April 2012 in the Southern Hemisphere

[Paul T]

Howdy All,

Thought I'd start us a place for the southern hemisphere to post some photos for the month.  I promise I will get back to photo posting soon..... hopefully later today. 

At the moment there are abunch of different Crocus coming into flower.... tournefortii, nudiflorus, longiflorus, laevigatus (very early), banaticus, gilanicus and more.  There's still some Colchicum about, the first of the Galanthus reginae olgae are already open (also very early this year), Salvias, Dahlias, Roses, Aster nova-belgii of assorted colours, some Clematis species, first of the tazetta daffs, Abutilon and more.  Not a solid mass of colour, but lots of bits and pieces here and there. 

Very confused weather has made very confused plants.  Some pics of the better sights will follow soon, providing my tooth extraction in an hour goes OK.... otherwise it might be tomorrow rather than this afternoon. 

[Maggi Young]

Good luck at the Dentist!

[Paul T]

Maggi,

Thank you, but I hope I don't need good luck.    Top right, furthest back, biggest molar I think?  Growing at 45^o angle and with 3 large roots.  If it doesn't come out easily, this afternoon is NOT going to be good.    Even if it does come out easily it still probably isn't going to be terribly comfortable.  

[Maggi Young]

puts me in mind of my dentist's comments when I was getting a root canal treatment:
... knowing I  was somewhat anxious, he asked if I was okay.
..'not too bad' I replied, 'but I don't suppose this will be the most fun I've had with my clothes on'.
..'well', says he, with a glance at the nurse, 'we can all take our clothes off... but it still won't be fun'

Process was held up for five minutes till the nurse regained her composure....

 We all survived in the end.

[Paul T]

   I think that would have broken the ice nicely!  

And here are a couple of quick pics, taken after work so the light wasn't brilliant.

Moraea polystachya, and Dahlia coccineus with bee friend trying to get in a last collection before dark.

[Lina Hesseling]

Maggi, you made me laugh loudly on Monday morning again!

I can see the picture in front of me. Glad I don't have to go to the dentist soon, because I would be grinning all the time.

Lina.

[David Nicholson]

.... and very nice too Paul.

[Paul T]

Dentist survived!  Not actually hurting that badly thankfully, although I think it is usually worse the second day.    The tooth removal was actually quite easy, with none of the complications that were possible due to the position and condition of the tooth.  The actual removal didn't even take 5 minutes.  The injection of the anaesthetic hurt a lot more than the tooth removal, although that grating feeling as the roots pull out is atrocious. 

[Lesley Cox]

Too much information Paul.

This little Heuchera hallii is very cute, just 8cms high in flower. Bad photo though.

Calochortus barbatus has a weak stem and flops all about. But the flower's nice.

I should have taken Crocus vallicola a couple of days ago when there were 6 flowers all at once. I had some seed in the early summer, so hopefully more this time around.

The seedhead of Arisaema flavum ssp. abbreviatum started to fall to bits when I moved it so I'll need to collect the segments quickly.

[Lesley Cox]

Some autumn reds now but the sun is in such a position that it has made the fiery colours look pink. The Polygonum and the Cornus are rich crimson rather than the pinky shade.

Zantedeschia 'Majestic Red'

Polygonum affine 'Donald Lowndes,' one of my favourite autumn plants.

Two for Cohan in Canada, Cornus sericea. I can't wait to get some of these planted in my new long border.

And for Brian, Eucomis 'Tiny Pink Rubies,' now fully out. As you know, I sniff everything new to me and these smell of rubber gumboots!

[Paul T]

Lesley,

Great pics.  That Eucomis is really something!  The colour on the Cornus sericea looks brilliant!!!

[Brian Ellis]

And for Brian, Eucomis 'Tiny Pink Rubies,' now fully out. As you know, I sniff everything new to me and these smell of rubber gumboots!

Lovely Lesley, much better when not etiolated   We were taking Herbarium Specimens from the National Collection of Muscari on Thursday last week  and one of the things to note was the scent, I'm afraid all I could discern from one specimen was the scent of Pledge furniture polish!

[fermi de Sousa]

Some pics taken this week,
a little colchicum which came from a Seedex as C. pusillum which I'm told it isn't - it's about the height of C. corsicum with narrow petals like C.lingulatum. In the pic it's coming up through a mat of Teucrium subspinosum, so it is quite small.


Already posted elsewhere but worth repeating, I think, Narcissus serotinus, a kind gift from Otto a few years ago and happy potted (the daff, not Otto!  )!


Another view of the clump of Narcissus viridiflorus in the garden


And another look at the wonderful Brunsvigia gregaria


cheers
fermi

[Anthony Darby]

I take it getting bulbs into Oz doesn't involve them being sautéd first!?

[annew]

Leslie, what a lovely little Heuchera - does it usually flower this late? And Fermi, great to see daffodils in both hemispheres!