August 2020 in the Southern Hemisphere

[Lesley Cox]

You're right Fermi. Not your usual gladiolus. I love the species with speckling and spotting and odd colours too, and usually deliciously perfumed.

My July SRGC Journal arrived yesterday, excellent as always but the note about seeds will have some repercussions I imagine. I need to read it again to get the full impact. We can send seed to the exchange but it will be expensive with a phyto cert, but so far at least, our Min of Primary Industries hasn't asked to have a phyto for seeds sent to us. I don't want to put the idea into their heads.

[fermi de Sousa]

Here are a few "spring" flowering bulbs from South Africa:
Oxalis obtusa 'Peaches & Cream'
Hesperantha pauciflora pale pink
Hesperantha latifolia
Bulbinella latifolia var doleritica
Babiana pygmaea
cheers
fermi

[fermi de Sousa]

You're right Fermi. Not your usual gladiolus. I love the species with speckling and spotting and odd colours too, and usually deliciously perfumed.

Lesley, this one is scented and has unusual flowers also:
Gladiolus watermeyeri
cheers
fermi

[Hoy]

You really have some nice bulbs, Fermi!

G. watermeyeri is extraordinary!

[fermi de Sousa]

Thanks, Trond,
Bulbs have been a favourite since childhood though I only really became interested in the "small stuff" in my twenties (a looong time ago!)
Here are a few more:
Bulbinella eburniflora
Asarum magnificum - grown in the shade-house as it wouldn't survive the heat outdoors!
Asarum splendens - a recent "iso-purchase"
Gladiolus gracilis
Bulbinella robusta
cheers
fermi

[fermi de Sousa]

Anemone heldreichii
Narcissus x intermedius
A better pic of Bulbinella latifolia var doleritica - I cover it at night in case of frosts
The cockatoos have been demolishing some of the daffs
cheers
fermi

[Leucogenes]

Fermi... your collection of extraordinary plants seems to be boundless... fantastic.

I am especially happy to see Anemone heldreichii...an absolute dream. I have lost all my young plants, but I remain persistent...

Thanks for showing me...

Cheers
Thomas

[fermi de Sousa]

Thomas,
I find that the things that do best are the ones that are from similar climates - in Central Victoria, we have what is considered to be a "Mediterranean climate".
Isopogon - not a beard grown during lockdown, but a genus of Proteaceae, mostly from Western Australia. This one is possibly a hybrid - another lost label
It's growing in a sand bed - about 30cm of coarse sand on top of the "native" soil with rock borders
cheers
fermi

[fermi de Sousa]

1) Moraea polystachya - possibly the last flower - as I've been harvesting the seeds from the earlier flowers
2) Romulea flava
3) Hesperantha vaginata
4) Iris 'Blue Note'
5) Trillium species - has survived to flower again!
cheers
fermi

[cohan]

Wonderful bunch of plants, Fermi-- very colourful and varied spring