October 2012 in the Southern Hemisphere

[KK-Ann Arbor]

Here's a couple of things in flower at present.

Geissorhiza monanthos has a wonderful satiny sheen to the flowers.

Camellia 'Dahlonega' is flowering for me for the first time now.  I don't think it is quite as yellow as in the pic, but it is definitely the yellowest formal double I've seen.  It is gorgeous.

Please click on the pic for a larger version.

Paul,

Your Camellia is just lovely!!  Thank you for posting.

Koko
 

[Paul T]

You're most welcome.

Great pics, Doug.

[Philippe]

Doug, if I once get a chance to travel to NZ, to visit in particular the south island mountains, you will have to be there to let me visit your garden too  !
Super pics of your flowering plants.

[Lesley Cox]

Philippe, just a quick note rather than go back and find the Rheum thread. You asked about my nobile plants. Of the original 12 (actually there were 13, one a small and I thought infertile seed, but it did germinate, a little scrunched-up sdlg) just one remains. I've kept them moist but well drained through the winter and all came through to start with but they have gradually died away. The one has produced a second leaf though and the whole plant is a whopping .5 of a cm in diameter now. I have a second batch of seed, from a different source though perhaps ultimately from the same, and that is sown but not yet germinated.

[Lesley Cox]

 On Sunday about a dozen members of Otago Alpine Garden Group visited some gardens on the Otago Peninsula. We had a perfect, deep blue sky day, bright sun and no wind with the temp around 21C. I took few pictures as my camera is still in its "blue" period and I won't after today, post any more until I have replaced it.

First we went to Glenfalloch, a woodland garden with nice bush walks and the rhodos were good but the plantings now are very old and undistinguished. It's a place where people have their weddings and parties and seems to concentrate on pottery, giftware, souvenirs and catering rather more than the garden itself nowadays.

Then to a private garden whose owner negotiates her steep slopes very well, albeit with a stick. Most Peninsula gardens are steep at least in part and we were lucky rain had not made the grassy slopes slippery. In her garden these few were taken.

Agave americana after blooming. It seemed not to have seed but small, nut-like plantlets. We were invited to pocket them from the ground and presumably they'll grow on.

A Banksia species which an Australian member will identify for me, followed by it's opening seed cone

And the Agave and Beschorceria yuccoides from the top side, with a view through to a wonderfully blue and calm Otago Harbour. Many gardens on the Peninsula have a lush, almost tropical flavour (or perhaps Mediterranean is a better word) the whole area a series of microclimates so that plants can be grown there that can't, further back into the city.

[Maggi Young]

What a pleasing thought the idea of sunny garden visits conjures up 

That Agave flower stem looks like a fabulous outdoor candelabra     Dare I mention, as we  are still in October, that it might look rather fetching with some tinsel for Christmas? 

[Lesley Cox]

From there we went up to the top of the Peninsula to Larnach Castle, the folie de grandeurof William Larnach, an early Dunedin Member of Parliament. His family and its history are of great interest, among other things, his son having had an affair with his stepmother, William's second, younger wife. Larnach eventually shot himself in the chamber of the House of Representatives. (I think I have my details right here. I'll no doubt be corrected, if not.)

The castle was abandoned for a long time and virtually derelict until rescued by the present chatilaine, Margaret Barker, a plantswoman extraordinaire (sorry for plunging into the French), whose vision for the project and commitment to that vision, have re-created the original castle and gardens to an extremely high standard. In fact, I imagine the gardens now are much finer than originally and the castle has been restored using much original material, gathered from many different sources.

Margaret (a member of OAGG) took us round and then we lunched in the restaurant, previously the ballroom and in fact this is cleared out a few times during the year and balls are still held there, complete with pipes, piping in and addressing of the haggis and the whole Scottish shebang, true to Larnach's and Dunedin's origins.

There is a very good rock garden which I didn't take pictures of but will remember for the future, a lovely combination of Erysimum 'Orange Flame,' not the easiest plant to place, yellow Lewisias which tend toward apricot as they age and Aurinia saxatile 'Dudley Neville.' I saw some plants too that had come from my own small nursery, always a nice feeling.

While known perhaps primarily as a rhodo garden, Margaret has replaced some of these below the lookout with a series of Nikau palms and with just those few plants, transformed cool rainforest to lush tropical forest reminiscent of Hawaii or New Caledonia. It fits incredibly well with the harbour setting.

