sunny and hot in summer, desiccated in winter by prevailing north winds, all anathema to small ericaceae, I just can't keep them moist enough and they invariably die very quickly.  My attempts at raising rhodies from seed in this garden have met 100% failure.  I'm at a point in my gardening where I'm okay with admiring some plants from afar.

[johnw]

if there is seed on the white rhodo? would you like some.

Lesley - What an absolutely delicious white camtschaticum, so healthy and lusty with suckers about.  I wish I had known you were in need of the other colour forms of casmschaticum.  Tomorrow I'll go out and check for stray pods but not hopeful - they will have opened back in September.  If you have a pinch of the white to spare I'd love some, it's hard to get seed of a white that is not contaminated with other pollen.  My white one has yet to flower and it came from Jim as well, it's doing well but I killed 3 or more before I got one established. It's definitely crankier than the coloured ones. The others I believe from the Stones. My oldest pink-purple is now about a meter across from a planting in 1980 or so.

I was very surprised the camtschaticums came through this summer's drought and those 4-5 hot days in September.

johnw -   SUN!

[johnw]

Lesley - If you are interested I was able to get a fair amount of seed from two camtschaticums - the purplish pink and a large flowered pink. That is not to say they will come true as the red, pinks and purples are all close to one another.

johnw

[annew]

Bill, the Sandersonia is spectacular. The Albuca is nice too, how hardy is it, and how tall? I used to grow A. humilis here with no problems.

[Tecophilaea King]

Bill, the Sandersonia is spectacular. The Albuca is nice too, how hardy is it, and how tall? I used to grow A. humilis here with no problems.

Anne, only a few of the species are worth cultivating and these are particularly suitable for the more warmer climates, unfortunately not hardy enough for the cooler climates.
Albuca canadensis can grow up to 50-60 cm. with pendulous flowers, whereas those of most species face upwards.
It has a long flowering period, lasting from late spring until early summer, which makes them ideal for picking.

[Lesley Cox]

John, thanks so much, I would definitely be interested in seed of anything other than the white and of course you can have some - if it develops. I'd better go out and hand pollinate as an encouragement.

After good spring rain we've had what amounts to drought here and I urgently need a good downpour over a couple of days. Nothing in the forecast suggests it's likely however. Well after leaf fall (which was very early because of dryness last summer) there were tiny points of green on the bare branches of the white and I kept thinking "I must get water onto that" but my hose doesn't reach quite far enough and it didn't happen so the rhodo was in a compost (raised bed) that was literally dust dry through to the base of the bed, about 20cms. Yet it survived and leafed up well in the spring (small primulas suffered badly though) and now has more flowers than ever before.

The seed I sowed and had do well until the tunnel dried out, I sowed over grit as with all my very fine seed (your shortias for example) and it came up (as did the shortias) like mustard and cress. If I do it the approved way for such things, moss always overtakes the seed or seedlings. The following year (last) Otto in Australia had none germinate over a sterilized compost, on a shady windowsill. Same seed, different conditions.

I noticed yesterday that the cutting I took recently are also beginning to yellow slightly. They may lose their leaves before they root so cuttings may not be a reliable way to propagate.