November 2012 in the Southern Hemisphere

[Paul T]

I don't.    Then again, it's late and I'm tired.  Just got back from Victoria.  Only about 800km or so today.    Still got to unpack the car..... the whole ute is full, including a nearly 7 foot tall standardised weeping laburnum that I managed to get in there with a bit of effort.  Let us not discuss at any time how much I spent on plants this week...... never mention it again.   

First time I have ever filled up the camera card... I haven't checked but there must be more than 700 pics I've taken in the last 6 days.  I will post some when I get the chance..... I promise, Otto.

[Lesley Cox]

I meant to add to the previous pics, one of a PC Iris hybrid, a seedling from the good batch of seed Brian Ellis sent to me not so long ago. Here it is now. Of about 40 seedlings just 4 have flowered so far but all have been quite different, within the general "Rose" colouring of the original label and different shapes too.. This one was almost black in bud before the petals started to spread. The pale patches are not rain damage but actual rain, shining in the sun and dried to be the right colour next day. One was a soft lilac/pink with wide, arching falls and very upright standards, one a pretty mug-of-milky-cocoa colour and one mid pink with deep red veining. Although not in flower or even bud, I took 20 to the daff show where the OAGG had a stall and all sold very quickly. Now I'm wishing I'd kept the lot until they'd all flowered.

The sub-text here is very obvious I suppose. If you are reading this Brian, may I have some more seed please when some is available? Pretty please? 

[Brian Ellis]

Excellent Lesley, I shall certainly tickle it's fancy again next year for you.

[Paul T]

Great colour, Lesley.

[Lesley Cox]

Thank you Brian, I knew I could count on you.

Yes Paul, the colours of the whole 4 were great and different, all worth growing on. They'll look very good in established clumps. It seems already that the arching falled one and the cocoa one may be setting seed so they seem to be very fertile.

[fermi de Sousa]

I think this is what I eventually got as Yucca brevifolia - in folwer for the first time and the spike wasn't even evident 10 days ago!
cheers
fermi

[Lvandelft]

What a beauty Fermi!

[Lesley Cox]

A real stunner Fermi. Your dry climate has some definite advantages.

[daveyp1970]

Excellent Lesley, I shall certainly tickle it's fancy again next year for you.

Brian are they from Broadleigh Rose?

[Brian Ellis]

Yes they are Davey, well spotted.

[Paul T]

Fermi,

Excellent yucca.  I love the pink edging.  Beautiful.

[fermi de Sousa]

Fermi,
Excellent yucca.  I love the pink edging.  Beautiful.

Yes, I'm impressed by it but unfortunately it's probably not Y. brevifolia
Some other Americans in the garden:
Calochortus splendens
Thalictrum tuberosum - first flower from seed sown in 2005!
Penstemon buckleyi
Allium abramsii - first flower from seed sown 2009 from NARGS Seedex
cheers
fermi

[Paul T]

Interesting Allium, Fermi.  I rather like that one.

[Lesley Cox]

These are out just now though like me, thoroughly sick of cold weather, a second day today of 12C and rain.

Clematis gentianoides, the only one from a packet of many seeds sent a few years ago by RK in Tasmania. It is still in its seed pot which is still in the trough the seed pots were in. Removed the others and filled the trough with compost and have planted some other mainly greyish things. The Clematis roots fill the trough so it will have to be moved in situ. It has set no seed in several years of good bloom.

Iris barbatula is ever reliable and with the bumble bee visiting every flower as I watch, I'm hopeful of more seed. This is one of several plants which I feel should be sown in the pots in which they will mature, rather than pricking out or separating for potting on. It's at that stage I seem to lose them, or in the first winter. If sown, germinated then left to grow on, they may do better. Iris decora and Gentiana verna are two others, a tiny pinch of G. verna seed in each pot, spread over.

Antirrhinum 'Black Prince' I love for it's stunning colour, both the dark red foliage and flowers which in reality, are much deeper red than shown here. It's that camera thing again. I am planning an all red garden and this will be one of the inhabitants.

Silene hookeri, the Ingramii Group. My few plants set enough seed each year to keep it going as a new batch of seedlings the following year. Then these too seed and generally die off in winter so I always have it but not much and individually, not for long.

Finally, JW in Nova Scotia sent me some seed of Lilium mackliniae from Fin Haugli but originally I think, from Glendoick. This was sown in Nov 2008 and is flowering in 4 years exactly. It was going to bloom last year but was too dry at the wrong time. The colour is again deeper pink than the pictures show.

[johnw]

Lesley - You always seem to be dropping horticultural bombshells.  So that L. macklinae seed, flowering it in 4 years eh, as I still wait for a seed to sprout.   Wait a minute it's worse than that, you've got your dates wrong - you got that seed in November 2009 so it would have sprouted in 2010 - now I am truly disgusted.

I present the blurry evidence.

Nice colour.

johnw