December 2010 in the Northern Hemisphere

[Hans A.]

Thanks Fermi, Natalia and Trond!
If O. lobata behaves well I will keep it in the garden.
Here two Rosmarinus officinalis - first one the cultivar 'Majorcan Pink' and an own findling grown from a cutting.

[Hoy]

Hans, I grow Rosmarinus as a herb in pots and do not dare to plant them out. But when I look at your pictures they have very cute flowers remarkably like some orchids!

[pehe]

A few flowers from my green house. There is not many flowers now, so I take what I can get!

Narcissus cantabricus foliosus
Narcissus serotinus
Nerine filamentosa
Colchicum cupanii
And some winter flowers

Poul

[Bev Olson]

i like this.

[Hoy]

Hello Poul!
Nice plants! Do you use much artificial light in your greenhouse? How do you feed the last two?

[Maren]

Nice piccis, Poul.

[Natalia]

Poul, thanks for the beauty of flowers!  And live and ice!

[pehe]

Hello Poul!
Nice plants! Do you use much artificial light in your greenhouse? How do you feed the last two?

Hello
Trond,

Until now I had not used any artificial light, but sometimes I use sodium high pressure lamps. As an experiment I have just bought two LED lamps with red and blue light, which should be the best light colours for plants. The last two flowers are almost like weeds, they come by them selves and don't need any fertilizers. They can be tricky, I have never flowered them in the summer

Poul

[pehe]

Thank you Bev, Trond, Maren and Natalia! I wish you and the rest of the forum a Merry  Christmas!

Poul

[Juan Fornes]

 -  Lovely Shortias, Johnw!

 - Hans: great pics! My Iris palaestina are now begining to spread their leaves (I have just got them) so itīs a pleasure to see yours flowering! Wish mine will flower next year too! Your Rosmarinus looks great. Have you tried to eat just the flower? Pick up one, take out the sepals and try it: much softer (mild? excuse my english...) than the leaves. Delicious...

- Pehe: nice pics! Such a late Narcissus serotinus, isnīt it? Here in the wild is is rarely seen later than October! Lucky you to enjoy it in these cold days, when any colour is so welcome!

Some leaves from my pots:
 A) Cassia nemophila (=Senna artemisoides var. filifolia) in its first flowering season (Planted from seed last year)
 B) Scilla obtusifolia
 C) Lupinus pilosus sprouting
 D) Urginea undulata subsp. caeculi
 

[Juan Fornes]

And these are:
a) Lapiedra martinezii just repotted
b) Iris lutescens
c) Green beans of Acokanthera oblongifolia, the Bushmanīs Poisson arrow plant, having flowered this year fro the first time after having being sown from seed about 8 years ago.
d) Acokanthera oblongifolia (this pic was taken in May. Just to show the flower)
e) Urginea maritima and a few Pancratium maritimum
and
f) A curiosity from the wild: viola arborescens, a winter flowering viola

[Paddy Tobin]

A wonderful selection of plants, Juan.

Paddy

[Maggi Young]

I'm interested to see the flowers of the Acokanthera oblongifolia.... are they sweetly scented? 
Easy to see why some  (now dead) people have mistaken the fruits for olives, isn't it. 

[Juan Fornes]

Thank you Paddy!

Yes, Maggy: they are very sweetly scented. The resemblance to olive fruits gets even greater when they ripe, as both get a final purple-black colour. I collected the seeds from a garden in Canary Islands and fortunately Iīve been rewarded this year....

[Hoy]

You have a lot of special and interesting plants, Juan! The Viola arborescens, is it really a shrub?