Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
General Subjects => Flowers and Foliage Now => Topic started by: fermi de Sousa on November 30, 2016, 10:43:07 PM
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Officially the first day of summer here and the weather is sunny and warm.
We've returned from nearly 2 weeks in Tasmania (and have quite a few pics to post ;D ) and the difference in the landscape between what we left, what we saw in Tassie and what we've come back to are quite stark. The green and lush spring has become a dry and sear summer. As Jamus says "summers too hot, too dry and too long"!
We found many of the flowers which showed great promise before our departure had fallen during our absence so we have idea about colours or form :'( .
However this Sisyrinchium palmifolium has gone from strength to strength. Looking closely at the pic you can discern the flower stems from previous years which are much shorter than this season's. It was grown from seed sent from Argentina by forumist Santiago,
cheers
fermi
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Weldenia candida opened its first flowers while we were away but deigned to produce a new bloom today
cheers
fermi
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Fermi,
Your Sisyrinchium palmifolium looks great. I have an interest in the Genus, and hope to share some of ours on the forum when spring arrives for us. For us a few can be a bit weedy seedy - and some of the best looking ones too. Deadheading is a must, but well worth the effort. Maybe this is not a problem for you?
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Hi Robert,
sadly I only had one seedling survive and it seems to be self-sterile, so No problem with excess seedlings!
I wonder if Anthony D in NZ gets seed on his?
cheers
fermi
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Fermi, Sisyrinchium palmifolium is new to me. Quite amazing! We are still in spring here with an distinct absence of summerish weather. I can honestly say I don't mind if it stops raining now and heats up. The spring has been so good I'm actually content, which is a first.
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... However this Sisyrinchium palmifolium has gone from strength to strength. ...
Fermi, I suggest you keep a close eye on this one. It's inclined to be extremely weedy here.
Sorry, just noticed your comment about sterility. Unfortunately mine wasn't >:(
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Went out and took a few photos in the garden, two early summer bulbs Trillium Grandifloum Flore Pleno (with Dicentra and T. luteum in the back) and Nomocharis farreri. Although 'summer' might be a bit of a stretch, mid teens here and a max of 21 a couple of days ago (a heatwave!!) ;)
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Fantastic Nomocharis, Lesley!
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Fantastic is exactly the right adjective. The stuff of fantasy. I don't know why I have a pot outside with several little seedlings of Nomocharis in it.. it's cruelty really, to me and the plants.
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A lot of the gardens of Lesley and her family is the stuff of dreams, Jamus - take a look around the website ....
http://kaydalelodge.com.au/ (http://kaydalelodge.com.au/) 8) 8)
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Fantastic is exactly the right adjective. The stuff of fantasy. I don't know why I have a pot outside with several little seedlings of Nomocharis in it.. it's cruelty really, to me and the plants.
This took 10 years to flower from seed for me :). The first few years in a pot then into the bulb rockery. Very happy when it finally flowered, then a lady picked one of the three flowers to ask what it was :o
The website hasn't been updated for a while, but we try to put a photo up every week on Instagram under kaydalegardens I manage to sneek a few of the rarer things up and Amarlie put the overalls of the garden.
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Maggi I'm fully aware of kaydale lodge and i will get down to visit them one of these days. I've bought a few bulbs from Lesley and Co. and all going well might buy a few more this autumn.
Thanks for the instagram tip off Lesley. I will check it out.
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Hi Jamus,
It is a weighty sadness to lose someone as gifted as Marcus. While it is true that much of Marcus's prodigious knowledge is lost, it is equally true that he left an amazing legacy in terms of the plants he brought in - particularly clones that cannot be achieved from seed, the interactions he created between folk and and the advice he gave freely when asked.
His extensive exploration, most often with Susan, have rescued rare species from extinction by goat or other sad fates.
To post a few -as it has been awhile
1. Roscoea cautleyoides is continuously blooming - fell in love with it in Kew gardens a couple of years past
2. The beautiful foliage of Disanthus cercidifolius and in the background Vancouveria hexandra
3. Phyteuma orbiculare is doing much better now the rabbits have found other things to munch :-\
4. A dear little streptopusp in the shade
5. Despite munching early in the season the Brimeura have come back and are flowering.
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I have moved some messages about the loss of Marcus Harvey to their own page , so I repeat here a post and photos from Jon B .....
http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=14926.0 (http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=14926.0) is the new page
Very sad news about Marcus. Well said Fermi.
He was generous with his bulbs, wild-collected seed and knowledge. There are many gardens in Australia growing some wonderful specimens thanks to Marcus, mine included. He will live on through those plants; gone but not forgotten.
