Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
General Subjects => Flowers and Foliage Now => Topic started by: fermi de Sousa on March 31, 2015, 11:05:39 PM
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It's really autumn here now with turning foliage and autumn bulbs such as Rhodophiala bifida coming into bloom!
cheers
fermi
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Hi Guys,
I will add a few "traditional" bulbs to the mix.
The last few flowers of:
Colchicum "Princess Astrid"
Colchicum "Lilac Wonder"
Just starting up:
Colchicum speciosum Album
Colchicum autimnale Abloplenum
Cheers, Marcus
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Fermi you always seem to just beat me to the post with different bulbs. This time it is Rhodophiala bifida. Marcus you always show some choice bulbs. thank you.
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The last few years of neglect are obviously getting to a lot of things in my garden.... very, very few Colchicum have flowered, almost a complete failure with the majority of the South African genera, etc. Very poor autumn flowering at my place for a lot of things, yet it was a bumper year in other gardens for things like Belladonnas. Not good.
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Hi Guys,
A couple more from Hill View:
Colchicum 'The Giant" - good old variety
Colchicum "Don's weird bicolor" - From Don Schofield up in the Blue Mts
Crocus kotschyanus - tons out now along with pulchellus. Lots of pollinating of rarer species like vallicola, autranii, gilanicus, asumaniae, and cancellatus.
Cheers, Marcus
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Ooops! I will do that again .. M
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Hi Marcus, wow Don's bicolor is different isn't it? You certainly grow the Colchicums well. Nothing to post here, it's a desert. Still no real rain to speak of and it has never been so dry.
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Colchicum "Don's weird bicolor" - From Don Schofield up in the Blue Mts
Cheers, Marcus
Lots of flowers with you, Marcus - great colchicum. Can't say I "go" for the weird bicolor though - too much like the strange 'Harlekijn' - see the photo here :
http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=7848.msg216294#msg216294 (http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=7848.msg216294#msg216294) Funny thing - and not always stable, as we hear from other reports in the forum. Odd!
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It's April here, so that's October in the northern hemisphere, so why is it the garden centres are selling pots of Narcissus "Jet Fire" in full bloom?
I tried three garden centres and checked 14 packets (of 5 bulbs) of Narcissus bulbocodium "Golden Bells", but couldn't find one with even one healthy bulb in it. They were either shrivelled and papery with a rock hard tiny centre, or soft and squishy with blue-grey mould underneath.
Putting these two scenarios together would suggest bulbs are imported months in advance from Europe or the USA and stored (badly) and then wheeled out in our autumn, by which time the smaller varieties have given up the will to live. Those that do grow produce a pathetic excuse of a display.
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A few from my garden this afternoon
(https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8728/16404906034_18b41c9079_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/qZDr2u)
Maurandya scandens in full swing
(https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8731/17027327855_58316a9bed_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/rWDvmc)
Sternbergia lutea, old faithful.
(https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7589/16839549788_7a9049fc38_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/rE46tj)
Lysimachia atropurpurea
(https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7595/17026463121_b948034350_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/rWz5hZ)
Allysum tortuosum; can't get enough of those compact little rosettes.
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Good view of tonight's lunar eclipse.
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Wow great photo Anthony. You've done very well, I know from personal experience how hard it is to photograph the moon.
Ps. The albuca seed you sent me is germinating already!
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That's good news Jamus. I got them to flower within the year.
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Will and I are just home from visiting Adelaide where we got to meet up with fellow forumists Jamus (and Rebecca, Isabella and Hugo) and Anita (and Peter).
We had a great time and visited some beautiful gardens and people and realised that its only about 7 hours from here! ;D
We also had time for some retail therapy, some of which involved things for the garden ;D
Before we left I took a few pics in the garden:
Cyclamen graecum "album"
Nerine rosea
cheers
fermi
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Jamus,
Do you grow any of the California Native Sedum species or Dudleyias? It seems that they might do very well for you, but then most likely you may already have them growing in your garden.
What I see of your garden it seems most impressive! Especially, given the climatic conditions.
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Glad you made it home safely Fermi. Seven hours if you drive straight through without rests! and not much to see on that inland road. It was fantastic to meet you both and you must come back one spring. What did you buy from Tupelo grove?
ps. Robert I don't grow the North American sedums... I should. Please tell me more about them.
pps. It's raining!!! 70mm in the last 2 days, proper soaking rain and so sorely needed over here.
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New wild populations of Leptinella filiformis (http://nzpcn.org.nz/flora_details.aspx?ID=21) and Dysphania pusilla (http://www.nzpcn.org.nz/flora_details.aspx?ID=740) found in South Island NZ: a short account here (http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11429043).
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And apropos this :
New wild populations of Leptinella filiformis (http://nzpcn.org.nz/flora_details.aspx?ID=21) and Dysphania pusilla (http://www.nzpcn.org.nz/flora_details.aspx?ID=740) found in South Island NZ: a short account here (http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11429043).
