December 2010 in the Southern Hemisphere

[Tecophilaea King]

The difficult to flower (in my experience) Tasmanian alpine plant Isophysis tasmanica surprised me with 2 flowers last week -but the snails got to it before my camera did .

Otto, I use to grow that beautiful Isophysis tasmanica, but unfortunetly I lost it.
What is the secret to grow it successfully? Thanks

[Otto Fauser]

The difficult to flower (in my experience) Tasmanian alpine plant Isophysis tasmanica surprised me with 2 flowers last week -but the snails got to it before my camera did .

Otto, I use to grow that beautiful Isophysis tasmanica, but unfortunetly I lost it.
What is the secret to grow it successfully? Thanks

Bill ,it grows well for me in a terracotta pan in a cool ,halfshady spot : gritty, peaty soilmix , welldrained but always moist ,but as mentioned shyflowering . Good luck with it should you be able to find it again ,
and my best wishes for a Happy Christmas and the New Year ,
          Otto.

[fermi de Sousa]

Bill,
that Ammocharis is stunning! will it last for X'mas as a table decoration?

Another little Alstroemeria, A. angustifolia is now blooming




Another Southerner I love is Oenothera acaulis (though I would one day love to get O. caespitosa) with our cooler weather the flowers re-colour in the morning to a light pink.


From South Africa we have Relhania pungens, a daisy with silver-backed foliage, and the maroon flowered Pelargonium sidioides


cheers
fermi

[Tecophilaea King]

To all our SRGC friends: we hope you have a wonderful season, and that all your plants and bulbs may grow well and flower true.
Merry Christmas and a Happy, and Prosperous New Year.

[Tecophilaea King]

The first of the exquisite and beautifully scented Lilium orientalis "Nymph" and Lilium regale "Golden Trumpet" to flower for us.

[Maggi Young]

Very colourful Christmas flowers, Bill.

Merry Christmas to you!

[cohan]

good to see your continuing colour while all is white here!
fermi--nice haemanthus, and the yellow daisies with purple pellies look great together.. the pellies are the med violet behind, right? what are the black spots within the daisies?

[Paul T]

Howdy All,

Some stuff that has recently been in flower here in Canberra, Australia.....

Albuca nelsonii, a reliable flowerer every year for me.  Grows to maybe 1.5m tall in the flowering stems.

Arisaema candidissimum.  Nearly the latest of the Arisaema to flower, and such a cool colour combination.  There should be more flowers that are striped in white and candy pink. 

Deinanthe caerulea did not take kindly to being divided and repotted.  I lost nearly all of it, but thankfully there are still a couple of surviving stems.  I won't do that again in a hurry.  Thank you so much for this Otto.  It had done so well in the couple of years since you gave it to me, and I was mortified that it went so badly backwards when divided. 

My big Echinocerus sp. in flower, this year there were 30 flowers out on the one day.  Gorgeous!!  And so beautifully perfumed.

A yellow variety of Epiphyllum.  I do have the name of it (something like Bearn's yellow from memory)

A lovely double flowered Hydrangea I have in flower at present. 

[Paul T]

And some more recent flowerings......

This is a little Australian native bulb called Hypoxis hygrometra (well we think that is the name, not 100% certain).  The flowers are about 1cm across, bright yellow as you can see, and seem to set seed freely.  I've had it in the same pot for years and it always flowers every year with nothing at all added by way of fertiliser or anything.  An excellent (although diminutive) native bulb.

Linaria vulgaris is colonising my front garden and I don't mind in the slightest (yet!).  Very tall this year due to the extra water.

Monarda citriodora is the first species that I've been able to successfully grow here.  Apparently they like more summer water than I've been able to give them, but I bought this species as the most drought hardy, and it lived through last summer so I take that as a good sign (particularly as it was so small and not well established then).  Lovely flowers.

This little iris relative is Neomarica northiana, one of the walking irises.  Fleeting but beautiful.  I theoretically have a yellowy species as well, but I still haven't managed to catch it with a flower open to confirm the colour. 

This purple climber is growing up an arch and flowers for most of summer.  I think it used to be an Asarina but isn't any more?

A Salvia that I can't remember the name of.  A beautiful pure blue, with large flowers to it.  The colour is pretty accurate.  I have a vague recollection of Salvia patens?

[Hoy]

Paul T,
Nice to see plants from your Canberra garden. Some are familiar and some are not!
I grow some of the plants in my garden but your plants seem to do better than mine   My Deinanthe never makes that good flowers (it is often damaged by slugs) and I think your warmer summers do a lot in difference. But be careful with the Linaria. I once had it but had to eradicate it when it threatened to take over the whole garden.

[Maggi Young]

By jove, Paul, what a great selection of plants. Your photos are really lovely and a special treat for those of us in the north deprived of sun and colour 

[Paul T]

Trond,

Yes, I realise that the Linaria has great potential for invasion.  I was aware of that when I planted it, and there is really only a certain area that it can overtake where I have it.  Well I hope that is the case anyway.  if worse comes to worse I start poisoning it in certain areas to eradicate it there.  I just love the flowers in summer, and so many of them.    Thanks for the warning though, it is appreciated.  I'm glad you liked the Deinanthe.  I just love it, and hope that it will now repopulate the pot and return to it's glory of last year. 

Maggi,

Glad you enjoyed the pic.  I have things toasting to death in the garden at the moment, because the summer has finally hit and after a mild spring nothing is prepared.  I think I am going to lose a number of plants in the next 2 days, when we hit 35'C and 37'C.    Not good.

[Gail]

Wow Paul - wonderful to see all your pictures when it is so dull here.  That Echinocerus is splendid!

[cohan]

Howdy All,

Some stuff that has recently been in flower here in Canberra, Australia.....

Albuca nelsonii, a reliable flowerer every year for me.  Grows to maybe 1.5m tall in the flowering stems.

Arisaema candidissimum.  Nearly the latest of the Arisaema to flower, and such a cool colour combination.  There should be more flowers that are striped in white and candy pink. 

Deinanthe caerulea did not take kindly to being divided and repotted.  I lost nearly all of it, but thankfully there are still a couple of surviving stems.  I won't do that again in a hurry.  Thank you so much for this Otto.  It had done so well in the couple of years since you gave it to me, and I was mortified that it went so badly backwards when divided. 

My big Echinocerus sp. in flower, this year there were 30 flowers out on the one day.  Gorgeous!!  And so beautifully perfumed.

A yellow variety of Epiphyllum.  I do have the name of it (something like Bearn's yellow from memory)

A lovely double flowered Hydrangea I have in flower at present. 

great stuff in both posts, paul! i think you meant 'trichocereus' maybe instead of echinocereus? according to some trichos are now in echinopsis..

[krisderaeymaeker]

Howdy All,
Some stuff that has recently been in flower here in Canberra, Australia.....
My big Echinocerus sp. in flower, this year there were 30 flowers out on the one day.  Gorgeous!!  And so beautifully perfumed.

Great flower show Paul. We love to see it in our dark days.
The cactus is not a Echinocereus . It is a cereus for shore but not Echinocereus.Maybe it is a Trichocereus.