Summer in the Southern Hemisphere

[Lesley Cox]

January 2nd already and no-one has started something here?

I visited the Clive Lister Garden at Dunedin Botanic Gardens yesterday. This is my favourite part of the gardens and I try to get there several times through the year. But things were mostly past their best with a slightly tatty look, especially the hostas, usually magnificent. I had hoped to see irises and arisaemas in flower but there was hardly a single iris and only a solitary A. tortuosum. The irises were showing no sign of having flowered at all and nor was the usually very good Ligularia. The arisaemas had all flowered well and there were many dozens of seed heads maturing slowly. I took fewer pictures than usual as a result. Here are a few. For reasons I don't know, my computer will only let me upload one at a time or else I get a screen saying Data Base error, server has gone away and some other stuff. So it will be a slow upload, with modifications for each pic.

Arisaema tortuosum

White Rogersia

Chalet and pond

Our native Cape Reinga lily, Arthropodium cirrhatum

Ligularia 'Britt-Marie Crawford,' silver-grey in the sun rather than its usual deep brown

Seed head on Arisaema nepenthoides which for some reason they have labelled as A. exappendiculatum. Must tell someone about this. Must also see if I can nabble some seed a bit later.

And to finish, 3 pictures of the stunning Podophyllum 'Spotty Dotty.' Three because I just can't help myself.

[Lesley Cox]

The Podophyllum was in flower with dozens of stems of its gorgeous red blooms hanging under the leaves and I tried to phoptograph them but needed an extra hand to hold the camera, the leaves out of the way and the flowers in a position for photographing so it didn't happen but when I got back into my car I carried with me, a rich and horrible scent which had been around the garden and I hadn't realized was the flowers of the Podophyllum, through having handled the flowered quite a bit. I checked my own small plant when I got home and there it was. Revolting - sweet and heavily cloying. Because the plant is sterile and no seed is set, the flowers last a very long time.

[Peppa]

These are great pictures! It's wonderful to see such beautiful foliage when the days are dark here right now.

The Ligularia 'Britt-Marie Crawford' makes me smile. I have this one in my garden and if I don't deadhead it, it self-sows seeds all over... It's nice when your backyard is as big as a park, but I have limited space... 

Podophyllum 'Spotty Dotty' is gorgeous! I was thinking about getting this one for a while but I have been debating between it and P. kaleidoscope... I saw some hybrid Podophyllums with pretty leaf markings and white flowers for sale on a Japanese site, but their price was a bit dear for me.

[Lesley Cox]

The Ligularia SHOULD be in flower, don't know why not unless it was earlier (but it's only mid summer) and has been dead headed already. I have P. 'Kaleidoscope too but so far, can see no difference between the two.

[fermi de Sousa]

I took these pics before Christmas but hadn't been able to download them till yesterday, so I'll post them now.
The rain-liies loved the downpour we got a few days before.
Habranthus martiniezii


Habranthus robustus

and a double-header!


Zephyranthes primulina


cheers
fermi

[fermi de Sousa]

Some more:
Habranthus robustus x H. martinezii, a commercial form bought many years ago and nicely bulked up


My re-creation of the cross using H. robustus "Russell Manning" and H. martinezii


Habranthus tubispathus


Habranthus robustus "Russell Manning"


cheers
fermi

[Ezeiza]

Fermi, the double header H. robustus has been given the invented name "Habranthus biflorus".

[arillady]

Iris illyrica - if it is correct
Calochortus fimbriatus has flowered all through the heatwave last week.

[Lesley Cox]

According to the BIS Alphabetical table, I. illyrica is a synonym of I. pallida. Yours looks nicer than that Pat or at least a better colour. I like pallida but it always looks a bit hang-dog to me. I also grow the argenteo-variegata foliage form and actually cut off the flower stems before they open.

[arillady]

I guess the argenteo-variegata form does not grow from seed Lesley. Haven't seen it here but I am sure Fermi could tell me if it is.
Reading the BIS iris "bible" illyrica can have lots of difference. I personally love the hang dog look and most pallidas seem finer formed in stems than this low flowering one but it may have been an oddbod seeing it flowered now.

[John Kitt]

Thought people might enjoy the colours of the Claremont Lilium Show on the weekend.
The final pic is one in a category "For Men Only"

[John Kitt]

Sorry.
this is the one from "FOR  MEN ONLY" category

[Lesley Cox]

Not sure about the last one, but there are certainly some beautiful lilies there John.

[Lesley Cox]

Doesn't seem to be much happening in the SH this summer, last post 10 days ago. I took this, this morning of the Mt Etna Broom Genista aetnensis which I've had a yen for ever since reading Vita Sackville-West's Observer collections many year ago. I think I grew this from seed and it makes plenty. It's about 3 metres high and 4 wide now and scents the whole place with a sort of fruit salad perfume. Ignore the long grass and blackberry.

I also meant to photograph our native coral broom Chordospartium stevensonii, in flower for the first time, a plant I bought a few years ago at a local OAGG meeting. It's about 1.3 metres high and weeping nicely but the rain of the last two days has wrecked the flowers, bunches of little, pale lilac pea-type flowers. No scent that I can detect. Maybe David L has a picture. He bought one at the same meeting.

[fermi de Sousa]

Things have definitely been a bit quiet here!
Some liliums in the garden:
"Black Beauty"


"Starfighter"


"Sumatra"


A rather faded Zephyranthes flavissima (well it did open 2 days previously!)


Urginea maritima


cheers
fermi