Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
General Subjects => Flowers and Foliage Now => Topic started by: fermi de Sousa on June 01, 2015, 04:26:19 AM
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Officially the first day of winter here in Australia and it feels it!
It might seem appropriate to have a snowdrop in flower but it's actually one of the autumn species, Galanthus peshmenii, orginally grown from seed from Rannweig Wallis. It is extremely tiny, only a couple of centimetres high - perhaps it needs feeding ???
cheers
fermi
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Fermi my G. peshmenii is up but I don't think I'm going to get a flower. I was hopeful at first but now it looks like they are leaves emerging not buds. Maybe next year...
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Hi Jamus,
I think Otto grew his from the same batch of seed from Rannweig - I saw her Farrer-winning potful in the UK in 1997 and asked her to send me a seed-list. I initially got good germination but ended up with only a few bulbs so perhaps these mini ones are the hardiest in my garden! They've never looked as large or as sturdy as the ones I saw in the UK but I'm pleased that they produce a bloom or two even though very erratically :-\
cheers
fermi
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I like your little peshmenii, even if it is tiny. Speaking of germination I have had fantastic germination from nearly all of the seed you gave me. The PC Irises and others look like grass in the pots, very promising. The Cyclamen graceum are up too; they are so cute as babies!
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Here's the children's "Geckos and Ladders", with edible planting, in Garden Lane, one of the shopping streets in Botany, our local town centre.
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There's a town called Botany? I want to live there!
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But, Jamus,
everybody there could claim to be a Botanist! ;D
cheers
fermi
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I had a botanist here in my lab last week helping us identify some Brassicaceae weeds we were sent for virus testing. I knew enough to know that the names the agronomists had attached to them were wildly incorrect. They seem to think they are all called turnip weed and reckon that's close enough!
This one was new to me...
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Has it got itchy hairs on the leaves? Looks like a weed that colonises the bare ground left behind after it has been denuded of grass by the council weed spraying (they are not very bright). My tortoises love it.
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Jamus..have you not heard of Botany Bay in NSW? Named after sir Joseph banks!!
Sorry it's been a long time since showing up on this forum.. Hope the galanthus I passed on survived the dry spell you had?
The verbascum violetta did famously but was odd in that they changed colour from light pink in summer to deep purple as it turned cold and surprisingly shrugging off the frost, no damage on petals.
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Your little Galanthus is very cute Fermi. I don't have that one but still have in flower - just beginning really, G. reginae-olgae, happy to be released into the garden after maybe 19 years in a pot. It's so late because we had a very dry autumn and many crosus too are still in flower. But today there's a river running through the garden. 3 inches of rain since early morning. It's jsut about 20 past 4pm now and still pouring down solidly.
I also still have in bloom a tall bearded iris called 'Pure as Gold,' a remontant, or re-blooming variety. Good to have a repeat performance six months after the main event. I'll buy a few more of this kind next season. This one, though I'm only interested in the gorgeous colour at present, has all the attributes of a winning Show iris, good bud count, fine branching, excellent texture and substance and so on. It has withstood a week of frosts and now the rain, still in excellent condition.
The auricula is a beauty but late flowers are not up to much. The flower is full and frilly, ochre yellow but flushed with crimson in front and almost fully crimson on the back. I think it deserves the name 'Flamenco.'
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Lesley that Iris just glows! What a stunning colour and you've photographed it beautifully too.
Stephen, the little galanthus you sent me hasn't emerged yet but I'm not too worried, I think it will come up. I have others showing their noses and I don't think I've lost anything much this summer. I watered pretty regularly in the woodland and didn't let it dry out completely. As for the violetta, it didn't come true from seed. My plants were a dusky sort of pinkish purple as well, all of them the same which is interesting too. I'm not sure of the genetics of the cross, initially I thought perhaps it had crossed with the Verbascum chaixii album which I have everywhere, but it's not likely every seed from every plant would produce identical crosses, so it's more likely that my original plants were f2 or something and reverted...? But then you'd expect segregation as well so beats me, I can't explain it. I discussed it with a plant breeder here and she couldn't explain what was going on either, but suggested that my original violetta must be F1 hybrid.
