| Author |
Message |
SandyLeven (Sleven)
Rating: 
Votes: 1 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, January 02, 2003 - 3:49 pm: |    |
It is very difficult for one member to maintain a daily diary on the FORUM. How much easier and more rewarding might it be to invite everyone to submit pictures of plants FLOWERING NOW !!! in their own garden?
While sharing our plants with others over time it should be possible to see how flowering times vary in the different parts of the country.
What needs to be noted are :-
A] PLANT NAME
B] DATE OF PHOTO
C] AREA, TOWN OR CITY etc [WHERE IT IS GROWING AND WAS PHOTOGRAPHED]
D] NOTES ABOUT THE PLANT |
Administrator (Admin)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, January 02, 2003 - 4:17 pm: | |
Sandy, this is such a great idea I have given it a topic category of its own!
Come on users - this really is a super idea and is well worth everyone making an effort. There is ALWAYS something in flower in the alpine garden of greenhouse!
Let's see some flowers!
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SandyLeven (Sleven)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, January 02, 2003 - 5:17 pm: | |
Narcissus 'CEDRIC MORRIS'
2nd Jan 2003
DUNBLANE
Listed as Division 1 [Trumpet Hybrid] is a very old hybrid. It is one of the earliest to flower, blooming as it does when the romieuxii tyoes are also starting. Mine are in a pot in the alpine house [no heat] and are just starting to open. The flower stems are about 14cm at present. Mine came as a gift from a generous friend. Merriments garden in Kent say it always is in flower by Christmas.
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SandyLeven (Sleven)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, January 02, 2003 - 5:25 pm: | |
Allium callimischon
2nd January 2003
DUNBLANE
This has been flowering since November, so might not really count as a January flower but it is still interesting. Tiny bulb about 7cm tall. This clone had nice deep coloured flowers. [I have another slightly taller allium with brown flowers, which always looks dead.[
Allium callimischon is flowering in the alpine house from bulbs bought at the SRGC autumn bulb exchange. Native to Turkey, Crete and Greece. I bet it would rather be there than in Perthshire today.
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SandyLeven (Sleven)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, January 02, 2003 - 5:32 pm: | |
Cyclamen coum
2nd January 2003
DUNBLANE
This is one of the best winter flowering corms. My plants in pots are just starting to flower but this one pot is away ahead of the others. It is bone hardy and many have great leaf patterns. Flower colour varies from magenta to white. It is a great trough plant.
New introductions from Turkey have superb leaves. I expect to send better pictures in February.
This is a plant from which rabbits love to nibble the flowers.
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SandyLeven (Sleven)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, January 02, 2003 - 6:18 pm: | |
Erodium sp. [may be Erodium daucoides]
2nd January
DUNBLANE
Grown from a small curring from a plant on the Col de Rates 780m, just inland from Benidorm on the Costa Blanca.
The colony was growing on limestone ourcrops. The plants grow mainly from crevices in the stone and spread their woody stems across the rocks. Most plants seemed quite old. They have bright magenta flowers and all except this plant had a pronounced dark blotch at the base of each petal. This plant had flowers which were more scalloped than the others. The leaves are quite delightful resembling tiny ferns [pinnate].
It has had a few flowers since the summer time. Next summer it will go outside to a raised bed. I am full of hope that this might just be a new wee star in the Erodium firmament.
The second picture shows the usual plant on the left and the collection on the right. It looks better in Spanish sunshine!
Thirdly is a picture of more of the plant
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SandyLeven (Sleven)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, January 02, 2003 - 6:23 pm: | |
It seems I have invented a new way of propagation 'Curring'. Sorry I meant cutting. |
SandyLeven (Sleven)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, January 03, 2003 - 8:17 pm: | |
The weather which has been open and mild started to get colder as soon as I sent the first 'What's flowering now?' picture to the Forum.
Today I have to cheat a bit and send pictures of Narcissus romieuxii in the frost free greenhouse. I have gown N.romieuxii for many years and I got quite blaze about it. I can categorically state that Narcissus romieuxii does not tolerate sitting ouside in plastic pots during a wet summer. It took me a long time, even with this quick multiplying bulb, to build up a decent potful once again.
