November 2007 in the Southern Hemisphere

[Paul T]

No pictures prepared to post as yet, but thought I'd better get the nothern hemisphere police off our tail!!  (I still loves ya Maggi, honest!!  )

For November flowerings etc........

[Paul T]

Decided I couldn't leave it at that.....



Clematis florida 'Seiboldii' has started into flower, along with the straight species and the double white version.



One of our native greenhood orchids, although not from anywhere near here..... Pterostylis baptistii 'Gosford'.  Flower is large for the genus.

[Paul T]

Here's some more flowerings at present....


This is Convulvulus althaeoides which is growingin a large pot to keep it under control.  I'd imagine it would have taken a few square metres by now if it wasn't confined..... its a healthy little blighter!!


The first of the season... Roscoea cautleyoides


I went on a day trip nursery crawl to an area a couple of hundred km north of here on Thursday.  Bought myself a few little treasures but on the way back photographed an area which has a naturally occuring stand of Xanthorrhea (grass trees) near the highway, only 15 minutes or so north of Canberra.  At the moment there must be well more than 50 of them actually in flower in quite a small area. 

Unfortunately no-one around here seems to propagate the local one (it is the same species as the ones in Western Australia, but I'd like to grow one from our local area just to know it came from around here naturally).


This is a first ever flowering of a Hippie from seed for me.... this is a seedling from Hippeastrum striata var crocata.  Rather nice flower, but I'm assuming a hybrid as it has more "filled in" flowers than I was expecting.

More pics will be posted shortly in the Iris, Rhododendron and Pleione threads.

[Paul T]

And some pics I've taken this morning.....


I bought this Astrantia 'Ruby Cloud' while I was away up north on Thursday.  Been wanting a nice dark Astrantia for a while, but hard to get hold of.  Nice plant this one too!!


Campanuls persicifolia 'Alba' is so far well behaved for me.


Clematis viticella 'Madam Julia Correvon' flowers for most of the summer if given a chance.  Lovely strong colour to it, and so very floriferous.  One of my favourites, although it is sometimes hard to choose a favourite from the 65 odd different varieties of Clematis that I grow! 


Bought this as Erigeron glauca.


One of the miniatures... Gladiolus 'The Bride'


A lovely peachy-pink oriental poppy.  I find them variable here..... I have to find the right place for them or they dwindle out.


Another Tritonia, this one received from our neighbour Mary.  Rerally nice orangy pink striped flower, well behaved but a good grower and very floriferous.  Doesn't try to take over the world.  It and T. crocata are real joys to have in the garden at the moment.

[Lesley Cox]

Here are some odds and ends out now in my garden. I'm in major retrieval mode at present and pictures of the whole garden or parts of it are not an option. Everywhere needs to be started fresh and it all takes time. Things which desperately need planting out still languish in pots. I'm waiting for Peter Korn to come and make a crevice garden for me, and the first to go in it will be Viola pedata.




Some individual flowers are huge. From top to bottom tips (lying sort of sideways here) this one measures 5cms.


Ranunculus parnassifolius is doing nicely in a limestone trough. The woolly plant to the lower left is the little Salvia (as cyanescens) that Laurence Moon sent to me as seed last year. This is the only one not to have damped off in the seed pot, all within a few days of germinating. But this one survived and has the first signs of buds. I think it is wrongly named though. S. cyanescens is a much taller, looser plant, though equally woolly. Perhaps there is a very dwarf, compact form. This one was pictured on the old forum and I fell for it immediately. It is not quite like S. daghestanica which I was able to buy recently. I love salvias of all kinds.


This seedling from my friend Dick King is obviously an offspring of Clematis marmoraria, one of thousands it seems to me. It has a nice dangly habit and masses of soft lime-green flowers. Also beautiful with its mass of fluffy seed heads.


Difficult to photograph on a windy day and I had to just about lie across the raised bed to reach it. Trillium pusillum v. ozarkanum. Several stems were broken in recent gale-force winds.


Another blurry picture, due to wind. But I should get into the habit of using my little tripod. This is Tulipa batalinii x maximowiczii.

[Lesley Cox]

Recently Fermi asked about an asphodel he has and whether it was a weedy species or not. I mentioned my similar plant at the time and this is it. It turned up out of nowhere and sets lots of seed. This is a recent plant but another exactly the same turned up some years ago, beside Asphodelus acaulis. I removed that when it made so many seeds which were never allowed to mature or distribute so where has this one arrived from? The flowers are the colour of A. acaulis flowers, pinker than this picture suggests.


Erigeron aureus is a good plant in a raised bed. I'm always hoping for a seedling similar to `Canary Bird' which we don't have in NZ but mine never sets fertile seed.


