December 2011 in the Southern Hemisphere

[Stephen Vella]

My place and garden. 2nd summer. Im a keen grower of perennials and bulbs.

Let me know if you want to know plants names.

cheers

[Stephen Vella]

Some new and differant colour forms of Echinaceae.

[Stephen Vella]

Looking very summery. It amazes me the colour range in the Lily hybrids now available with so much vigour.

[Stephen Vella]

Angelica sylvestris, purple leaf forms, with pink flowers.

Euphorbia Blackbird, one of my fav Euphorbias, its colour changes throughout the season.

And I can finally grow Isoplexus

cheers

[Lesley Cox]

You could arrange to be taken to the 2061 Lesley, with all due ceremony

I will if you will David. But who will take us?

Stephen, yes please, the names would be helpful. I actually bought a couple of double lilies this year, a white and a pretty pink. The pictures looked so good. (Fancy succumbing to pictures in a colour catalogue at my age!) One is going to flower, the other not.

I gave myself the Blue Mountains gardens book for Christmas. It arrived yesterday and is a truly beautiful book. Of course it helps to know a couple of the gardens and their owners/creators, but even apart from that, I am entranced by it all and will read it through and through over as long as I have. So thanks Stephen for pointing me in the right direction.

[fermi de Sousa]

My place and garden. 2nd summer. Im a keen grower of perennials and bulbs.

Hi Stephen,
great to see what you've achieved in just 2 years!
cheers
fermi

[daveyp1970]

Love the combination of the dark leaved Angelica and lilies stunning garden.Well done.

[Maggi Young]

Yes indeed, Stephen, your garden is looking both very summery and very lush. You must be pleased with how it is progressing. It's a treat to see, for sure. 

[David Nicholson]

You could arrange to be taken to the 2061 Lesley, with all due ceremony

I will if you will David. But who will take us?

Probably an empty match box each would do it Lesley, carried on a silver salver. To do the carrying? Perhaps we need to go for someone ultra young (possibly Arne!) most of the others would be in their dotage don't you think?

Lovely stuff Stephen, would be nice to see some general garden views too.

[Lesley Cox]

Arne would be fine David, or perhaps Stellan so Gerry could come too. Remind me. Where is it we're going?

[David Nicholson]

No idea Lesley, lost in the ramblings of time But as eminent psychologists might have said "It's the journey that counts not the destination"

[Anthony Darby]

They've not sprayed the grass verges for a while, so annual weeds, like this  Centaurium erythraea have a chance to flower.

[Hoy]

My place and garden. 2nd summer. Im a keen grower of perennials and bulbs.
 
Looking very summery.

Stephen, I can see that! And you get me longing for summer

They've not sprayed the grass verges for a while, so annual weeds, like this  Centaurium erythraea have a chance to flower.

Anthony, do they spray the verges annually?
here they spray the verges especially on places with interesting flora - that is where rocky outcroppings and other obstacles make it difficult to mow.

[Lesley Cox]

It seems to be policy - or crass stupidity - for council staff in NZ to spray the verges just after seeding so that all the annual weeds especially the grasses, go from strength to strength each year.

We saw the Centaurium growing in the fields on Holy Island, Lindisfarne, when we were in the UK. I loved that place, almost devoid of people and so wide and open to the sea and the sky. We were living at Lindisfarne, a few kms south of Dunedin at the time so it was something of a pilgrimage for us. I have a little album of flower photos from the island. Among others were orchids and Anagallis tenella, the 'Studland' form of which is flowering here now, much deeper pink than the Lindisfarne form. This is a nursery plant, just starting to bloom. Yet again I have cooked my two large potted plants and will have to replace from the nursery. It is exceptionally sensitive to dryness at the roots, or a hot, sunny day on the foliage.

[Anthony Darby]

My place and garden. 2nd summer. Im a keen grower of perennials and bulbs.
 
Looking very summery.

Stephen, I can see that! And you get me longing for summer

They've not sprayed the grass verges for a while, so annual weeds, like this  Centaurium erythraea have a chance to flower.

Anthony, do they spray the verges annually?
here they spray the verges especially on places with interesting flora - that is where rocky outcroppings and other obstacles make it difficult to mow.

I've seen them spraying several times and I've not been here for a year yet! They seem to prefer bare earth between mown grass and untended bush than a riot of colourful flowers.