August 2011 in the Southern Hemisphere

[arillady]

Nothing as sophisticated here.
daffodils on the drive
reliable scillas
Narcissus jonquilla(?)
bulbocodiums
two other narcissus

[Maggi Young]

Your narcissus 2378 and 2379 are very sweet, Pat.

 Your "scilla" however, is a Muscari.... a grape-hyacinth.....  they are reliable here, too. 

[annew]

Nice to see the narcissi when ours are still asleep.

[fermi de Sousa]

Hi Pat,
the Narcissus ? jonquilla is probably the hybrid between jonquilla and tazetta known as N. x intermedius.
We also have daffs in the drive!




A good place to grow them as it is the high side and they are well drained.
cheers
fermi

[arillady]

thanks Maggie - I had that niggling feeling that I was wrong with the name and should have thought further that of course it is Muscari!!
Fermi lovely driveway planting

[Otto Fauser]

2 plants in flower at the moment , both raised from SRGC seed . A great pity that none of those more recently bred english and czech Kabschia Saxifragas are available here ,due to the strict Australian Plant Quarantine Regulations . Sadly also seeds of these never appear on the seedlists , ofcourse they will not come true to name ,but some should prove to be attrative .

   Pat , as always your oncos are a delight .

[Lesley Cox]

You're right Otto, a real shame we are unable to import some of those amazing Czech forms, or even any of the more recently discovered species. My tiny batch of seedlings is even tinier now, down to about 9 or 10, and all looking much the same but still way too small to handle, except perhaps with fine tweezers. I'll wait until the winter has really finished then pot them in pure sand I think.

A happy find yesterday though, I had 30 pots of Trillium seed, mostly from NZ Trillium Group and sown in 2005 and 2006. Not a single germination over the few intervening years to the extent I became disheatened with them and didn't even bother to water them after about 2009 I think. (They have been outside all the time.) Yesterday I went to tip them out and after I scraped off the accumulation of rotting gum tree leaves, found new seedlings and seeds just sprouting, in 8 pots so I'm tidying them all and will persevere and hope more come through. Unfortunately most of the labels are unreadable by now but any trillium is a good trillium.

I also found, in equally poor conditions a little pot with a single Richea seedling. It is 5cms high so must have come up at least a year ago I would say.

My Frit stenanthera is in bud but still a week away or more and many others are close too, much earlier than last year. F. alburyana which I was hoping for a new photo of, was so badly damaged by snow then rain that is is just a pinkish mush really. I found a really nice Corydalis solida seedling among the Trillium pots. How did it get there I wonder. I'll post a pic later today. Still a bit dark for a photo with heavy cloud.

[Lesley Cox]

First the snow then heavy rain and southerly gales, have all mashed my irises and crocuses so Narcissus are doing thir best to keep me cheered up at present. I have some nice seedlings from 'Gambas' crossed by cyclamineus. Maybe some pics soon. In the meantime, a couple of irises and crocuses but none of them very good pics. First though, the Corydalis mentioned above. The flower was visible yesterday among the pots of what I assumed were useless trilliums but which are showing a little life after all.

This is a seedling from some seed Martin Baxendale sent me a while back. The seed must have fallen or been taken out of its own pot and dumped in the gravel in the bottom of the trough where the other pots were. So far this is the first in this colour, and I like it a lot.


Iris retic 'Pauline' and 'Harmony' need a good weed but the ground is still a bog following the recent weather. A couple of nice days have helped but today is cold and damp again.




'Natascha' is better, with 14 flowers out at once, and later than the others, but again, needs weeding.

[Lesley Cox]

Does anyone know the name of this crocus please? It has opened in the last few days in a patch of C. cancellatus ssp mazziaricus which has been in flower since early autumn. The colour of this one is a little deeper than shown.


Crocus x Bornmuelleri is a nice yellow but quite different in the bud with beautiful colour and markings.




And the last crocus pic for me this year (probably) is C. olivieri ssp. balansae 'Chocolate Soldier' which I'm happy to say is increasing nicely even though in a cold trough. I should probably move it.


I'm putting all germinated seed outside and these two concrete troughs show the beginning of my spring/summer workload. I still have dozens to put out as I clear the troughs of rubbish. In the first trough are 8 pots of Eranthis hiemalis, all coming up like crazy, the two strongest ones being the orange form, aurantiacus. A most generous western Canadian Forumist sent the seed and I think every one is coming up. I plan to have a totally yellow early spring lawn, in maybe 5 years time.

[arillady]

Yes you will be busy Lesley.
09MB448 Iris pumila ex Jensen seedling #2 flowering for the first time.
Otto please post more of your gems

[angie]

Wow    Lesley can you pop over here and share your secret with me.

Angie

[Ezeiza]

Lesley, those pots look so tidy and clean. (Green with envy)

[Lesley Cox]

Alberto those are just the beginning of a major clean up. Don't be green with envy as I assure the rest of the place (2 acres) is green with weeds and long grass, with the occasional small spot of yellow, pink, purple or whatever as bulbs are flowering.

No secret Angie. I sow heaps of seeds and most come through. The eranthis have taken an extra year. I thought they would come last spring as the seed was sent very fresh but they've waited as many NH bulb seeds do, an extra season before coming to life.  I'm getting too old to be waiting for a long time.

[Ezeiza]

They look great anyway!

[fleurbleue]

Very nice I. pumila Pat, I love this colour