Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
General Subjects => Flowers and Foliage Now => Topic started by: fermi de Sousa on April 02, 2013, 02:03:31 AM
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Definitely autumn now! We've even needed to turn the heaters on at times!
This annual morning glory has been quite delightful in the cooler weather [will it set seeds?] though not very vigorous - may need to grow it with something else so that the support looks a bit more "clothed"!
cheers
fermi
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Some "autumn bulbs" in flower now
Brunsvigia gregaria
Lycoris elsae
Lycoris aurea
Nerine fothergila "Major" [I believe this has been "sunk" into N. sarniensis]
Cyclamen mirabile ex Tilebarn Nicholas
cheers
fermi
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Yes, here too, after the weeks and weeks of stifling days and nights, rain a few days ago - not much, just 13mm here - suddenly it has the autumn feel about it. Still drought in the north though.
I'm getting excited about the Czech conference, just 3 weeks today until I leave home. Roger seems to be excited too and looking forward to it. The devil. He hasn't yet seen the list of "things to do while I'm away" I have for him. ;D
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Great pictures Fermi, we can only dream of growing such beautiful Lycoris here :(
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Great pictures Fermi, we can only dream of growing such beautiful Lycoris here :(
Hi Luit,
like I dream of being able to grow Hepaticas here :-\
Some more Sternbergia sicula in flower now x 2 pics;
a pale pink Cyclamen graecum in the rock garden
A different sort of South African daisy - Hirpicum amerioides - does better in a pot for us;
A nice grouping of Zephyranthes candida,
cheers
fermi
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Looking forward to seeing you again Fermi. Not long now. I leave 2 weeks today. :D I must get back to my Blog which has had a break much longer than I intended. The fact is I've been very busy actually DOING the garden stuff instead of writing about it. As well, I've been finishing market things, as I'm retiring finally on April 20th. So will try a Blog issue tonight. Hopefully.
Crocuses here mostly, and nerines, and cyclamen.
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Lovely photos Fermi - autumn seems to be moving on very well for you.
A few crocus pictures:
goulimyi Mani White
tournefortii - nearly all white ones
niveus - pale bicolours
speciosus - what a star
serotinus ssp clusii - ex Norman Stevens
Not sure about the subspecies tag these days seeing just about everyone has been raised to specific rank.
Cheers, Marcus
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First flowers on my cyclamen seedlings, but then this pot of Cyclamen africanum was only sown in February 2012! My $10 Epidendron ibaguense is flowering again, as is another of my frangipanis. All of these are grown outside, with the orchid in this pot against a west facing wall. The Cyclamen is now in full sun, but only when the flower buds appeared. It is normally in full shade against a south facing wall. The mantis is a male springbok mantis (Miomantis caffra), an immigrant from South Africa. They are quite common in the garden.
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Few more pictures from the Great Southern land .... well the little bit on the end of it.
Crocus salzmanii
Cyclamen hederifolium Stargazer - a strange but beguiling beastie
Cyclamen intaminatum - with patterned leaf but not very
Cyclamen graecum - a very old plant given to me by Otto years ago now the size of a small boulder
Cheers, Marcus
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First flower yesterday on Crocus serotinus ssp salzmannii - from seed from Rafa sown in May 2009.
cheers
fermi
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A colchicum that I purchased over 10 years ago as C. psaridis has been identified by Otto as being C. cupanii. It's a cute little plant. The first flower to open was less than 5cm (2 inches) tall. Some of the later flowers where taller, although I think it's because they were originally growing in a more shady area. I've included a side shot of the flowers (those flowers are under 10cm). After flowering the leaves grow to about 15 - 20cm.
Gentiana scabra "Shri Krishna" is flowering too. I have seen it for sale as "Shrin Krishna" so I don't know which name is correct.
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Hi Jon,
Colchicum cupanii usually has much broader leaves than C. psaridis and the latter is stoloniferous.
I am posting two flower pictures. The first is Crocus cartwrightianus collected by me as seed on the Greek island of Serifos and the second is Crocus oroecreticus again collected by me as seed at the Nidi Plain on Mt Idi, Crete. The latter has much shorter stigmas but from an open flower POV they look pretty close.
