February, March, April/Autumn in the southern hemisphere

[Lesley Cox]

Golly, February already, the year seems half gone!

Starting the month with a couple of berries, the fruit of Sorbus reducta which is beginning to run about in a rather unrestrained manner but the thicket is very attractive, I'll just have to move some other things out of its way. The fruit aren't fully ripe yet but the birds usually have had them by now. So far, a great crop is hanging on well.



The second is Sorbus koehniana, a smallish tree and has pretty, dark foliage as well as a fine crop of fruit. They are usually listed as white but in the three fruiting years I've had so far, they haven't come closer than a pale jade green and often fall before whitening any further. They're lovely all the same, transluscent like pearls.

[Maggi Young]

there is a form of Sorbus reducta that does not sucker, Lesley. Is it in NZ? No seed at present, obviously, but would you be allowed to receive it, if you wanted to try it?

[Lesley Cox]

Actually Maggi, that's the one I thought I had but obviously not. Yes, I could get some seed as it's on our "permitted" list for seed. It would be great to have some seed from a known non-suckering form.

[John Forrest]

Lesley, I think your Sorbus koehniana is rather fetching. I looked at all the images for it on Google (all seemed to be spelled Sorbus koehneana) and indeed all are white, which makes one wonder if yours was raised from seed and is a colour break. now is the time for a bit of marketing strategy. Give it a varietal name like 'Limelight' or some such and propagate vegetatively to earn a yourself a small fortune.

[t00lie]

Part one

A couple flowering in the conservatory --

Littonia modesta raised from seed a long time ago finally in bloom.

I've just started 'getting into' tender orchids.Cattleya loddigesii  is a recent purchase and it's a beauty.Flowers open white and fade to purple.Stated to tolerate cooler conditions than most of the Cattleyas .

In the garden proper --

Despite total neglect Disa uniflora has a couple of flowers.

Lillium sps. Seed label says L.taliense which it's obviously not.Any ideas please?.

Viola pedata showing another flush .

The red Clintonia sps,(andrewsiana?),i showed on the old forum has this nicely coloured fruit.

[t00lie]

Part two

Dianthus jack scott.
Jack was a long standing member of the Otago Alpine Garden Group and built a wonderful garden on a hilled section in Dunedin.I remember seeing a large flowering specimen of Celmisia philocremna, healthy looking Physoplexis comosa and many many other gems.Unfortunately it was just at the very early stages of my alpine obsession so i ready didn't get to appreciate all before Jacks passing and the demolition of the garden.

Raised as Codonopsis grey wilsonii himal snow. ???Any ideas please?.

A couple of Allium sps.

Finally --I've not been all that great in achieving, good detailed ,really close up pics ,so after reading Marks comments i had a bit of a play around and set my camera to near enough his settings.The result-- an improvement at last.

Cheers Dave.   

[Lesley Cox]

You're right John, they do have very white berries don't they? Some nice pics in there. I'll ask my supplier about how he propagated his trees. He has the best tree nursery in the country (Blue Mountain Nursery at Tapanui, west Otago). But somehow, I'm not sure about a fortune in it for me. Tell you what, how about we share it?

As an aside, your Silene hookeri (Imgramii Group) is flowering superbly right now.The flowers are enormous, almost 5 cms across. Just a single seedling but there are about 30 of the white ssp. bolanderi and they too are in flower and are setting some new seed I think. So many thanks again.

[Maggi Young]

So many pretty things, Dave. The yellow of the Littonia modesta is superb. The Cattleya looks ready for a passing hollywood star. My Disa finished flowering a few weeks ago ( on my kitchen windowsill). hard to tell about the lily, not seeing scale of it, looks like L. longiflorum or a regale.
On to your next batch:
Lovely Dianthus does it smell good?

Codonopsis grey-wilsonii, formerly C. forrestii, is that nice blue. 'Himal Snow' as the name suggests, is white!
Thanks for the pix!

[John Forrest]

Lesley, Glad your seeds have produced something good. Glad to take half of the fortune for Sorbus koehniana 'Limelight' 

Dave, some delightful plants and nice to hear of a hardier Cattleya. I reckon your lily may well be L. formosanum pricei if it is on a short stem of about 30cm.

[fermi de Sousa]

Hi Dave,
I think your Lilium is L. formosanum, a frequent imposter on seedexes but usually flowers quickly from seed (within 9 months so successive sowings could give you flowers 12 months of the year!).
The dianthus is an absolute darling! Quite distinct and I hope someone here will get around to importing it! Who is distributing it over there?
Your Littonia looks like a good form, the one I grow looks a bit smaller, but that may just be neglect on my part.
Lesley,
slip a few sorbus seed in your handbag for your trip over here!
cheers
fermi

[Lesley Cox]

I no longer carry a handbag Fermi, I leave that to certain rugby players! Still a few in an envelope?

Not that we're talking rugby here any more than on the snowdrop pages. (What a fabulous place Colesbourne looks to be. Leaves Elderberry Bob's lot for dead. However Maggi, I have a nice word for you. There's a column in our weekly "Listener" in which people send words, made up or corrupted, to describe certain things. At present, the city fathers and mothers in Auckland, along with rugby's top dogs, and our Govt, are trying unsuccessfully to make up their minds about which of several stadiums should be the venue for the big games and the final, for the 2011 world cup. They refuse to agree with each other on the subject. A man in Wellington describes the pleasurable feelings Wellingtonians have in watching this process as "Stadenfreude."

[Lesley Cox]

The little dianthus is a seedling from Dianthus pavonius and no, it's not scented. No-one is really distributing it comercially, perhaps Hokonui now and then, but it seems to get around with a plant or two at a show or salestable. It is very small overall and not the easiest to propagate so we need to be quite careful not to lose it altogether. I have a seedling from it which appeared nearby and it is very distinctly of the same parentage on that side at least. But it is larger and more vigorous and has white flowers on reddish stems. I think it is worth naming and may call it "Iceberg" after our recent visitors.

[Maggi Young]

Lesley, "Stadenfruede" --- I love it!!

Re Dave's lily, although the photo does not show exactly what sthe scale is, I "read" it as being a tall one!  Thought that if it were short, Dave would have shown us all of it! If it is only 10inches or 25cms tall, then I'll go with L. formosanum, there's also L. formosanum pricei.

[Lesley Cox]

I have what I'm pretty sure is the same lily (grew it from seed as mackliniae!!!) and I think it could be longiflorum or syn (I think) philipinense. Mine is about a metre high, in flower now and has a glorious perfume. The throat is yellow. I also have the shorty, which is formosanum var. pricei. But mine takes about 3 years from seed, not 9 months, though I just sow and grow like everything else, not under any kind of forced conditions.

[Lesley Cox]

I zipped out and took a piccie of my L. philipinense and L. form. pricei. Here they are