Dunedin Botanic Garden
[attachimg=1]
This Friday HortTalk launches 10 new fact sheets about native plants, in partnership with New Zealand Plant Conservation Network.
"High noon, info centre - see you there for your free copies."
[attachimg=2]
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ps. Robert I don't grow the North American sedums... I should. Please tell me more about them.
pps. It's raining!!! 70mm in the last 2 days, proper soaking rain and so sorely needed over here.
Jamus,
Our California native Sedums and Dudleyas are, in general, very easy to grow and 100% xeric, my main motivation for asking. Most are prefect tiny plants for the rock garden and seem perfect for summer - hot, dry climates such as yours. I will post photographs as I come across them or when they are looking good here in the garden. In the garden, some will be blooming soon.
Glad to hear that the rains are returning! Here it is well into spring and we are having a major "winter type" storm with low snow levels in the mountains. It will not end our drought conditions, however it will certainly help.
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No snow here unfortunately. That would do my galanthus and crocus the world of good.
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My pot of Narcissus obsoletus continues to bloom. 15 flowers and counting.
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My pot of Narcissus obsoletus continues to bloom. 15 flowers and counting.
It's done very well, hasn't it? I'd be well-pleased with that.
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I'm absolutely delighted. It's taken four years. I like the variation in shape of the flowers. I also have two pots of Narcissus malacitanus and one of N. X alleniae, which are a year behind, so hopefully next year. I have one pot labelled N. serotinus, but no flowers yet. I'm hoping my pot of four year old N. viridiflorus bulbs will produce a flower, as I never get more than one seed from my other pot, even though I had fourteen flowering stems last year.
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N. x alleniae will be something quite special to look forward to, Anthony.
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N. x alleniae will be something quite special to look forward to, Anthony.
Can't wait for this and Narcissus malacitanus to flower. Next year, perhaps? Need to get more seeds to sow. Collected some Albuca spiralis seeds if anyone wants any.
Here's more promise of things to come. A nice pink Cyclamen mirabile leaf. A shame they fade. Looks like I'll get my first flower on Massonia jasminiflora seedling this year. The genus was named for Francis Masson, a Scottish student gardener at Kew, who was sent to the Cape [South Africa] by Sir Joseph Banks in 1772 to collect seeds.
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Brunsvigia litoralis flowering now.
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Androsace lanuginosa, made it through the summer and is rewarding me with flowers.
(https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7673/17182976622_95488e98f7_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/sbpfiC)
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Cracking picture Jamus
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Thanks David. There are a lot more buds to open; it's done very well considering. I'm just thrilled to have it in the rock garden.
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Jamus , great photo of the Androsace . I will divide my clump of Gentiana paradoxa shortly . It is an easy Gentian to please here .
here a few "every day ' plants from my autumnal garden .
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and 3 more
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That's not your bog standard Crocus mathewi Otto.
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Beautiful plants Otto. You are in inspiration... I have some oxalis palmifrons in a pot which I'm tempted to poke in the rock garden somewhere. What do you think? I hear they grow more compact and symmetrical in an exposed position between rocks.
Otto I dream of being able to grow Gentians! Do you think G. paradoxa might survive here?
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... I have some oxalis palmifrons in a pot which I'm tempted to poke in the rock garden somewhere. What do you think? I hear they grow more compact and symmetrical in an exposed position between rocks.
You'll live to regret it if you do! It's one of my favourites, but is strongly stoloniferous and will get away.
Keep it potted or maybe plant it into a trough which you don't mind being swamped by it. We made th mistake of planting it into a bed which is almost a trough and it filled the planting area and is constantly trying to escape where it can get into the surrounding soil.
The androsace is another favourite which survived many years of extreme heat but finally succumbed a few years ago.
Otto, as Anthony says, that is a great crocus!
cheers
fermi (en route to home after 2 weeks away - 1 week without Internet!!!)
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Just a few Crocus out in my garden at the moment, the 1st Crocus hadriaticus is from Marcus's seed collected in Greece in 2010, the second Crocus hadriaticus I'm not sure where I came by that one. A lovely big clump of the common Crocus serotinus sub.sp salzmannii which can grace my garden any day. Not quite up to your high standards of Crocus Mathewii Otto but it will have to do.
Hoping to bring my partner Ray home from hospital tomorrow all being well.
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Vivienne, beautiful Crocus - and a sign, I think, of how flowers can cheer us, even when we have our minds on other things - you have clearly found pleasure in the flowers and also taken the time to share them with us, when you must be concerned about getting Ray home hope it has really been a pleasant diversion for you.
Hope Ray does get home tomorrow and that he is soon 100% !
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Thanks Maggi,
you were so right it was a diversion it does help, Viv