December 2014 in the Southern Hemisphere

[fermi de Sousa]

Is it that late already?!
The official start of summer here and we're having a summer storm to celebrate
Here's the first flowering on a lovely "new" lilium, 'Lankon' which we got from Adrian at Club Creek Bulb Farm
cheers
fermi

[Anthony Darby]

First day of summer, but where is it?

[Jupiter]

Oh Fermi that is beautiful. I love Liliums and that's a beauty. I'm working towards building a collection in the future... by the time I retire I might have flowers like yours.

[Lesley Cox]

Much excitement on Monday (and a very hurried clean-up of the "public" parts of the house) before a 3 hour-notice visit from Ann and Ian (of the Christie kind). Steve N is a honey but is so casual about some things he forgets one needs to know in advance of certain things!

Anyway, it was great to see the Christies and have a decent chat, then I was able to go south to one of Ian's talks and will hear another tomorrow in Dunedin, hosted by my own group, Otago Alpine Garden Group. I think they have had an enjoyable time in NZ and have certainly seen some good gardens (this one definitely a work in progress) and will see something of our native flora too before they go home to Scotland. They have been very welcome and I'm sure we are all saying to them, "Haste Ye Back."

[Lesley Cox]

I was more than a little disparaging about Galanthophilia, while we were having a cuppa, but Ian showed some of his own plants at Monday evening's talk in Balclutha and for the first time ever, I could see how the obsession could take hold. He showed many I'd never seen even on the Forum, some of them so very differently marked and so very attractive, that I'll never again make pejorative comments about the lack of variation among these little green and white jobs. So sorry Ian. Given the opportunity, would I travel many miles to a Galanthus Gala or other event such as we hear about in the UK and elsewhere? By golly, I think I actually would!

[Maggi Young]

Ian the Christie Kind is a silver-tongued devil, Lesley - you have clearly fallen for his charm - I expect in a few days you will regain your senses! 

[Anthony Darby]

I'll have my first trip south next week. A friend visiting, so I'm giving him "the trip of a lifetime". Alas, no botanising, but plenty of photo opportunities.

[Tim Ingram]

Lesley - one can be quite ambivalent about snowdrops and Galanthophilia until you actually start seeing them established in gardens and naturalised in woodland, and then that discriminating eye takes hold. If you are a nurseryman then more mercenary motives begin to come into play . I have a friend who views(ed) them in the same way as you until he discovered that he grew 10 or 20 different snowdrops that various friends had given him over the years, and his attitude softened. I suspect a lot of people view our obsession with alpines (and maybe plants in general) with similar puzzlement. Perhaps finding plants so interesting is difficult to understand, and we can be a bit snobbish when we succeed in growing Galanthus platyphyllus or krasnovii (neither of which by the way I grow . It's good to be in at the start of a growing interest in them - in the UK you need to have a collection of several hundred before you really become a member of the Galanthophile intelligentsia!

[David Nicholson]

.......................... or Galanthophile Glitterati maybe

[Tim Ingram]

Ha ha David - that may be too much of an 'in' joke. There is though a difference between the terms 'Glitterati' and 'Intelligentsia' - I prefer the latter.

[Jupiter]

Not much danger of us South Australian's reaching the levels required to join your prestigious intelligentsia! Galanthus are as rare as hens teeth here, if I meet a gardener who even knows what a snowdrop is I'm suitably impressed! I hope mine survive this coming summer which is shaping up to be a doozy. This is really not the climate for them.

Sprekelia formosissima never fails and always surprises.

[Maggi Young]

in the UK you need to have a collection of several hundred before you really become a member of the Galanthophile intelligentsia!

Hmmm,  I am reminded of that quote " never mind the quality, feel the width"  from an old TV show featuring a couple of old tailors.   I'm more of a believer in the former  - collections of several hundred cultivars of anything - often acquired very quickly- smack more to me of train-spotting than plantsmanship!

Cynical ? Me? Yes!

[Maggi Young]

Sprekelia formosissima never fails and always surprises.

Combination of colour and shape that speaks volumes about richness and elegance.

[Tim Ingram]

Jamus - from seeing the contributions from down under I think you already have a gardening intelligentsia which we benefit from all the time I would love to grow that Sprekelia in the garden. (The real thing about snowdrops is how they bring gardeners together and it's always nice to have something special of your own to exchange with another gardener).

[Otto Fauser]

Jamus , don't despair .You too will have drifts of Galanthus in yourgarden in years to come . I started with just one or two bulbs each of a handful of species and cultivars over 50 years ago - that was all that was available then in Australia and only grown by very few enthusiasts . My garden here in the Dandenong Ranges just outside of Melbourne ( altitude circa 500m ) seems ideal for snowdrops .They grow like weeds and have multiplied , in their thousands of circa 80 species and cultivars . What altitude are the Adelaide Hills ? you should have success too , as here we get the odd day in summer when the temperature climbs to 40 C.

                Good luck ,    Otto.