Whilst cleaning up the other day I uncovered a slumbering lizard (skink I think) preparing for his winter hibernation. A little while later I actually picked this second, almost identically sized, one up in a clump of leaves and had him in the bin before I even knew it!
Cheers, Marcus
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Nerine rosea is a favourite for me because it survives the frost we have without protection!
I hope to be able to use it to raise some more frost hardy hybrids.
cheers
fermi
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Marcus he must have had a very rude awakening when he landed in the bin. Just when he thought he was all settled in too under a good blanket of leaves. ::)
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That's one of the allowed species in New Zealand, although you can't buy them in Auckland. Our native skinks here are very much smaller, but the commonest round here is the Australian rainbow skink. Blue tongues eat a lot of snails. 8)
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I don't think we have those down this way but I have found a few snails this week, the first I've had in my garden for 23 years so I'm NOT HAPPY! >:(
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We have snails - the British species Helix aspersa! Mind you, we have plenty of beautiful British thrushes to eat them.
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Whilst cleaning up the other day I uncovered a slumbering lizard (skink I think) preparing for his winter hibernation. A little while later I actually picked this second, almost identically sized, one up in a clump of leaves and had him in the bin before I even knew it!
Thank goodness you weren't tossing it all in the shredder! :o
We have a resident Blue tongue who appears occasionally to scare the beejezzus out of us till we realise it's not a snake!
So do you think Jon's colchicum is cupanii or psardis? I ask out of self interest as I managed to get one from him at the FCHS Plant swap last week!
cheers
fermi
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Hi Fermi,
Now you have my imagination drifting off to a reptilian mulch episode a la Fargo!
It is impossible to come down on one side or the other re your colchicum question just from a pic. Both have 2 emerging leaves at flowering, the flowers are very similar and they flower at pretty much the same time. As I said before the only clincher is the corm characteristics. Colchicum is a hard genus to get a handle on. Hasn't C. cupanii been recently sunk into another species?
I don't know about other forumist but I am somewhat frustrated by the plethora of recent changes across a number of genera. Makes it pretty hard to maintain a "valid" collection these days. :-\
Cheers, Marcus
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Sorry, after a quick web search, I stand corrected, it was psaridis that has been equated with another species. M
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Hi Everyone,
A quick dash outside (to relieve myself of the pain of completing my tax return) gave me an opportunity to take a couple of quick shots of uncommon crocus here in Australia. Note the variation of flower colour.
Crocus robertianus - Beautiful and somewhat rare (and scattered) Greek crocus. Its not a splitter so seed raising is the only real option with this one.
Crocus mathewii - Classic form collected as seed south of Elmali in SW Turkey
Crocus mathewii - Not so beautiful and so common form from a seed collection on Baba Dag near Fethiye.
Cheers, Marcus
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All are beautiful Marcus.
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Hi Pat,
Yes I think so too. Susan doesn't share my passion for them. Too flimsy and well ... insignificant she says. But I love that ephemeral, fugitive quality and because they are so intricate and jewel-like its like finding buried treasure. Its such a lovely surprise every year that I never tire off. And as for the Greek crocus that I have collected as seed .... its like receiving a postcard from there every time they flower.
Cheers, Marcus
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I can empathise with that. Do these set seed Marcus?
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Hi Anthony,
Yes - I am assiduous at pollinating. Can't trust the honey bees to do the job. Bumble bees are sometimes cooperative but they much prefer the autumn flowering salvia!
Both species are reasonably good pollen producers but others can be a pain. I hand pollinate all the species I have at the nursery and the early spring flowering species in the field.
Cheers, Marcus
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Uhm how's your back Marcus?
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Colchicum psaridis is now c. zahnii (is that what you were thinking of Marcus?). All these name changes are a constant test of memory (to which I'm barely getting a pass mark for). ???
Ptilotus exaltatus "Joey" is an Australian native with an unusual flower. It's recently become popular in cultivation here and I can see why. It's performed really well for me over the last few warm, dry months.
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A few pics from the weekend
Some hybrid nerines and N. rosea in the shadehouse
A first flowering on a seedling from a pale red flower - a nice salmon form!
Oxalis palmifrons
Nerine 'Ariel' - I promised Lesley I'd post this but I think it was in refereence to another thread!
Oxalis massoniana
cheers
fermi