April 2012 in the Southern Hemisphere

[Lesley Cox]

Hello Anne. I don't know what is "normal" for the Heuchera. I grew it from local seed a couple of years ago and this is the first flowering. I have 4 little plants, just this one to bloom this time around. I'll plant them in a little patch and see what they do next year. It is rather cute.

[Lesley Cox]

I have a confession to make and it says more than anything that there's none so blind as she who will not see - to paraphrase a little.

I emailed the Christchurch nursery where I bought the little Eucomis, to find out A) if it was an NZ raised variety and B) if it had patent rights so that I wouldn't be able to propagate it for sale. I also mentioned that it WAS for sale at a south Otago nursery as 'Tiny Piny Ruby' a downright stupid name in my opinion. "Piny?" What the heck?

Anyway my supplier emailed back to say they had never had a plant called 'Tiny Pink Rubies' but had supplied 'Tiny Piny Ruby.'  I've looked back through their Online lists, from whence I purchased it, and can't find any reference at all! So I have to accept that the stupid name is correct and I am wrong but I can't imagine where I got MY name, except from their list. Did I just see what I THOUGHT would be the right name and not what was actually written there?

I'm always very careful with names and hate having wrong spelling or the wrong word but in this case, I'm going to stick with what I thought was right in the first place or maybe mumble a bit if asked the name.

One good thing, it is not NZ raised and has no PVR designation so my leaf cuttings will hopefully become nursery plants. One in a pot, flowering, should look very attractive.

[Brian Ellis]

Perhaps you could just label it Eucomis TPR

[Lesley Cox]

Anthony, Fermi and perhaps Marcus if he's around will be able to give you a better answer for Australian bulb imports but I don't think they're a lot easier than for here. I know that when I sent stuff to Marcus he had to have them quarantined in a govt. facility. He didn't need a phyto cert on the grounds that as they were going into quarantine anyway, anything nasty would be found during that process. And of course the Aussies too have a sort of version of our Bio Index, called ICON which stands for I forget what.

We don't have the quarantine for dormant bulbs from Australia but so many inspections are involved, on the nursery they come from, the bulbs themselves (thrice: when in growth, then prior to export then when they get here) and so on. If you really want a way to send yourself over the edge into total blethering insanity, import/export of plant material into/out of NZ is a good way to achieve it.

When I go to the PO with a small padded envelope of seeds for someone in the UK or EU, I have yet another episode of the "Oh but you can't send seeds to another country" argument. Yet again I have to explain that England or Holland or wherever permits seeds to enter, only NZ and Australia and USA have some rules about it.

[Lesley Cox]

Perhaps you could just label it Eucomis TPR

That's probably a good idea Brian.

[Lori S.]

Hello Anne. I don't know what is "normal" for the Heuchera. I grew it from local seed a couple of years ago and this is the first flowering. I have 4 little plants, just this one to bloom this time around. I'll plant them in a little patch and see what they do next year. It is rather cute.

Heuchera hallii is normally an early summer bloomer (June) for me.

[Lesley Cox]

Perhaps mine has just at last rached the right size to flower, somewhat out of season. Looking at it Lori, would you say it is correctly named?

[Lori S.]

It certainly looks like what I'm growing as Heuchera hallii (below) (though I'm sure no expert!)
 

Edit:  I should mention... it blooms in June for me in a trough well north of its native North American range, where I expect it probably blooms a lot earlier.
http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=250065969
http://www.efloras.org/object_page.aspx?object_id=110810&flora_id=1

[rob krejzl]

ICON = Import Conditions

[Lesley Cox]

Thanks Rob.''That looks really nice Lori. I'll try it in a cool trough maybe, one anyway.

Rob there is at last some seed on L. wardii. Do you still want it?

[Paul T]

Something that has been flowering for the last few months for me..... Commelina coelestris.  The most beautiful true blue flowers.  So hard to come by blues as pure as this. 

[Otto Fauser]

Paul, what a glorious true blue your Commelina , no Crocus can match that colour . here are a few that give me much joy at the moment , I wish some of the rarer species would be as easy to grow and multiply.  Crocus speciosus 'Crimean Giant' is the largest flower of all Crocuses in my garden , I grew it from seed collected in the 1970s in the Crimea .

[Otto Fauser]

and a few pics of Crocus caspius - another easy one. - raised from seed (collector's No. P.F. 5035) that Paul Furse sent me in the 1960's . flowers from white to pinkish-mauve , and today I noticed 2 flowers on a fasciated stem .

[Paul T]

Lovely pics, Otto.

I have some caspius from you in flower at the moment, and one of the banaticus as well.  Some things are flowering well this year, some skipping entirely due to the absence of summer.  And yesterday I discovered a bud on one of the Narcissus bulbocodiums types.....    Way too early.

[fermi de Sousa]

Nerines have been doing well this year where we are though I've heard from a grower in the Dandenongs that they've had a miserable flowering due to the cool summer.
This coral-coloured nerine is one I got from Ruth Tindale more than twenty years ago - it's called "Ariel"
cheers
fermi