EDIT: I think I worked it out. Violetta must be self infertile, so every seed produced was the result of bees carrying pollen from the nearby V. chaixii. Therefore all seed produced are F1 between those two with chaixii as the donor and therefore all identical.
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Jamus .. The galanthus are pushing up already here and most likely from the excessive wet autumn. I don't remember one so wet and now it's become freezing cold, ice cold. The verbascums are not true violettas then but even more interesting. The spikes are not rigid and upright, more free form but interesting to see it change shades of purple, mine have become darker with the cold! No seed produced.
Woodbridge nursery are selling interesting hybrids of verbascum.
Cheers
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Brugmansia sanguinea is flowering its head off and will do so for months to come.
[attachimg=1]
Galanthus elwesii (old faithful)
(https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8883/18438533235_361ae45fa1_z.jpg)
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(https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/513/18724945741_d1791655fd_z.jpg)
Bergenia cordifolia
(https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/385/18696226676_aaed41466b_z.jpg)
Alstroemeria cv.
(https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/292/18536050659_6d160f718d_z.jpg)
Salvia discolor
(https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/518/18099609894_6a8857dd3f_z.jpg)
Persicaria microcephala
(https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/304/18534554650_b54bf73757_z.jpg)
Narcissus albidus ssp. albidus
(https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8871/18099610324_081e72b25d_z.jpg)
Abutilon hybridum
(https://flic.kr/p/tzpeyY)
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(https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/356/18767569931_630111e281_z.jpg)
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Crikey, are those coloured leaves for real? What a spectacular image, Jamus!
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Maggi yes that's real. It's an Abutilon x hybridum which is in the nursery trade, intentionally selected because it's infected with a virus! Abutilon Mosaic Virus (Begomovirus AbMV) produces that bold mosaic yellowing which is really quite attractive.
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One of my Albuca spiralis is flowering now, at totally the wrong time of year.
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Lovely Anthony, after an initial spurt my seedlings are just sitting, forming nice strong bulbs I hope.
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Happy Solstice my fellow Southern Hemisphere gardeners.
“Every one of us is, in the cosmic perspective, precious. If a human disagrees with you, let him live. In a hundred billion galaxies, you will not find another.”
― Carl Sagan
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Happy Solstice!
Now the slow climb back into daylight ;D
cheers
fermi
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I had a botanist here in my lab last week helping us identify some Brassicaceae weeds we were sent for virus testing. I knew enough to know that the names the agronomists had attached to them were wildly incorrect. They seem to think they are all called turnip weed and reckon that's close enough!
This one was new to me...
Not something that is immediately familiar to me. It appears from a quick Google search Rapistrum rugosum is something called annual bastard cabbage or turnip weed amongst other things. However it looks to me the first leaf in the line up is something different. There appears to be one record of it on the New Zealand NZPCN site but the plant illustrated there seem to be mis-identified.
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Rapistrum rugosum, or something similar, is a common weed around here, especially on the bare patches of earth created by the "weed spraying round the edges of grassy areas and every tree or bush" policy. My tortoises love it, but the hairs on older leaves make my hands itch.
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That sounds right Anthony, that one was a hoary little bugger. I confess I can't get my head around all the brassica weeds, just can't remember them. They are an ugly bunch, not much to recommend them. I've been tempted many times to import seed of Crambe cordifolia but I get the uneasy feeling that it could become a pesky weed here and I don't want to be responsible for that.
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Haven't seen Crambe cordifolia for some years though it must be in gardens somewhere. Not in local nurseries though. The one who used to list it has retired and gone to live among the fleshpots, albeit frozen at present, of Queenstown. However I have C. maritima and think it one of my favourite plants. The form I have has very blue foliage and is very good in flower too but chooks eat the flowers so no seed for the last couple of years. Rabbits like the leaves so it's never going to become a weed. It didn't look like that even when we didn't have the animal life.
