October 2012 in the Southern Hemisphere

[Paul T]

Lesley,

The trilliums!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!    And that lovely red Pulsatilla.  I am so jealous. 

Friends of mine from here in Canberra raved about your place when they visited (and Yes, they passed on the Hello from you).  I was really irritated that I only found out after the Bilpin fair when it rained all day, that you'd been there in the Tas tent (or so I was told).  I was not happy to have missed meeting you in person finally. 

Really good to see you back here, and hopefully it'll be regular now.  Please show us some more pics of your lovely gardens.  I so wish I could get down there to see them.

[Otto Fauser]

Lesley , so nice to hear from you again after 3years . I still have fond memories of 'Kayedale' and its beautiful plants when we visited you many years ago - it must have been in mid October too. Please give my kind regards to your sister and parents ,
   Your beautiful Frit .stenanthera is flowering much later than mine here , mine flowered 2 months ago .
 Are you attending the NZ. Study Weekend at Lincoln Uni. in February ? If so , I'mlooking forward to meet up with you . There are at least 4 of us from Melbourne attending .

    Pat  , as always wonderful Irises - but are you sure that the second one is really I. paradoxa ?

[arilnut]

Uhhhh Pat. Otto is right, that's not paradoxa but it's korolkowii.

John B

[arillady]

Sorry all,  my head and fingers not working together sometimes. Yes Of course korolkowii. Uhm downloaded and labelled at the end of the day.

[Lesley Cox]

Same comment as from the others, Lesley, it's great to have you back here posting and with such beautifully grown plants, especially well done the F. pluriflora. Please keep posting.

From the other one.

[Lesley Cox]

Otto it's wonderful that you and at least three others are coming over for the Study Weekend. I've been out this morning looking to see what might be possible for the plant sales. (I've already paid for that space but have still to register for the weekend itself.) Everything at present is so slow as we've hardly had a gleam of sun all October and today is typical, half raining and bitter southerly wind.

I had hoped my potted Daphne petraea 'Persabee (the other's in a large trough) might have cleaned up our show two weekends ago but it was in tight bud still. Now I'm hoping it may be out for next Thursday night's OAGG meeting. It will be worth a picture, whenever.

[Hillview croconut]

Hello Everyone,

Gosh what a parade of beautiful and well-grown plants!!

Thanks for the heads up with the aril Pat and I love that clump of Calochortus amabilis - bet there'd be some northern forumist green with envy at seeing that being grown out in the open ground.

Just when most of us are packing up the frits for the year along comes Kaydale Lesley to blow it away with some stunning pictures - very jealous of your Fritillaria pluriflora. I have two unflowered F. striata left  - how are yours going?

I concur with Otto's comments and to make the point here is my:

Fritillaria stenanthera setting seed
Fritillaria aurea in seed - when I posted this in flower it was prostrate now its rising to the sky!

And two Paeonies - according to the latest reclassification:

Paeonia daurica ssp mlokosewitschii (P. mlokosewitschii)
Paeonia daurica ssp macrophylla (P. witmanniana ssp macrophylla

What an exquisite time of the year for us southerners - fingers crossed the wind takes a holiday.

Cheers, Marcus

[kaydale]

Thanks for the comments!! F stenanthera finished flowering for me last week, which I did think was late because last year if was flowering in September.  Things have been a little mucked up here because of the all the rain and snow we had, I still have alot of Frits still in bud.  Although this warm spell will bring them out.
Amarlie and I are heading to NZ on Tuesday! Going North and South Islands over 21 days.  Doing alot of gardens but some tourist things as well, including first day Nevis Bungy Jump!
Just for you Otto here is a photo of the double Sanguinaria, first flower for the year taken last Tuesday.  Heaps of buds still coming on.
Well I'm off to pollinate the Frits and take more photos!
Lesley

[Anthony Darby]

I'm with Paul on that wonderful Trillium display.

[Magnar]

Great to see all these spring flowers now when we here in the high north are entering the darkest time of the year. Thanks to everyone for posting.

[Lesley Cox]

There's a Crocus thread extant but I've mislaid it so will put here, a note that I picked 7 full pods of Crocus vallicola yesterday, beginning to open this morning. Anyone who'd like some, PM with address. Fresh is best.

[kaydale]

Well I went out a took some more photos yesterday, and pollinated F liliacea so am able to answer Rons question that mine don't have a scent.
I'm sorry I missed you at Bilpin Paul, it was a fly in fly out visit with the Blooming Tasmania stand and I hardly got to see anyone or do anything! 
I have attached a few more photos for you all from yesterday.
Lesley

[fermi de Sousa]

Great pics, Lesley,
we'll have to get down to Tassie again one of these days!
A few more things in our garden,
Moltkia doerfleri
- a close up
Geranium 'Biokova'
Geranium harveyi
Narcissus 'La Belle' - one of the last to flower
cheers
fermi

[Paul T]

Lesley,

That purdyi is stunning.  It was one of the first Frits I ever grew, and I had it for years and years, rarely ever multiplying.  I bought one a few years ago from Marcus to try cross pollinating them to get seed, and then lost them both in the wet summers we've had the last few years.    Your pic has just reminded me how nice they were.  Although yours are SO much bigger and more floriferous than mine were.  My original plant I had for over 15 years, which is why it is so upsetting to have lost it in the wet.  Usually we struggle here with it being too DRY. 

[Lesley Cox]

My word those are stunning frits Lesley, great clumps instead of sparse singles. The hybrid is especially exciting and you do pallidiflora much better than I do. It's a treat to see such species in the garden instead of in pots too.

Hope your flights today are OK. They may be a bit bumpy at this end.