Allium cernuum ‘Hidcote’
Pleione ‘Otto Fauser’
[attachimg=1]
Allium cernuum ‘Hidcote’
[attachimg=2]
Pleione ‘Otto Fauser’
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It has been a bit quiet on this thread, I guess we have mostly been a bit preoccupied.
We had our annual plant exchange (known fondly as "The Bunfight") yesterday but missed Jacqui who had gone to farewell Marcus in Tasmania.
In our garden we have a flock of butterflies on stalks otherwise known as poppies ;D
Papaver rhoeas "Mother-of-pearl" forms and a few others,
cheers
fermi
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Fermi,
A lovely set of poppies!
I never got mine planted this autumn. :'( Maybe it is not too late...
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Fermi,
A lovely set of poppies!
I never got mine planted this autumn. :'( Maybe it is not too late...
Robert,
these were sown very late for us in July (equivalent to January for you?); however the germination rate was quite low - only about a fifth or less - some might germinate next year.
In the Rock Garden:
Acantholimon hohenackeri;
Double Triteleia 'Royal Blue';
Tiliqua scincoides scincoides;
cheers
fermi
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Lovely Fermi. I placed a seed order with Majella larochelle in Gatineau, Canada and it was held up in quarantine for over a month. When it finally turned up Acantholimon had been confiscated and the rest passed... ??? beats me... but I was quite disappointed.
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We visited our friends Martin and Penny Fidge yesterday and I took some photos in their garden which I thought you might enjoy. Martin is a talented lily grower and has a great collection (overwhelmingly huge collection!). A beautiful evening with a lovely meal, a bottle of wine shared and fabulous plants. Perfection.
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Martin and Penny's part 2
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Martin and Penny's part 3
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I was expecting a local garden club here this morning, the first of a few gardens on their pre-Christmas last gasp for the year. Not looking forward to it as it was very short notice (3 days) and the place is a mess at present. However they've phoned to cancel because the weather is bitterly cold with wind and sleety rain, the temperature about 7C at present. Just as well as Roger fell last evening and this morning it is obvious he has something broken in the middle of his hand. It's very swollen, black, stiff and agonizing, he says. So when he's finished his coffee we're going up to Dunedin's A and E and we all know how long THAT will take. May as well write off the whole day. >:(
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A couple of offerings from my garden.
[attach=1]
Lilium davidii
[attach=2]
Dierama pulcherrimum
[attach=3]
Lilium duchartrei
[attach=4]
Alstroemeria psittacina 'variegata'
[attach=5]
Digitalis lanata
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Very nice Jamus, you take a lovely photograph.
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Jamus, superb as usual.
Your lily photos are beautiful. Duchartrei is a personal favourite.
Do you know what the pink spotted lily in penny part 3 is?
This damp cool December has allowed foliage to flourish, and I have included a few..
1. Corylus avellana purpurea with cercidiphyllum japonicum
2. Cornus Norman Hadden in full show
3. Sandersonia aurantica
4. Aconitum delphinifolium
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And some lilies..
5. Lilium martagon hybrid Claude Shride has much larger flowers than the species (pink)
6. The fruit of Amelanchier canadensis
7. The tall Lankon hybrid
8. Hydrangea macrophylla "hanabi" bloomed pink rather than white this year
9. Tilia cordata in flower.
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Jacqui your martagons look amazing! I had one flower this year, my first ever and it wasn't a patch on yours. Your garden looks so lush and inviting. It's already starting to dry out here.
I don't know the name of the pink lily. I'll ask Martin and get back to you.
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The value of being 'big, dark & hairy' on sub-Antarctic islands: megaherbs general article here (http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20161216-the-sub-antarctic-islands-are-home-to-strange-megaherbs), original paper here (http://www.polarresearch.net/index.php/polar/article/view/26030).
Is it that we have overlooked similar adaptations in the NH?
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Jacqui, Martin tells me the pink and yellow spotted lily is a pot asiatic called 'pink pixie', purchased from Adrian van Kempen Club Creek bulb farm.
Here's another picture of my L. davidii
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Jamus thank you for asking the name for me, its such a pretty lily.
L. davidii is a beautiful lily as well. I shall have to disinter and divide my clump this year.
They used to grow very tall but now appearing in miniature and I can only imagine they are too crowded.
Yours look much better.
And thank you for commenting so favourably on my martagons.
Otto and Marcus would laugh, as I had many failures and rotted a few before finding a way to grow them.
The one I would love to get my hands on is the album superbum. There were seeds offered on sgrc this year and i stupidly put the incorrect number - out by one digit becomes a L. oxypetalum.
:-\
Two photos today.
1. The Weldenia candida, flowering a full month after everyone else's it seems - could it be the grey summer we are having, i wonder?