For me it has just started flowering. These bulbs originally were a mixture of cream, like these, and yellow flowering plants. I think the yellow may have gone with the wet. They are from a collection made by Jim Archibald in the 1960's.
1. Narcissus romiuexii JCA 805
The first two flowers. One is very flat and the other has nicely reflexed petals
2. Narcissus romiuexii JCA 805 FLAT FLOWER
3. Narcissus romiuexii JCA 805 REFLEXED FLOWER
4. Narcissus romieuxii mesatlanticus [at least that is what the label says]
Can anyone confirm or correct the names for me? |
SandyLeven (Sleven)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, January 03, 2003 - 8:37 pm: | |
Ornithogalum schmalhauzenii
3rd January
DUNBLANE
This bulb came from Janis Rucksans in Latvia. It is from stock collected on Mt Hustup in the Zangezur mountain range in Armenia. Does anyone know where that is exactly. Janis says it is very dwarf with a sessile umbel.
The first year it had the decency to rise above the gravel before flowering. That was in a winter when it was very cold in December and a mild spell followed.
Last year was mild in December at first and schmalhouzenii peeked out and then it flowered at gravel level. You don't get much more sessile than that! This year again it is flowering at gravel level but maybe it will rise up a bit after the cold spell this weekend.
It is white and it is an Ornithogalum. I like the tiny Ornithogalums.
The gravel is from Homebase and is concrete gravel called Supamix.
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J.I. Young (Iyoung)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, January 05, 2003 - 11:33 am: | |
Hi Sandy yes your identification of your Narcissus romieuxii JCA805 is consistent with forms that we grow under that collection number. You will see some on my 'Bulb Log' on this site.
It is difficult to tell if your Narcissus romieuxii mesatlanticus is correct from the picture, the flower looks small to me, it may be that it has not yet fully expanded, I have a picture of this in the Bulb Log as well.
I thought that I would add another Daffy picture not very dwarf and not very hardy but what a show at this time of year and the scent is wonderful.
The paper white narcissus flowering in our sitting room. |
SandyLeven (Sleven)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, January 05, 2003 - 6:50 pm: | |
Well Ian, spring certainly has come in the middle of winter to your bulb house. I am bowled over by the number you have in flower at present and you do not restrict them to the bulb house but allow them into the house. Beautiful paperwhite narcissus.
My JCAs look like your picture, just not as prolific. The 'mesatlanticus' does look a lot smaller and according to the pictures yours look whiter, mine is more the colour of the bulbs in the bottom left hand corner.
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SandyLeven (Sleven)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, January 05, 2003 - 6:58 pm: | |
Primula vulgaris x veris?
5th January 2003
Flower picture for today. Very difficult but here is a polyanthus, again originally from B&Q. It is outside in a big pot along with polyanthus of other colours. They flower intermitently most of the time but I appreciate them most when they are brave enough to stand up to the hard frost and still smile at the sun in the morning. The pot is frozen to the ground.
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SandyLeven (Sleven)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, January 06, 2003 - 7:49 pm: | |
Flowers today. None outside.
How about a pretty
Celmisia spectabilis?
January 6th 2003
Dunblane
These confuse me in naming them. Perhaps somebody will do a photo study on Celmisia. This one has white daisy like flowers, as the books say. I propagate it by breaking rosettes off and then pushing them into the ground. They root in a few weeks.
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SandyLeven (Sleven)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, January 09, 2003 - 8:37 pm: | |
Primula allionii 'Fanfare'
9th January 2003
Dunblane
Well named, because this is the first flower to open on any of my my P. allionii plants. Only one flower but it is a start. I have not even finished taking off all of the old brown leaves yet! I think it came out during the very cold spell becaue I cheated in the alpine house for the last few days and put in an electric heater which prevented the temperature falling below zero celsius.
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SandyLeven (Sleven)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, January 10, 2003 - 7:36 pm: | |
Cushion saxifrage
10th January
Dunblane
Here is a brave wee chap. He just seems to love the snow. As soon as it recedes from covering him completely the saxifrage decides it is going to flower. I like to see the troughs with some snow cover.
