Early spring in the Southern Hemisphere

[Maggi Young]

Hello, Andrew. A very warm welcome to you. I'd be willing to bet you will not be able to resist a few posts here and there now you have joined in... we look forward to hearing from you and sharing in your plant experiences.

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Great pix Fermi - I agree with David on the Gladi : beautiful !! 
That T. Vvedenskii hybrid is also a real stunner - I bought some from J. Ruksans as well this year, can't wait to see the results next Spring !

[annew]

Thanks for the show pix, Fermi, and congratulations on your prize! It would be worth going to the show for the display of different bottles alone!

[Lesley Cox]

A very warm welcome Andrew, great to have you join in. The Oxalis I posted the other day, now (yesterday) had 11 flowers out. This morning they're firmly closed, very cold here today with some snow overnight and that now frozen till the sun hits it, but only cloudy sky at present. What price spring???

I think your Gladiolus is a lovely thing Fermi. You know the question. Goes it set seed? I don't think I've come across a yellow species before. And much as I adore Dame Edna, I don't want to grow the hybrids.

I have a couple of pots of seedlings (Ruksans, via Gardens North in Canada) of Tulipa vvedenskyi about half have the red striped foliage so I suspect they may have T. greigii blood in them. With all due respect, I really DON'T like yours, so I hope there's something of the true species in there when they flower. This is their 3rd season, counting germination as 1st.

[fermi de Sousa]

Welcome, Andrew, another oxalis-fan is always good to have on board!

Last weekend as part of the "Daffodil Festival" in Kyneton (once a world renown area for daffodil breeding) some gardens were open, including "Old Langleyvale" which used to be the home of Mrs Eva Murray, a famous and tireless breeder of daffs.
It's still an interesting garden to wander around and the road verges outside the gate (it's a dead-end road) are planted out with hundreds of daffs.
I took a few pics and though they're not rock garden types, I thought you might appreciate seeing them.
cheers
fermi

[fermi de Sousa]

Lesley, YES, it does! (Well, it did last year) Please check your MAF list and let me know if I should bring some over in January (all things being equal and I get to the Study Weekend at Lincoln Uni. The correct spelling should be Gladiolus pritzelii.
cheers
fermi

[t00lie]

Fermi --just had a look--the Gladiolus is on the approved list.

Lesley --another cracking yellow is Glady. aureus.At our previous more sunnier residence i managed once to flower a plant from seed.About 30cm in height--very bright colour and flowered mid spring if i remember correctly.Sorry no pic. and alas no bulb now.

Warm welcome Andrew--look forward to seeing some of your pics here.

Cheers Dave. 

[David Nicholson]

I have the odd Gladiolus hybrid lurking in odd corners of the garden where they flower every year with no attention whatsoever. Am I likely to get away with keeping the species outside here or would I need to over-winter the corms indoors?   (my appols for hijacking the thread )

[Lesley Cox]

Not hijacked David. All comers are most welcome. In fact, I wish there were many more of them so we'd know that someone other than Maggi and Paddy took a look at these southern threads.

I'm inclined to think that the species may be a little hardier than the big hybrids David. But many of the species we grow are winter-growing and late winter/spring flowering. The big hybs tend to be summer flowering and still underground in winter. Having said that, I think winter wet rather than cold could be the main enemy. It's why many people here grow the Dame Edna types under the sun-facing eaves of their houses. I have G. (or possibly Homoglossum) priorii out at present.

As Dave says Fermi, IT's THERE, on the list

I also had G. aureus once but for such a short time I'd forgotten it was another yellow species. I think it came from the Dutch gentleman in Tauranga and came up weakly once then wasn't seen again.

Just trying to imagine a world without Pavaroti. But I suppose that as in many other instances, when one goes down, a dozen others pop up.

[David Nicholson]

Not hijacked David. All comers are most welcome. In fact, I wish there were many more of them so we'd know that someone other than Maggi and Paddy took a look at these southern threads.

Lesley, I may not say much but I read every word and find them fascinating-and I learn a lot from all the 'bottom'('top'?) of the world threads

[Lesley Cox]

Stay with us David.

[Paul T]

Welcome Andrew.  I've often wondered if you visit up here.  You really should post your pics from time to time..... we know they're good from your postings on the oxalis and images list. 

Lesley,

I saw G. aureus (I think that was the name) at my friend Lyn E's place in southern Canberra the other day.  Nothing to write home about, that is for sure, at least not the form she has.  Tall, comparatively thin petals and yellow throughout.  My first thought was more like an Ixia, but at a second look it was a Glad.  G. pritzelii is a treasure.... something I wish I grew.  I saw it last year or the year before at Lyn's place as well and it was just lovely.  Yellow with red markings inside, creating a rather intricate little bloom.

Glad you posted David.  It is a bit of a tumbleweed and mournful music feeling in here for the couple of regular northerners at times. 

And apologies for my recent lack of activity...... trying to get my garden looking reasonable for an small open garden this Saturday for the Hort Society members.  I only agreed to do it 3 weeks ago after someone had to drop out after breaking their hand.  I'll never agree at such short notice again, that is for sure.  Well, not unless the garden was in better shape than it was in this time.  Still, it has galvanised me to get all the weeding and mulching in the gardens done, but the back yard full of pots will be closed off to visitors as it is an absolute mess and I don't fancy little old ladies taking a tumble over pots and breaking various bones etc.  So nice to have the whole garden mulched now.... if I can only keep the black birds out of it until Sunday that would be wonderful.  Then I'm sure their little rotary hoe-ing will start up on the fresh mulch. <sigh>

Fermi,

Congrats on the prizes for your daffs!!  I doubt I'll have much still out here by our show on the 14/15th.  Many of the other things I would usually enter (such as Prunus 'Elvin's) will be over by then because of our extremely warm August, particularly last week where we were into the 20s pretty much every day.  The magnolias are looking lovely right now though, so they'll be enjoyed for our open garden. 

[Maggi Young]

Downunderers, take courage!  :)See the number of folks who read and enjoy your threads... over two and a half thousand , as I write this, have viewed your efforts  .... Paddy and I are not THAT busy!! We  are simply more chatty, I like to feel it is part of our charm!!

[Mini-daffs]

 
Hi
Fermi, its only meant to be Lesley who has the role of sledging me(Although I am still recovering from Maggie's below the belt comments about breeding!).
It was the Flower Show at Kyneton last weekend and these are a few pics, not all minis and nothing like what we'd expect at Canberra!
I will assume you were saying you didn't see any hybrids like ours!!
You are perfectly welcome to display your daffodil photos along with ours. I have noticed a fair smattering of Glenbrook bred daffodils so your collection is fairly modern.
Paul, the cold weather has slowed things up a little. We expect to be able to put on a very reasonable display of miniatures. We should be able to find a few suitable for exhibiting among our thousands of seedlings I suppose. We have a number in the daffodil refrigerator already including some of our new tiny apodanthe hybrids(some people have a beer fridge, we have one for daffodils. You would be surprised how many miniature daffodils you can fit in a 400 litre refrigerator). I will probably only have the big baby to assist Helen and myself as our daughter is in Spain at the moment. Some of the seedlings will be very heady as they are heavily perfumed.

[Paul T]

Graham,

I am definitely looking forward to seeing them.  I do so enjoy your miniatures every year.  I find that the minis are generally so much nicer than the bigger varieties.  And yours tend to be that much better than the rest of the miniatures we usually see!!    All good!!