August 2011 in the Southern Hemisphere

[Otto Fauser]

and a few more in my garden

[Brian Ellis]

Otto you have me yearning for the Spring.  I wish I could get my  G. x allenii to look like that, I don't think they like my garden

[arillady]

Good one Lesley Where is the laughing face???

[Warren Desmond]

Lovely to see those images Otto...

Thank You for sharing them..   

Warren

[angie]

Otto you have me yearning for the Spring. 

Same here, as we are having no summer in Aberdeen it might be better just passing us by and getting us to spring. I just love that time of year. All those lovely snowdrops to see 

Otto love your snowdrop pictures 

Angie

[Magnar]

Midnight sun season is over for this year. We still have light nights, but darker times are slowly creeping in on us. What a pleasure then to see the spring flowers again. You sure have have a great time to look forward to there down under. 

[Rogan]

The Tecophilaea King will probably laugh, but I still think it is special when you flower your first Tecophilaea cyanocrocus from seed...   

[Rogan]

More bright spring colour :

Lapeirousia oreogena and
Lapeirousia silenoides.

[Rogan]

I have been fostering a couple of Bonatea speciosa orchid plants for a few years now. They have excelled themselves this spring by producing dozens of their interesting blooms. Highly scented during the evening; they are probably pollinated by a species of hawk moth:

[daveyp1970]

More bright spring colour :

Lapeirousia oreogena and
Lapeirousia silenoides.

Rogan WOW you have blown my socks with these pics,Lapeirousa are the reason why i grow African corms,but sadly never germinated any seed that i have had,if the good people reading this has never seen the pollinator of Lapeirousa oreogena you must look it up its incredible.

[David Nicholson]

More bright spring colour :

Lapeirousia oreogena and
Lapeirousia silenoides.

Cor!!!!!

[Maggi Young]

Some spectacular plants, Rogan, especially that orchid which is a new one to me. But I do know exactly how exciting it is to flower your first Tec. from seed... ( first flower on anything from seed, in truth, eh?) it's a great feeling... and yours is a super flower. good colour, nice big flower... happy days, eh?!!

[Ezeiza]

Davey, Lapeirousias are not the easiest of SA corms. Seed seldom germinates the first year so keep the pots with it. Second, commercial seed is not s good as fresh seed from a grower. Nuff said.

I saw a documentary on South Africa on TV time ago and after showing wild animals and birds, they showed a few plants and amazingly there was this moth with a monstrosity of a long tongue that actually was pollinating a Lapeirousia oreogena plant! Yet, the emphasis was on the insect and no mention of the fabulously showy plant.

Again on Lapeirousias they need deep pots and grit as a medium. Most are dryland plants.

[Lesley Cox]

Wonderful plants and photos Rogan. I guess they're taking your mind off the rugby?

Alberto you have a super knack of providing all sorts of information we've not necessarily asked for, but it's there and so useful, when we need it. I only grow Lapeirousia cruenta or whatever it is nowadays and had never though to give a deep pots, though mostly it seeds about the garden. I'd love to grow these other wonderful colours.

[Anthony Darby]

Have you left a door open Lesley? There's a terrible draft coming from you direction!