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SandyLeven (Sleven)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, January 12, 2003 - 6:19 pm: | |
Aciphylla simplex
10 January 2003
Dunblane
This is a very neat Aciphylla. Like the others it comes from New Zealand. I have grown it for nearly 20 years, having admired a plant in the RBG Edinburgh. I think I bought my plant from Jack Drake at Inschriach. It flowers every summer, putting out an ugly stem with sharp needles on it.
It is a very architectural plant, looking good all year round. It has along tap root and is i think immovable. I have it planted just back from a path so that I do not impale myself on it as I pass by. Care is needed when weeding round it. The aciphylla has attracted a plant of rack grass that periodically sprouts through it. Since it is growing in very gritty soil, it is quite easy to pull out the grass.
I wish it would impale a few browsing bunnies or roe deer but so far the 4 legged garden predators have kept away from it. The rosette is about 750mm across.
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SandyLeven (Sleven)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, January 16, 2003 - 7:37 pm: | |
Corydalis popovii
16th January 2003
Dunblane
This corydalis is always very early in flower but this is the first year in which it has been first in my garden. Again I think it was because, during the very cold spell, I kept the alpine house frost free and the corydalis thought a few weeks had passed. It is interesting that the flowers are there as soon as it comes through the ground. During the next few weeks the stems will increase in lenght. It should be in flower for many weeks.
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SandyLeven (Sleven)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, January 21, 2003 - 8:03 pm: | |
Galanthus plicatus Augustus
21st January 2003
DUNBLANE
Named for E.A.Bowles PC
This is one of the best forms of G. plicatus. [Matt Bishop in his splendid tome on Snowdrops says that we should note the folding in the leaves causing the central part of the leaf to appear more gray.]
The leaves are widest in the middle third. Several other snowdrops, mainly clones of G. nivalis are erupting through their gravel, getting ready for the Dunblane early bulb show. This is going to be the first snowdrop to flower this year, although I always expect G. atkinsii to be first.
It is intriguing at this 'drop' stage. Part of me just wants to peel back the leaves and look inside. Note that the out of focus flower in the background still has the flower pointing upwards at the apex of the emerging flower stem and that it is only when the flower is about 70mm out of the ground that it turns over to become a drop of snow.
Spring may be a long way away for some folks but seeing snowdrops now conjures up images of them in spring woods in few weeks time.
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SandyLeven (Sleven)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, January 21, 2003 - 8:13 pm: | |
Hamamelis x intermedia [Copper Beauty?]
21 January 2003
DUNBLANE
This is in no way a rock plant unless you have huge rock garden but it is super shrub at this time of year.
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SandyLeven (Sleven)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, January 24, 2003 - 8:04 pm: | |
Helleborus thibetanus
24 January 2003
DUNBLANE
This is a clever plant. It has put up one very early flower, while the others are just emerging from the soil. Presumably it does this to catch early pollen - on the wind from Bridge of Allan?, from a bumble bee which decided to wake up in January? or maybe a moth flying down from Perth?. These are the sites near me where I know a sister plant lives.
The flower is a beautiful shell pink. I bought the plant a few years ago from John Amand, at the SRGC Dunblane Bulb Display [15th February this year]. I also bought a 'red' form but I think redness must be in the eye of the seller. Red eye is another name for bourbon is it not?
Helleborus thibetanus is an exotic herbaceous perrenial which was awarded a PC a couple of years ago when shown by Susan Band. I believe some have white flowers but the pink is marvellous, especially on a cold January morning.
 
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SandyLeven (Sleven)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, January 28, 2003 - 7:52 pm: | |
Mahonia x media [japonica x lomariifolia]'CHARITY'
28th January 2003
DUNBLANE
At over 6 feet high [quite a lot of millimeters!] this is big plant with as you can see a big name!!!
It forms a backdrop to the North side of the garden. It protects many smaller and precious plants and reminds me that small is not always best.
The Mahonia puts up with all weathers. It is a splendid winter flowering shrub and its spiky leaves look good all year round.
