Flowers and Foliage now - December 07

[ian mcenery]

Diane I wish we had the hummingbirds - sigh !!!!!

[Lvandelft]

Today at the weekly flowershow in Lisse I saw some very early flowers.
Shown by Sjaak de Groot there were:
Scilla rosenii and Fritillaria karelinii, both flowering outside!
Luit van Delft

[Diane Whitehead]

It is very helpful to have a flower where the decoration is on the outside.
So many flowers never open for me because they need sunshine, and
usually our winters are cloudy.

Does Fritillaria karelinii require sunshine to open?

[Lvandelft]

Diane, I think the sun is not so important, because I
cannot say we are living in the most sunny country this
time of year.
But as this frit is a desert plant I presume the temperature
will be very important after flowering time.
This year we had a very warm April and a cold autumn,
so the bulbs know that after a cold period they normally
start to flower. The average temps in November and December
were relatively high until now, so we see many things come
into flower already.
Luit

[Joakim B]

The closest we have to Christmas flowers here in Portugal is the Cymbidiums that are able to be outside all Year  
Here they are at night 
Here in Portugal they do not have the tradition to get bulbus plants for Christmas and it is too late to order it from Dutch suppliers?

Kind regards
Joakim

[Paddy Tobin]

An early arrival home this afternoon meant light enough for a few photographs, so here is a selection of what is in flower at the moment in the south of Ireland.

Cyclamen persicum - a white cultivar. I think it was Mark who posted some photographs of C. persicum a few weeks ago and wondered if members thought they were considered beneath their dignity. This has been outdoors since November 2006 and has proven a reliable performer in this pot - an old cooking pot.


Erodium pelargonifolium - still a few flowers holding on.
Helleborus - not sure what this is, from seed.
Helleborus - ditto, showing the flowers.
Ipheoin 'Froyle Mill'
Ranunculus creticus - just for Mr. Ranunculus himself.
What is this fruit, a bowlful picked from the ground this afternoon - hint, the flower of this shrub was posted in search of an identity earlier in the year.
The same fruit on the bush.


Paddy

[zephirine]

This has been outdoors since November 2006 and has proven a reliable performer in this pot - an old cooking pot.
Paddy

Lovely to see such flowers and greenery on my screen while it is -4°C outdoors! Thanks Paddy!
I'm just a little surprised : I thought all pots in your garden, and all your cooking pots, would be made of crystal, lol!
Could your hellebore be a nigercors, maybe?
Zephirine

[Mick McLoughlin]

Paddy
 Could the unusual fruit be from my enquiry earlier in the year, as the 'fruit salad' bush or Feioja
(Acca sellowiana).
http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=543.msg13250#msg13250

Cheers
Mick

[ranunculus]

Thankyou kind sir!!!

Have you booked for Switzerland yet?

[ashley]

Lovely pictures Paddy. 

I'd agree with Mick on the Feijoa; are they ripe enough to be edible?   Despite the usual explanation of 'unedo' I find our Arbutus fruits excellent to eat.  Unfortunately so do the local blackbirds!

That R. creticus is beautiful; what conditions do you give it?

[Paddy Tobin]

Oh Zepherine,

Crystal is so passé, so common here !!! The days of plentiful crystal here in Waterford have passed. Much of the work is now done abroad and 'blanks' returned to Waterford for cutting, perhaps. At one time Waterford Crystal employed in  or abouts 3,000 people but that heyday has passed and it is now a far smaller operation than previously. We have a nice set of glasses but now no longer use them as regularly as previously as replacement has become so expensive. The hellebore is certainly not H. nigercors but I cannot name it myself. It's an odd old thing but great as a filler-in between large shrubs, something I have used it for in another part of the garden.

Mick,

Well spotted! You have hit the nail on the head. Feijoa sellowiana is exactly what it is. I hadn't taken note of the fruits until I was looking about for signs of snowdrops under the shrub and spotted them all over the grouns. Lesley, they are well ripened and ready for eating. I find them neither unpleasant not particularly spectacularly flavoured but find the smell quite unusual, almost an artificial chewing gum smell.

Glad you liked the ranunculus, Mr. Ranunculus. It is growing on a raised bed, plenty of grit added to the planting medium and seems a very hardy and tough plant, certainly gets no other attention here and performs yearly without fail. Re Switzerland: the only company which offer Wengen is Inghams and their brochure is not available here in the travel agents yet. We have been considering staying at Interlaken where the Hotel Grand Beau Rivage took Mary's fancy and then use this as a base to move around. I know it would be a bit away from Wengen, not that terribly far though, but it would allow for other interests (Mary's in other words) to be catered for.

Well spotted, Mick. Go out, pick some fruit and enjoy!

Paddy

[Mick McLoughlin]

Unfortunately no fruits on mine Paddy, only had a couple of flowers.
It was the light underside of the leaf that gave it away.

[Rob]

Paddy your hellebore is probably some type of H. foetidus unless an expert contradicts me!

[Tim Murphy]

Paddy, your hellebore is definitely straight H. argutifolius. It's too big to be x nigercors (sorry Zepherine) and whilst it is a caulescent hellebore like foetidus, there are many differences that make the two species easy to tell apart (sorry Rob).

[Joakim B]

Tim just out of interest how do one tell the two apart?
It is good to know 
Kind regards
Joakim