Gordonia yunnanensis, tender but artfully placed where it is sheltered by larger trees. This glossy-leaved species has beautiful light bronze new growth.

Rhododentron chamaethompsonii (?) in gravel and full sun (right on top of the Peninsula, Larnach Garden gets a lot of sea mist).

Larnach Castle, a side view with the ballroom

The laburnum walk with colchicums, reflecting pool at the end and a sculpture. The (very pale hill across the harbour is Saddle Hill, and I live just on the other side of it. Roger laid the lawn here, when we had a "Readylawn" franchise years ago.)

"More rocks for the walls please." The photographer is our Treasurer, also Pres of the local Photographic Soc.

[Lesley Cox]

Two forms of Cantua buxifolia, the white which is creamy and apricot at the base and the "usual" form, bright cerise with orangey colour at the base. Both are lovely things but rather untidy.

A group of Pseudopanax crassifolium, a native tree whose downward, sword-like leaves change to a rounded ball with age. The trunks are very attractive and a group is a very nice feature in a garden, taking little room but adding much interest.

From the Lookout, a view down to the harbour entrance, Aramoana on the left where a ghastly massacre took place in November 1990, a mentally ill man shooting 13 people including several children and himself being shot and killed by police. On the right of the entrance is the Royal Albatross Colony, the only populated place in the world where these magnificent birds nest.

[Lesley Cox]

The old stables

A stained glass cupola, an original feature rescued from somewhere and installed on the lawn

Underneath the cupola

Larnach Castle

[Lesley Cox]

To smaller, private gardens and I took very few pix but wondered about the name of theis super rhodo, because I have a daughter called Susan and have been meaning to buy Rh. 'Susan.' Is this it? (allowing for the fact my camera is overlaying everything with a blue tinge).

The climing rata, Metrosideros carmineus. This was quite a small plant. I've had it climb on a concrete water tank to about 2 metres and never had a single flower. Probably too cold where I was.

I didn't join the others at the last garden. My poor arthritic knees had had enough and it was getting late anyway. A great day altogether, with lovely weather and good company.

Cyclamen repandum in my friend Rosemary's garden. Why can't I grow it while she has it blooming freely and seeding in a stream down her rock garden, many flowers appearing among the other plants?

And finally from our tour, because it's been discussed recently in another thread, also at Rosemary's and Laurie's garden, Geranium maderense, in bud and flower.

[Lesley Cox]

Finally, 3 from home. Can anyone name this Babiana for me please? From the garden of the late Gwen Bell of Nelson.

Two recent purchases, Primula muscarioides and P. gemmifera zambalensis. This last is apparently white then you notice it has a very subtly wash of lilac especially round the edges. It is quite lovely, about 15cms high.

[Maggi Young]

I'm beginning to think Geranium maderense  has more in common with a bus than just it's large size.... seems that  we've been waiting for ages to see one then all of a sudden they are everywhere!

I see what you mean about your camera giving some things a very blue cast, Lesley, but we can still enjoy the pix. I think the rhodo is  perhaps 'Blue Peter' rather than 'Susan'.   The colour is pretty similar between the two but 'Susan' has a lightly  spotted throat rather than the heavy purple blotch that is characteristic of 'Blue Peter', and which we can see in your photo.

[Paul T]

Excellent pics, Lesley.  Oh to have the space for that sort of scale (that wonderful laburnum walk!!  ).

Would your Babiana be Babiana villosa, or a hybrid thereof?

Thanks for showing us.

[Lesley Cox]

Thanks for the Rhodo ID Maggi. I thought 'Blue Peter' was smaller. This was about 6-8 ft tall, hard to be sure as it was on a bank above where we stood, but I'm happy to go along.

I've no idea Paul re the Babiana. It was a gift whose donor had no idea either. I'll Google and see. PBS probably.

[Paul T]

Lesley,

Here is a link to a closeup of 'Susan'..... http://www.rhododendrons.co.uk/Product/16485/rhododendron-susan-agm.aspx

And here is the 'Blue Peter' that Maggi suggested, from the same site..... http://www.rhododendrons.co.uk/Product/16286/rhododendron-blue-peter-agm.aspx

As Maggi says, 'Susan' does not have the dark blotch like your pic does.