December 2007 in the Southern Hemisphere

[fermi de Sousa]

Time to start a new thread!
Where is everyone? Still hiking in the NZ mountains?
cheers
fermi

[fermi de Sousa]

I'm sure we're about to be inundated with pics from NZ, so I'd better get in early and post a few "domestic" pics.
Brodiea californica in the dry rock garden!




And flowering for the first time from seed sown in 2005, B. stellaris.




cheers
fermi

[Lesley Cox]

I had to call off my trip to the Blue Mountains as one of my staff was sick and I had to fill in. I have a couple of pics for soon. Potting up irises (DBs) madly in the meantime.

[t00lie]

Quote "Where is everyone? Still hiking in the NZ mountains?"

We're all home Fermi --however as the hike was organised by the Otago group and i was a guest i'm waiting for David Lyttle to post before' following up behind' so to speak.However i'll leave you with just a little teaser ---What the weather had in store for us upon our arrival on the tops.

Nice Brodiaea stellaris by the way,

We missed you Lesley--

In the meantime i'd like an idea of the name of this Iris flowering here at the moment.Grown from seed but label lost.
Unsure if it's similar to the Iris 'chrysofor' Lesley showed last month so i've reposted her earlier pic for comparison.
Thanks.

Cheers Dave.

[Lesley Cox]

More of those gorillas in the mist.

The iris seems to be of the general conformation of x Chrysofor so that won't be far out. You can usually tell as much from the foliage as from the flower. The colouring is different from the norm though.

I missed me too. Anyone fall into the bog this time? You weren't a guest, as you belong to the Group too.

[Gerdk]

More of those gorillas in the mist.

Oh, I see - these strange monuments are gorillas in search for food plants.
I thought first guerillas already arrived in NZ.
Gerd

[Lesley Cox]

Here are a few things from recent days. We are in the middle of a heat wave, high 20's since Saturday week ago and getting desperate for good rain. It's more like February weather right now. I hope it's not the start of a very long, very hot summer. No rain is forecast in the near future. I'm doing some essential watering, especially of seedlings and things newly planted so I can see I'll be buying water very soon.

First, Lathyrus splendens, a superb climbing pea and it at least, is enjoying the heat. The only reference I could find says never to water it once established. It comes from the hot, dry south western USA. As usual with reds, it's underdone by my camera. Seed pods develop then fall off but it roots quite well from semi-hard cuttings.


Saponarias again, `Bressingham Hybrid,' same plant as a week or so ago but further out now.


Then S. `Olivana' on the edge of a wooden rqaised bed.


and S. pumilio, same raised bed and I'm pleased to note, seeding about a little bit.


I had a batch of Sedum pilosum in the nursery but they've all gone to flower then will seed, so they'll be chucked out and I'll start over as they're monocarpic. Nice though, en masse.


Hardly flowering now, this young thrush must have fallen from his nest in a recent wind. He followed me about for an hour, quite mobile on his pins (and very vociferous) but not able to fly. Then he vanished into the undergrowth. I don't know whether he made it or not.

[Lesley Cox]

Dave Toole gave me Watsonia coccinea a while back. These are the first flowers. I expected it to be a bit redder and less orange but it's gorgeous all the same, about 25cms in full bloom.




This tall ixia hybrid is a really pure blue, a stunning colour, and given to me by a Northland friend a year ago.


I was a bit disparaging in another topic, about Talinum okanaganense. Here's mine, pressed flat onto the edge of a limestone trough. I guess it has a certain charm and is certainly happier out of its small pot. It is surprisingly permanent, given its relationship to Lewisias. Seems to be some seed forming too.


Forgive me for yet more pics of Weldenia candida, but this small plant is good today, once I'd picked off all the dead ones.


And the last, I promise, and only because it is aberrant, with 5 petals and 10 stamens, on the above plant this morning. It will be dying by tomorrow, especially on this hot day.

[John Forrest]

YOU DON'T HAVE TO APOLOGISE FOR SHOWING LOVELY PICS LESLEY. HOPE MUM FOUND THE WEE NESTLING. 

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Great series Lesley !
You can never post to many pix of that Weldenia - it's a real stunner !!!

[Paddy Tobin]

Great set of photographs, Lesley.

I won't fall into the same mistake as last time re the weldenia and certainly this plant deserves to be photographed and shown many times. It is well grown, great condition and looking just at its best. Great plant!

The orange hue on the Watsonia coccinea does not surprise me. It is difficult to get a good strong clear red. It is nonetheless a good plant.

Many thanks for a lovely posting.

Paddy

[Lesley Cox]

I haven't seen the little bird since so I hope a local cat didn't get him. He may have been too young to survive on his own.

Yesterday afternoon I went into the bathroom to wash my hands and almost was turning on the tap when I saw some movement. It was the tail end of a small lizard, disappearing down the plug hole. I washed in the kitchen. Later, hoping the lizard might have emerged and be catchable, I found it with just a nose sticking up from the hole. Tried a couple of times during the evening to catch him by the tail but he was too quick and went down each time. Roger put a wooden spoon from the hole to the edge of the basin and this morning he was on the spoon so I was able to take him, spoon and all, outside for release. He must have come in the window which is 6 feet above ground level, otherwise, somehow come up through the drain pipe, u-bend and all. Do lizards swim?

[fermi de Sousa]

Lesley,
some great pics, especially the Weldenia. I also like the saponarias and that sedum.
I wonder if that blue ixia is the same as the one we grow here as "Teal Blue" or "Amethystina".
Ours finished ages ago and are in fact ready for digging!
here's a pic of some taken in October


cheers
fermi

[fermi de Sousa]

One of the bright spots in the Rock Garden (as well as the edge of a perennial bed) is the sprawling, yellow Evening Primrose, Oenothera missouriensis.


And here's a close-up of that Brodiea californica which I forgot to include with the original pics.


cheers
fermi

[David Nicholson]

Lovely pictures folks keep 'em coming and try to help me out of my deep Devon 'Autumn Gloom'