January 2013 in the Southern Hemisphere

[fermi de Sousa]

Fermi I think you are right re Eremophila debile.

Thanks, Lesley, except I always make the mistake of saying debile when it should be debilis!
Flowering this week in the garden:
Allium sphaerocephalon - is that bee from NZ?
Nicotiana sylvestris - making a re-appearance after the parent plant died in 2003!
A lovely Aurelian Lilium - 'X-Phi' and close-up,
cheers
fermi

[fermi de Sousa]

This is the 3 Chinese Pistachio bed where the liliums are making a brave stand against the heat!
cheers
fermi

[Lesley Cox]

Oh yes, because of having been Myoporum debile.

Marcus, how tall does Richea scoparium grow please? Mine is now about 12 cms and very bushy but I have a potful of babies in urgent need of potting separately. It's a lovely thing as a small bush but hasn't flowered yet of course. Golly it's spikey though!

[Hillview croconut]

Hi Lesley,

Richea scoparia can grow up to 2 metres high but usually it billows outwards rather than upwards at about 1 metre.

Yeah its not a plant that invites stroking. I could be wrong but I think the colour phases seem to a have a strong geographic determination. For example flowers on Mt Wellington are red while in the Central Plateau around Great Lake they are white to cream. The species relies heavily on a little lizard, the Snow Skink, which assists in pollination and seed dispersal.

Cheers, and a Happy New Year, Marcus

PS They are super slow!

[John Kitt]

Hi Marcus,

That was quite some snake.  Could this be the reason we can't find any foxes??!!

John

[Hillview croconut]

Hi John,

Mmmmm ..... wow thats opening a can of worms. Maybe you could suggest to Fox Task Force that they look to recruiting killer snakes into their arsenal of tricks. Couldn't be any worse than baiting down at Howrah

Cheers, Marcus

[David Nicholson]

Anyone heard any news from any of our Australian friends? Hope they are OK, horrendous pictures on the news yesterday and today.

[John Kitt]

After about 3 years in a pot my Blandfordia Punica is beginning to flower.

I wondering whether this is the normal behaviour for a "first flowering" plant or whether it needs a richer soil to send up the spike?

Any advice?

Cheers John

[Lesley Cox]

I had a PM from Fermi just yesterday morning and he didn't mention fires or any problems with Aussie gardeners of our ken, so hopefully all is well. It seems the fire season, sometimes bad, is horrendous this year. We saw appalling pictures of burnt but live animals last night. Farmers have the soul-destroying task of putting them down, but I can't imagine the pain and horror experienced by the animals beforehand.

Canterbury too has been having bad fires over the last 48 hours with 4 houses razed at Prebbleton just south of Chch and at least 3 schools have been burnt, maybe deliberately in the South Island this week. A chicken farm near Prebbleton was also burnt and a nursery, according to this morning's news. I don't know which but Texture Plants, a fascinating place with super plants and great guys owning/running it, is very much in that area. I hope they are OK.

[Hillview croconut]

Hi David, there are currently hundreds of fires burning across Eastern Australia. Today there is a slight lull because winds have eased. Temperatures however remain ridiculously high on the mainland - I think Melbourne has a max of 37 degrees and its probably hotter in Adelaide. Winds are forecast to pick up over the weekend and the emergency conditions from earlier in the week are to return.  We need a decent rain or at least much more settled weather for things to return to manageable.

I think Otto (who is in a very fire-prone area) is OK as is Fermi. I think Pat is at the beach so can't be too bothered.

The trouble with fire is that it all can change very quickly especially when we have nutters out who are firebugs or just plain stupid. One of the large fires to the north of Hobart resulted from an unattended campfire - the person has been caught and charged. Over 25 unattended fires (people who can't put a campfire out correctly) were put out by emergency workers in the southern region of Gippsland in Victoria and that was on a A TOTAL FIREBAN DAY!

Where these people come from and how they have managed to get through life so far boggles the mind.

Hope that might give you a clearer picture?

Cheers, Marcus

[arillady]

Back from the beach and on both feet now with no aids. It was so much cooler down there. Yes I have been watching the broadcasts on all the fires while at the beach. It has shattered so many people's lives over the last week or so.
Noticed lots of scorched rose leaves (from the fierceness of the sun) as we drove in this afternoon. Harry has valiantly watered my potted forest since I have been gone.
Now to organise myself for my flight to Hobart on Monday leaving Adelaide at 6am. Now where the heck is that usb that has all the files on it that I have to pass on. Most is on my laptop thank goodness but not all.

[Hillview croconut]

Hi John,

I think you are doing well getting your Xmas Bells to flower. Its another one that moves at glacial pace. Why not ask the folks up at the Tasmanian Plant nursery for advice. They also sell especially developed potting mix for difficult natives - they might even have fertilizer.


Cheers, Marcus

[John Kitt]

Thanks for that Marcus, I'll drop in on POTN and get some advice.

Since I wrote that post, the spike is gradually elongating so I guess all is well so far.

John

[Natalia]

The last days have reported that in Australia and Tasmania forest fires and the terrible heat. Colleagues, worried about you!

[Anthony Darby]

We've been following the bush fires on the news. There has even been some homes destroyed by bush fire in Christchurch, New Zealand, but our hot dry spell is nothing compared with Australia.

I picked up this unidentified Gladiolus yesterday.