November 2007 in the Southern Hemisphere

[t00lie]

Hello Paddy
Nice to hear from you again.

As we live out in the 'wop wops' somewhat we are reliant on storing rain water for our domestic supplies.

No veges grown here Paddy and as i am unsure of what pic you are referring to i am unable to clarify matters, although some could say that a few plants in trying to reach better light levels grow like cabbages.LOL.

The tunnel house frame is my excuse for an alpine house.It has netting up to about belly button height around all sides to stop Hilda's cats from entering.A cover is placed over the top only down to the netting during winter to control moisture levels.

The Aciphylla is as Lesley has identified.Planted ,(out of the way i thought), in an old double concrete wash tub some 14 years ago.Such are the plans of mice and men----I've stopped counting the number of times it has attacked me.

Cheers dave.

[t00lie]

Fermi --I like your Conanthera . I must be keeping mine too dry--The bulb feels healthy enough but hasn't shot into growth yet.

A few more in bloom here.

Iris verna --seems to have a brief flowering period before the petals turn.

Frit. roderickii--liverwort and all !.

And a couple quick to bloom from seed --
Primula ellisiae
Primula cortusoides

Cheers dave.

[Paddy Tobin]

Dear Lesley,

It has indeed been a while since I have posted here on the forum but let me assure you that during all of that time I was thinking of you and it was in a moment of compassion that I thought it really was time to drop you a line. You see during this long absence I have had this picture in my mind of you hiding behind a bush just waiting for me to pop up again and I said that it was about time I took you out of your misery. I had then to consider what ploy would give you best satisfaction as you pounced - you see I have given this some consideration. Eventually, Dave's photographs from his garden gave me the opportunity. Although Dave doesn't grow vegetables I thought that I could latch onto that tunnel and post a comment in pretended ignorance knowing that any comment casting even the slightest aspersion on the Farmers' Market would be sure to draw you out of your ambush position. And boy oh boy did it work. You were out like a coiled spring, like a shot from a gun, like a racing horse from the starting box, a cheetah from the long grass and my oh my, even after that long time in tensed anticipation you were still as alert as ever. You have my deepest admiration. What a woman!

Farmers' Markets produce and vegetables - ah, come on now, Lesley. Sure that crowd are only codding you. Those beautiful brown eggs that they sell were only cheap white ones they bought and soaked in cold tea. Then dipping the potatoes and root vegetable into the old bucket of mud to give them that just lifted out of the ground wet covering of soil. Those organic apples, from the local supermarket, the fancy wrapping discarded and a few gentle bruises here and there to add 'authenticity' Oh, I have never known a farmer who wasn't a cute h... , well, fella/wan. Farmers' Markets are a great place to go for a good laugh. You just sit and watch the townies coming out in their Range Rovers, wearing their waxed jackets and green wellies, oh and of course the tweed caps, to get the weekly supply of 'fresh', 'organic' and 'direct from the grower' vegetables. Ah, it keeps them happy, I suppose, part of the life style statement and it keeps the farmers happy as well. It's always great when you have a good supply of fools who are ripe to be parted from their money.

Oh, yes, it's great to be back. With such a warm welcome I am sorry I left it off for so long.

It is one of the joys of life reading your lovely postings Lesley.

Yours, (tongue in cheek) Paddy

[Paddy Tobin]

Blast it!

Lesley,

I have just realised that as it's 7p.m. here you are probably well wrapped up in your bed and I'll have to wait until tomorrow to hear from you again.

Paddy

[Paddy Tobin]

Hi Dave,

It was the tunnel and the regular beds beside that put vegetables into my mind.

OK, Lesley, I did really think they were vegetables and not plotting to draw you out at all. There, I've admitted it now.

Lovely garden Dave. I am amazed with the aciphylla. It is about the same age and size as  mine, similarities in the climate, perhaps. I presume yours flowers regularly.