2. An unexpected surprise, Otto presented me with a couple of miniature daphne plants only weeks ago and one has just flowered. Daphne collima x petraea, with tiny leaves and vivid blooms.
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I added martagon album superbum to my seedex order. If I get the seed and am successful growing them I promise to share it with you Jacqui. :)
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Jamus you are such a sweet person.
I saw a mass planting of a pink Dierama in a front garden the other day. Literally hundreds intermingled with the garden plants. Spectacular en masse.
May have to try it on the Sahara bed.
Jacqui.
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I'm on holidays! woohoo. Digitalis laevigata, my favourite foxglove, but lanata is pretty nice... okay equal favourite foxglove.
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Lucky you, Jamus,
some of us have to keep the economy going ;D
I like your foxgloves and must try some again - we have enough trouble with Digitalis purpurea, which we saw growing prolifically in Tasmania - quite a different climate to ours. Speaking of Tassie, while at Kaydale Lesley weeded out some alliums from the rock-garden which I couldn't identify - they are now in bloom (sorry for the out-of-focus pic :-[ ) and I think they are Allium saxatile (and yes, it can be weedy :o ) which I already grow but it's not as vigorous as the ones from Tassie. Amarlie will be pleased to know that a viola has germinated in the pot!
cheers
fermi
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A couple of posts by Lesley and Ashley moved here: http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=11408.msg368533#msg368533 (http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=11408.msg368533#msg368533)
:)
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Thanks very much Maggi :-*
Beautiful foxgloves Jamus 8)
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Fermi, I can confirm that ferruguinea, lanata, parviflora and laevigata are tougher customers, more suited to heat and drought than purpurea, by a mile. The usual story, purpurea has been selected by the English horticulturalists for suitability to the uk climate, and somehow that's supposed to be a recommendation for us? ::)
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1) Some of the Eremophilas in the garden (definitely not for the rock garden):
2) Eremophila polyclada x bignoniiflora;
3) Eremophila 'Summertime Blue';
4) Eremophila 'Augusta Storm';
5) red hybrid, possibly Eremophila calorhabdos x splendens;
cheers
fermi
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Another genus I hadn't heard of before!
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Hi Ralph,
not sure how many would be grown in the UK but I found this link: http://www.plantbase.co.uk/scrubland.htm (http://www.plantbase.co.uk/scrubland.htm) so at least one is!
If you search the Forum you will find other pics,
cheers
fermi
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Hello Jamus and Fermi,
Do either of you grow Digitalis obscura? If not, I may have some seeds to send you (if they are able to make it through Australian quarantine clearance). Let me know if this is of interest to either of you. Cheers from wintery Nova Scotia (was -22C with snow squalls three days ago and a rainy +12C yesterday... a bit mixed up as far as I'm concerned)
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Hi Ralph,
not sure how many would be grown in the UK but I found this link: http://www.plantbase.co.uk/scrubland.htm (http://www.plantbase.co.uk/scrubland.htm) so at least one is!
If you search the Forum you will find other pics,
cheers
fermi
Ah yes, Plantbase. I know them, vast range of plants, and not far from here.
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Cheers from wintery Nova Scotia (was -22C with snow squalls three days ago and a rainy +12C yesterday... a bit mixed up as far as I'm concerned)
Gordon - Was it really that cold where you are or was that with the windchill? If the former then I don't understand your climate down there even though you are a good distance from the ocean. That big Blue Atlas cedar near the vineyard must be one very tough customer.
johnw
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John, that -22 was simply reading the thermometer outside our window. Our cold comes from two things, distance from the Annapolis Basin, and elevation. The Bay of Fundy and Annapolis Basin have less influence here. We tend to be measurably colder in the winter and warmer in the summer than Jill's nursery, not 20 minutes away from us, but situated on the Basin.
We also have an Atlas Cedar that is doing quite well. Even in the winter of 2014-15, when we had plenty of time at, or below -24C, it survived.... mind you, all the needles burnt off, but were replaced by new growth in Spring.
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Hi Gordon, I would love some seed of D. obscura. I've tried it before and failed, but it should like our climate in the right spot, so I'm keen to try again. I'm sending you a pm now. It should be no problem through quarantine... on a good day. :-\
Intricate flower buds of a Centaurea I grow of uncertain identity, possibly C. nervosa.
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Yikes, that's cold. Oddly that Cedrus does not do well around milder Yarmouth, whether it detests the eternal damp air or the persistent wind and cool I can't tell but the needles tend to rot off in the autumn. The Atlas can burn here in Halifax and I have seen it toasted on occasion in Annapolis too. The one in Bear River must have had a good stretch of summer-ripening years to get to that size. There was also one down the road from Jill's nursery, around Clemetnsport.
