Early spring in the Southern Hemisphere

[fermi de Sousa]

Also in bloom today, a couple of tulips, T. albertii,



and the Lady tulip, T.clusiana, still asleep at 8:30 this morning, well, she is a lady and entitled to her beauty sleep!


cheers
fermi

[fermi de Sousa]

Last week I posted a pic of the shrubby Dampieria dasyantha, here is one of D. diversifolia a sprawling groundcover.
cheers
fermi

[fermi de Sousa]

I can't find where we were discussing a pink felicia which sprawls and climbs.
Here's a pic of one patch of it under a Chinese Elm and attempting to smother all in its path, including Helleborus argutifolius!
cheers
fermi

[Paul T]

Ah, so it is here in Aus as well.  I rather admired it when Mark posted it last month in the flowering now thread for the northerners.  Smothering Helleborus argutifolius is pretty impressive!!

[Maggi Young]

How nice to see Tropaeolum tricolorum growing so well outside. It needs a bit of cover here, though it is pretty tough... we have one which grows around the side of the glass house we call the "Gothenburg Annexe"and excapes through some gaps to flower outside... it can get well frozen and survive but I'm not sure just how far before it does get damaged. We really should try one out in a sheltered spot. The flowers are so bright and cheerful and you get SO MANY over quite a long period... very good plant altogether.
And I do like these Dampieria... never heard of 'em before.

[Rogan]

My wife and I went for a walk in the hillsides above my home this past weekend and came across several healthy clumps of Gerbera aurantiaca, the Hilton Daisy, in full bloom. It is a very rare and endangered plant endemic to the midlands of KwaZulu-Natal. We have had several light showers of rain recently and this has brought the spring flowers on wonderfully - I'll probably be boring you for weeks to come with photos of non-alpines

[Maggi Young]

Wow! Does that plant look fresh, new and perfect ? There's something surreal about Gerberas... I think that they represent the archetypal "daisy" that a child would draw... simple yet sublime. If this is the sort of stuff you're going to be bringing us, Rogan, I suggest you and Mrs Roth get your walking shoes on and get photographing!! 

[Paul T]

Maggi,

Even in an 8 inch black plastic pot Tropaeolum tricolor will survive -8'C without any problems at all.  I have it here in the ground as well as in pots and it thrives every year.  I have an arch near my front stairs where I grow it and Dicentra macrocapnos (I had it as D. macrocarpum but I'm assuming that the other name that you guys have mentioned elsewhere is the correct one.... they're close enough to be a spelling mistake?).  They're a good pair as the Dicentra growns and flowers throughout summer and is deciduous in winter, while the Tropaeolum starts up in winter and flowers throughout early spring and dies off as the Dicentra just starts to come into flower.  The dicentra at the moment is about 3 feet tall or so.  It'll start flowering a few weeks and will then flower until about March or April from memory, although it will enter dormancy early if it dries out too much (something that does happen here some summers when I forget to water it on occasions.

[Lesley Cox]

In the summer I imported 5 bulbs of Fritillaria argolica from Marcus Harvey. They are in the same pot, 2 in flower now, but.......


I'll send this off to him for an opinion.


This and the following two are fairly ordinary double primroses, but super at this time of year. The apricot (amost) coloured one is `Sunshine Suzie' and the paler one just comes as "Double Ruffled." It's a "Jack-in-the-Green" form, with a lovely, sweet scent. The lower, cleaner yellow is another double ruffled "Jack-in-the-Green" and the blue (darker than in the pic), is `Miss Indigo.' I think the yellows and blue look great together.

[Lesley Cox]

And I'd like someone to give me a species or cultivar name for this little bergenia. It makes a small, tight mat and grows to only about 7 or 8 cms height, in total. The stems below the flowers are just 4cms. There are some leaves of Nar. cyclamineus to the right, which give an approximate idea of scale. It's a little honey, very slow growing and perfect at the edge of a dampish spot, with good, clear flower colour.

[fermi de Sousa]

Hi Lesley,
Nice Bergenia; no idea except, it's not B.ciliata!

The herbaceous peonies have started! Here's Paeonia mascula ssp russii




and P. cambessedessii in bud.


Lastly, a last couple of "hoops",
Narcissus "Mitimoto" and N. bulbocodium ssp obesus
cheers
fermi

[t00lie]

As i mentioned earlier the first of the Trilliums are out.

Not sure if this one is T.angustipetalum or T.kurabayashii.

T.Nivale.Looks a lot happier since i added limestone chips into the soil of the trough.

T.albidum.

Will post these now to see if am able to submit multiple pics again.

Cheers dave

[t00lie]

Great ! that worked, so a couple of final pics .

I presume the following are hybrids?. While i'm not too concerned on trying to identify their gene pool make up i can post more pics of them in greater detail ,(scale --leaf margins etc etc), if anyone is interested.   

T. sps -- a small plant --pale yellow with just a tinge of a pink throat .
 
The last two pics are of a larger plant another T.sps --throat shot followed by a side view.

Cheers dave.
 

[Maggi Young]

It's cold and wet here, I can't tell you how good it is to enjoy these flowers of yours! Peaonies are so luscious and there is such promise offered by those fat buds .
That little, bright Bergenia is a real corker and I feel better for seeing T00lies Trillium! Thanks, All!

[David Nicholson]

Smashing to see all your Spring flowering stuff folks, keep 'em coming and remind us what we have in store come Spring 2008.