Paddy

[Maggi Young]

Dave's deadly Aciphylla has a cousin here in Aberdeen, too. Lethal brute and no mistake, though very handsome with it  ( that's the plant, not you, Dave, you're just a style icon)
Did you say your one hasn't flowered, Paddy?  I'd like to get seed  to grow more where I need a spiky barrier and ours hasn't flowered. I think one of the rosttes did once, some years ago, but no seed. There are a couple of rosettes at the minute. I don't think they would transplant, even if I were foolhardy enough to try to get close enough to move them!

[Lesley Cox]

Maggi, I promise I'll get some nice fresh seed for you in the late summer/autumn, collected from the wild, not so far from where I live. Dave could beat me to it of course, so one way or another, you'll have enough to populate the highlands and the islands. Now THERE'S an anti-terrorist device!

Paddy, I know you are waiting for some devastatingly erudite (but also wildly funny) comment but I absolutely refuse, except to say that I'm sure you have been consorting -- or consulting - with Martin Baxindale. (Him of the receding hairline.)

[Maggi Young]

Many thanks, Lesley... that would be very gratefully received....... while we're on this spiky subject ( and here I am not making reference to the receding hairlines of either Martin or Paddy, honest) might you be a ble to get me seed of any of the smaller aciphyllas?  The really little chaps, esp. A. crosby-smithii ??...also we'd love  to get the deliciously soft and gentle A. dissecta again... we lost that.
Pretty please if at all possible!

[Lesley Cox]

I'm sure that can be managed Maggi. Dave and David (Lyttle) both collect them and I do when the opportunity arises. It would be around Feb/March I should think. Seed is always sent to the Otago Alpine Garden Group and I have seedlings at present of 4 from the most recent list (June/July) including crosby-smithii and my favourite, pinnatifida. They seem to germinate reliably if reasonably fresh.

[Lesley Cox]

I did think of mentioning Paddy's hairline, but refrained due to my good and generous nature. But if the cap - or hairline - fits.....

Now, I really must go and get a life and go out to pot primulas.

[fermi de Sousa]

Hi Dave,
I have the Conanthera in the rock garden as well as in a pot and they receive the natural rainfall over winter/spring which bring them into growth over here. I do give them a little supplementary water around now as the skies don't provide any and the plants are in full growth!
I have one tiny seedling of C. bifolia and some seed of another species to try this autumn!
Here's another couple of plants in flower in the rock garden; firstly a newly planted Crowea "White Star" which is just a slip but covered in bloom,


and a Moraea gracilenta which I already posted to the South African Bulb thread but worth showing another pic here!


cheers
fermi

[Paddy Tobin]

Fermi,

That Moraea is a beauuuuuuuuuuty. Just lovely. Certainly worth posting a few times.

Lesley,

You have disappointed me. I thought you would come back with a vengence - for fun, of course. Regarding the receding hairline: from a very young age I had what my mother described as a 'high hair line' which was, of course, a sign of great intelligence she believed. I take the  more mundane view that god designed only a very few beautiful heads and covered the rest with hair.

Yes, the sun does indeed shine off my pate.

Paddy

[Lesley Cox]

Well, that's better than the place where Roger reckons the sun shines from on his body.

[Paul T]

Taken lots of photos this week, but only just starting to prepare some.  Suffering white fever at the moment..... but not Galanthus.


Weldenia candida.

Thank you, thank you thank you Otto!!!!!!!!!!!  Small, but perfectly formed.  Would look a lot nicer if the snails hadn't polished off half the leaves the night before.... so you just get a closeup of the flower to cover it's many imperfections plant-wise!! 

I'll post shortly an unknown plant in the identification section.  I'm hoping someone can tell me what it is, as it is pretty distinctive.

[Maggi Young]

Now this is a white fever that is worth catching, Paul! Weldenia is such a beauty. I was very pleased to be given one last year by Rob Graham, which has done well. I'd lost our old plant after many years and was very pleased to get a new one.... now I know how well Lesley does with hers, I am determined to do better with this new plant......snails and slugs be warned!