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You're talking me around Lesley... I may just order some seed. Carol Klein speaks very highly of it, but I worry in this Mediterranean climate that it may be a little too happy...
Speaking of weeds and of things cordifoliant, is this Cyclamen coum coming up IN my Globularia cordifolia?
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Jamus , there are a few white flowered Cyclamen coum (self sown ) next to the Globularia here in my rock garden -so most likely that is what your weeds are .
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Ah huh! Otto now I need to decide if I should just weed it out or try to rescue it without disturbing the Globularia... impossible me thinks. :)
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Well Jamus (sorry, I think I called you Jamie before) if you just leave the cyclamen, it will do its thing then die away in due course, coming up each year probably and coping all right. I started with a number of C. coum in different leaf forms and a couple of whites, over about 5 sq metres. They were planted in the autumn 2 and a bit years ago. At the edges of the bed are 8 plants all ground covers and those were supposed to go over the edges and down the 20cms sides But only 2 have done that, a linnaea and a ground-hugging cotoneaster. The other 6 are all creeping - rapidly - towards the centre of the bed where there is a smallish magnolia. In the meantime, the cyclamen are thickening up and coming through the covering plants with no problem at all. The cyclamen leaves and flowers look good on top of an ajuga, the linnaea, Asteranthera ovata and the others. Then soon after I planted the cyclamen and they were up and I could see where they were, I planted 14 bulbs (2 garden centre packets) of Iris reticulata 'Harmony,' singly, and these too have thickened up so that now there are 14 small patches of the iris, some with as many as a dozen flower buds ready to go very soon. The pinks and white and blue are very nice and the covers keep the weeds down though the rest of the year.
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Rapistrum rugosum, or something similar, is a common weed around here, especially on the bare patches of earth created by the "weed spraying round the edges of grassy areas and every tree or bush" policy. My tortoises love it, but the hairs on older leaves make my hands itch.
I have not found any records of it on the Nature Watch NZ website; the short pods are very different from any other weedy brassica making it fairly distinctive so I suspect the NZPCN record is an error. There are a number of weedy brassicas with yellow flowers round including the wild relatives of the cultivated ones; wild turnip (Brassica napus subsp sylvestris), cabbage ( Brassica oleracea) and rape (Brassica napus).
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Had a look through Google. Brassica rapa sylvestris seems to fit the bill and is common throughout New Zealand. It wouldn't grow at all round our football pitches it they didn't provide beautiful bare patches of earth courtesy of the generous weed spraying policy.
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Tropaeolum peregrinum
(https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/346/18594314673_a8b837d77c_z.jpg)
Rizehensis dances in the breeze
(https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/530/19027287598_8e4825e1dc_z.jpg)
Oxalis palmifrons settled into its new home
(https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/554/19027241820_76a1dbcc79_z.jpg)
Mum's stone carving
(https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/290/19218560571_cd36fc84ef_z.jpg)
Campanula rapunculoides, borderline weed.
(https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/329/19218561411_1d1bc63539_z.jpg)
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I particularly like the Oxalis palmifrons, Jamus. Apparently a reluctant flowerer in the UK and grown mainly for its foliage, but one I will seek out.
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Chris I couldn't care less if palmifrons flowers or not, I'm content with the leaves, but I do look forward to the tubers getting larger and producing bigger rosettes with that lovely radial symmetry.
It seems I'm not the only Galanthophile around here... S. Arnott was irresistible to this fellow.
(https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/511/19042936358_e52244da51_c.jpg)
I can't stop trying to take the perfect shot of this clump of rizehensis... I don't mind this one.