Telesonix jamesii (syn. Boykinia jamesii) doesn't have many flower stems for me. But each flower does set good seed which germinates easily.


A very firm favourite and utterly reliable, is Haberlea ferdinandi-coburgi. During our dry summer and even at other times when there's not much rain, the group (about a dozen big plants) gets so shrivelled they seem quite dead. Then, with some rain or watering they come back to life and flower furiously. It may even be the near-death experence each year that makes them flower so well. I usually get some seed.




Like all my Trilliums, the stems of Arisaema sikokianum were smashed by wind this year. Only 3 in this little group were saved. It seems to be a low form, just about 15-18cms high.

[rob krejzl]

I removed that when it made so many seeds which were never allowed to mature or distribute so where has this one arrived from?

Lesley,

I was growing Viola grypoceras var exilis (V. koreana) in a large pot with pewter leaved C. coum, but it died out. A couple of years later I moved the cyclamen into the ground under a magnolia. Now several years further on I have the viola again.

[Paul T]

Rob,

I find that mine appears and disappears every year or two as well.  Don't think I have any at the moment, but it may reappear again sooner or later.

Lesley,

I meant to mention that I loved the Haberlea.  The closeup pic almost looks like a Mimulus or a Rehmaniana (false foxglove), but obviously much smaller.  Well I'm assuming much smaller, having never grown or seen a Haberlea in the flesh.

[Otto Fauser]

Good evening Paul, you only have a few more days to wait till you have a flowering plant of Haberlea ferdinandi-coburgi growing in your garden-I will post you a plant and also a superior form of it:"Stourmouth Var." More compact ,also more intensly coloured.They and their close relatives ,the Ramondas[mauve, pink ,white myconi] are very easy to grow here in my garden, some I planted here and there in planting holes when I constructed a dry stonewall,a cool spot, halfshade and some leafmould gives me wonderful results.Managed to get a few leafcuttings some years ago  from the Munich Botanic Gardens of a very old hybrid between R. myconi and R. nathaliae, made around 1900 by Suendermann and named Ramonda x regis-ferdinandi.
 Hope the Haberleas settle in well,
 ciao Otto.

[Paul T]

Wow!!  Thanks Otto.  you're too generous!!  PLEASe let me know whether there is ever anything I post that you might like a piece of.  The Weldenia was already enough to have me wishing I could send you something special, so more just makes it even more necessary!! 

Buds visible down low in the Weldenia now.  Yeah!!

[fermi de Sousa]

Just a few more from the rock garden taken yesterday (Melbourne Cup Day Holiday!)
A brodiea grown from seed so showing a bit of variation tothe depth of colour, B. jolonensis:


Its cousin, Triteleia ixioides,


Another look at Dianthus haematacalyx ssp pindicola


Saponaria caespitosa




And finally, another Aussie native, Homoranthus flavescens with its horizonatal growth.


cheers
fermi

[fermi de Sousa]

Lesley,
thanks for the pic of your "volunteer" asphodel. Mine (received as "Asphodelus acaulis hybrid") appears to have smaller flowers and I think it is the weedy species (Asphodelus fistulosus) - I wish people wouldn't donate that sort of thing to the Seedexes! especially since A. acaulis is such a desirable plant!
Something I did grow from Seedex seed is Calochortus superbus and although I've already posted pics of it, I can't resist showing (off) this pic of a "clump" with variation in colour due to being seed raised!




This one has a lot less red than the others,




cheers
fermi

[fermi de Sousa]

Now a little something for Lesley! Two rock plants with an NZ connection!
Dianthus "Bombardier" which I got from Viv who imported it, from Hokonui, I think.


And an Helianthemum grown from seed collected in NZ in 2004 from a single dark red  variety.


I'm not sure of the colour, I'd probably call it a pinky-orange, with an orange basal blotch. The fliage went a bit yellow after being planted out last month, so it probably isn't a natural variegation!!

I've already posted a pic of Genista lydia, but it just reached its "peak" on the weekend, so here it is again!


But from the other side of the path it's even more stunning!


cheers
fermi

[Paul T]

Fermi,

Nice Calochortus!!  And that Dianthus 'Bombadier' is brilliant.  Love the colour, and double form to it as well which is nice.  Looks like it stands up well too, without flopping.  Great Stuff!!

[Gerdk]

Here are some odds and ends out now in my garden. I'm in major retrieval mode at present and pictures of the whole garden or parts of it are not an option. Everywhere needs to be started fresh and it all takes time. Things which desperately need planting out still languish in pots. I'm waiting for Peter Korn to come and make a crevice garden for me, and the first to go in it will be Viola pedata.

Lesley,
Congratulations for the well grown Viola pedata, I never had more than one or two  flowers on a single plant.
Gerd