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SandyLeven (Sleven)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, January 28, 2003 - 7:55 pm: | |
Corydalis popovii
28th January
DUNBLANE
This corydalis is taller and now has more flower spikes. A companion which has bigger but paler flowers has started to flower as well. A third popovii is just thinking about putting up its flowers.
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SandyLeven (Sleven)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, January 30, 2003 - 7:25 pm: | |
Galanthus cabardensis
30 January 2003
DUNBLANE
The name is apparently invalid and it should be called G. lagodochianus. For my convenience I still keep the name which I got it under. Stubborn or what? I like the bright shiny green leaves and the fact that the orange pollen shines through the slightly transparent inner segments. Books say it flowers in late February and it is supposed to flowers later than most snowdrops. Maybe mine is neither cabardensis or lagodochianus, does anyone know?
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SandyLeven (Sleven)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, January 30, 2003 - 7:31 pm: | |
Galanthus fosteri
30 January 2003
DUNBLANE
This is a newer aquisition than cabardensis above. It too has shiny leaves but it has a bigger ovary and two inner segment marks which are much darker green. No pollen shines through the inner petals.
Here is picture of Galanthus fosteri [right] and Galanthus cabardensis [left]
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SandyLeven (Sleven)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, February 02, 2003 - 8:10 pm: | |
I have read what I have written and have got left and right mudled up in the above picture
Galanthus fosteri is on the left and G.cabardensis is on the right.
I now think after studying them further that the G.cabardensis is really g. woronowii |
Lesley Cox
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, February 14, 2003 - 1:45 am: | |
This is an excellent idea; it's great, in the hot, dry summer "down under." to see some early spring plants.
When I learn how to scan pictures into this darned thing, I'll post some too. You might like to see some of our lot, which will be out-of-season for you northerners. It's good, Sandy, to see Aciphylla simplex. Last year when the Christies and Wyllies were here, we had the best flowering season for Aciphylla on record! I have a great photo of Ian and Anne "hugging" A. aurea. True heroism. This year, there's hardly a flower stem to be seen anywhere! |
Steve Newall
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, June 24, 2003 - 10:57 am: | |
NZ Nomenclature Police (Dunedin branch}
Dear sir/madam'
It has come to our attention that the plant labelled in your forum as 'Aciphylla simplex'is in fact Aciphylla subflabellata.According to our records,A.simplex is only 5-10 cm tall and a cushion plant with many rosettes.
We therefore,regret to inform Mr.Leven that he is in breach of rule 14,paragraph 3,clause 7 of the NZ Nomenclature Act(1987)that states '...Aciphylla simplex and Aciphylla subflabellata are separate entities and easily and readily identified by the fact that they are spelt differently.Any misnaming of either of these species is considered an offence of the above act.'
The fine for such an offence is compulsory acquisition of a bottle of your finest single malt.A representative of our organisation will travel to Dunblane to oversee this payment.He will be wearing our standard uniform;jandals,shorts and t-shirt and will answer to the name of Steve.
Yours sincerely
Steve Newall
Chief Reprobate |
J.I. Young (Iyoung)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, June 24, 2003 - 6:28 pm: | |
Hi Chief Officer Steve, I am glad to see that your NZ Nomenclature Police (Dunedin branch) responds as quickly as other forces to this offence committed on 12th January 2003 at 6.19pm.
As the defence agent for said Sandy Leven I plead ignorence on his part and he will hand over the fine (one bottle of the best malt) to you in or out of sandals (but we do insist the shorts are on) in Dunblane on the following condition.
You must provide detailed and illustrated evidence to your claim lasting about one hour.
Defence Agent Ian
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Mark Smyth (Mark__n_ireland)
Senior Member ( posting super hero)
Username: Mark__n_ireland
Post Number: 2128
Registered: 10-2003
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, July 16, 2006 - 8:31 pm: | |
how the forums have progressed from January 2003! Six months on one page!!
Mark. Antrim (town), Northern Ireland. z8+
www.marksgardenplants.com or snowdropinfo.com
all photos taken with a Fuji Finepix 5000 |
Flowers and Foliage Now