(https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/335/19234259721_e04b527dbd_z.jpg)
Androsace lanuginosa
(https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/361/19044368879_49da3c18fc_z.jpg)
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Rumex sanguineus
(https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/489/19204426776_06a269f8c4_z.jpg)
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I really like the Bloody Dock Jamus, have to be careful about seeds though!
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Thanks for the warning Brian, I'll be sure to remove flowers spikes when they form. I'm loving it at the moment too.
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I really like the Bloody Dock Jamus, have to be careful about seeds though!
Thanks for the reminder, Brian. I must behead mine very soon and be a bit more ruthless with weeding out seedlings.
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I love Oxalis palmifrons too - for its leaves. I've never had a flower which I believe should be pale pink. Fermi has his flower though and has shown it here occasionally. It's very hardy. A friend a little north of Dunedin has hers flower and says she repots it every couple of years with a cowpat at the bottom of the pot. O. triangularis does flower but I'd as soon it didn't as the small, long-stemmed pale pink flowers are so wimpy, on such magnificent foliage. It really shouldn't bother. ;D
I also have that Rumex and wonder does it vary because the veining on mine is bright blood red, not that greyish shade. It flowers but in about 6 or 7 years I've not had a self-sown seedling so maybe they're not fertile? There's never been anything that looked like dock seed - and believe me I know well what those look like. I see you've called it Bloody Dock Brian. Fair enough. Usually the whole lot to me are just bloody docks! (Sorry).
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Your Androsace Jamus, is it pink or white flowered? White is var leichtlinii, more common here than the pink and to my mind, nicer. :)
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Lesley it's white flowered and there are a lot of flower buds developing now. I haven't seen the pink variety of this species but I have Androsace sempervivoides. Thanks for the variety name.
ps. the bloody dock is bloody red, just a trick of the light when I took that photo. I had reflections off the surface of the leaves which dulls the colours.
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Chris I couldn't care less if palmifrons flowers or not, I'm content with the leaves, but I do look forward to the tubers getting larger and producing bigger rosettes with that lovely radial symmetry.
Hi Jamus,
here's what Oxalis palmifrons can look like in the garden after a few years (you have been warned!).
I love Oxalis palmifrons too - for its leaves. I've never had a flower which I believe should be pale pink. Fermi has his flower though and has shown it here occasionally. It's very hardy. A friend a little north of Dunedin has hers flower and says she repots it every couple of years with a cowpat at the bottom of the pot.
Hi Lesley,
it must've been a large pot or a small cow ;D
cheers
fermi
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:o Fermi, thanks... that is a rampant patch. Look fabulous but I don't have unlimited space so I'll be keeping a close eye on it.
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Large pot Fermi. I have wondered if keeping it confined and root bound would encourage bloom. Works for some things but not with this one, not for me anyway.
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Hi Lesley,
I think the best way to grow this oxalis is as a single rosette in a pot, but I've only found flowers on those in the ground. Where I have it planted is almost a trough but the wretched thing is escaping around the edges!
Nice surprise yesterday when I uncovered a tray of "dormant" pots to find this little Colchicum in flower!
I got it from Jon B (mini-Bulb Lover) a couple of years ago and he originally got it as C. psaridis but he has some doubts about that,
cheers
fermi
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I don't know C. psaridis but this one looks a bit like my own C. baytopiorum, though that flowers with its leaves. I saw it in an over grown trough a while back and can't remember the colour of the stamens etc. Meant to rescue it but haven't done so yet. I do remember though that it has never clumped up like this, more single flowers over a wider space. In Greece in 1993, I remember someone collected seed of psaridis. Near Delphi I think. Maybe not. Parnassus?
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This seems to be smaller than baytopiorum.
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Jamus, I smiled a bit at the caption on your Campanula rapunculoides. Up here in Minnesota, it's not a borderline weed, it's incredibly invasive. Hard to get rid of, with those huge swollen taproots and slender white rhizomes. Must be the difference in climate. However, it is beautiful, and strangely enough it's just coming into bloom up here too, on the other side of the world.