Seems C. deodora 'Shalimar' is a much better bet though Dave V. has a lot of promising hardy German selectionsof deodora, libani and atlantica for sale. Iain picked up a few when we visited Dave last summer.
john
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The little Sax. oppositifolia seedlings are really growing strongly now so I've moved them into the new crevice pot. The weather man says we are in for some nasty hot weather so I will need to find a cool place.
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Do either of you grow Digitalis obscura? If not, I may have some seeds to send you (if they are able to make it through Australian quarantine clearance).
Hi Gordon,
If you send some to Jamus, I'm sure he'll share ;D
I tried it once before but didn't get a second generation, maybe because I only had a single plant in flower. ???
Seed is allowed into Australia - see this link https://bicon.agriculture.gov.au/BiconWeb4.0/ViewElement/Element/CaseScientificNames?caseElementPk=240501 (https://bicon.agriculture.gov.au/BiconWeb4.0/ViewElement/Element/CaseScientificNames?caseElementPk=240501)
In flower today are two plants of Gilia capitata raised from seed from 2 distinct populations sent by our good friend Robert B
cheers
fermi
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Fermi,
I am glad to see that you have had success with the seed! 8)
I have a batch of F2 seedlings that have sprouted. We will see how they preform.
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Merry Christmas all.
This is my first flowering of Arisaema fargessii and it is all that I had hoped for.
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Reminds me I should feed mine.
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Reminds me I should feed mine.
You haven't named it "Audrey II" have you? :o
;D
We're enjoying a brief respite from the heat with a few mm of rain falling after 2 days of mid 30s (oC) - it's going to be a long summer :(
I've posted these to the Iris Thread: Iris Kinboshi in the rain
cheers
fermi
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I KNEW it was a little shop of horrors reference Fermi! A quick google confirmed it. LOL ;D
Kaempferia rotunda popped out a flower and surprised me. Happens every year. :)
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That is a new one to me. Had to look up Kaempferia rotunda after seeing the photo..... maybe a candidate for the sunroom during our winters?
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No idea Gordon if you'd succeed with it inside, but definitely not frost tolerant. It barely makes it through each winter here, perilously close to rotting, because its dormancy is supposed to coincide with cooler and dryer, then growth in the monsoon season with the combination of rain and heat, which is the exact opposite of our climate. I'm being treated to a succession of flowers. Second one opened today and there are more buds emerging. Previously they've all come more or less at once..
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Just some regale lilies, but worth sharing I think.
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Salvia przewalskii is still looking okay in this humid heat. I wish I could say the same for me!
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The arisaema is gorgeous vanozzi, how tall does it grow?
Fermi, I thought exactly the same thing when Jamus said he must feed his. I did laugh :D
My little sky-blue sony pocket camera has finally had it. :'(
the autofocus is gone and it has no manual override.
shall miss it as so easy to use and had quite nice focal depth for such a 'littlie'.
Apologies in advance for the iphone photos - can't seem to focus in close up but these shall have to do for now.
1. A rhodohypoxis from the AGS bunfight last year is flowering now.
2. The Silene uniflora makes a nice ground cover, although already exhibiting thuggish tendencies
3. Gentiana triflora. Very pale. Colouring like campanula 'chettle charm' but peppered with green - no they aren't aphids.
Wishing all of you a happy and rewarding 2017.
jacqui.
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There is still time I hope, to wish everyone who looks at this thread and indeed ALL FORUMISTS, a very happy New Year in 2017. Each year I hope that this one will be better than the one just finished yet it never is. I dread to think what will come of the posturing between Putin and Trump and government in the USA, it seems, will be conducted by tweet for God's sake! The ongoing catastrophe that is Syria shames us all and the Middle East generally is a powder keg. Famines and wars, droughts and floods, terrorism and intolerance are now the "norm" of life on earth and it is only the small, almost invisible and random acts of love and kindness which keep humanity from sinking into a pit from which we may never emerge.
Yet for all that I don't feel totally depressed and without hope. Individually we can only carry on our lives decently and with care for our neighbors and those who may still be strange to us. The sun still rises each day even if it is behind the clouds. Gardens are still full of flowers and our children and grandchildren may yet find the solutions to the world's woes. But may they do so, soon.
So, a happy New Year to all Forumists. May your seeds germinate, your plants grow well, the rain fall when you need it and the sun shine between times.
Best wishes to all.
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Happy New Year to you too Lesley and all other Forumists; Fermi and Will, Otto, Jacqui, Lesley II (Kaydale) and all my other friends here. Thank you all for your continued education and support.
Jacqui thanks for sharing images of your Gentiana triflora. I LOVE Gentians and am determined to see flowers here some day. No luck yet! We are having a very mild summer so far, so maybe that will allow them to grow enough to flower next year? Let's hope.