Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
General Subjects => Flowers and Foliage Now => Topic started by: fermi de Sousa on February 02, 2018, 12:43:39 AM
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What a surprise to see a late flower on Weldenia candida this morning!
This was the plant which I thought I had lost over the winter but a few scraps remained and this one has built up enough to produce a flower!
cheers
fermi
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Nice new side growth there too Fermi. It takes real effort to lose it. ;D
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That's a nice surprise Fermi, especially after all the hot weather.
Viv has put some photos online of alpine plants on a recent visit to Mount Kosciuszko (Australia's tallest mountain at 2228 metres / 7309 feet). You can look at them on the AGS Victorian Group blog:
https://agsvicgroup.blogspot.com.au/2018/01/kosciuszko-alpine-plants-it-is-10-years.html (https://agsvicgroup.blogspot.com.au/2018/01/kosciuszko-alpine-plants-it-is-10-years.html)
Great photos Viv!
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Viv has put some photos online of alpine plants on a recent visit to Mount Kosciuszko (Australia's tallest mountain at 2228 metres / 7309 feet). You can look at them on the AGS Victorian Group blog:
https://agsvicgroup.blogspot.com.au/2018/01/kosciuszko-alpine-plants-it-is-10-years.html (https://agsvicgroup.blogspot.com.au/2018/01/kosciuszko-alpine-plants-it-is-10-years.html)
Great photos Viv!
Hear hear! Viv's blogs always a delight.
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Hear hear! Viv's blogs always a delight.
Yes, wonderful to see these Australian alpines 8)
Thanks Viv.
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These pictures are really great, most of these plants were unknown to me.
Thanks for showing.
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Viv , great photos of the Mt. Kosiuszko alpine flora . Celmisia pugioniformis and the small Tasmanian endemic Celmisia saxifraga grow happily in my garden .
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Great pictures Viv.
Some plants are familiar but a lot aren't... :-\
Never heard of Dichosciadium ranunculatum var ranunculaceum or Leucochrysum albicans subsp alpinum , they both look yummy. ;D
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That's how I feel, Dave. Leucochrysum albicans subsp alpinum I never knew before. Beautiful silvery foliage and fantastic Helichrysum - flowers. Right up my alley. 😉
Thomas
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After seeing how well Jacqui was growing Roscoea and seeing them in my friend's Gillian's garden in Kyneton (25 km south of here) I thought it might be worth trying them here. I got a Roscoea auriculata from Lynn McGough https://www.lynnsrareplants.com.au/ (https://www.lynnsrareplants.com.au/) last year.
It arrived during the hot weather in December and was quickly potted up. Today it produced a flower which was a bit of a surprise,
cheers
fermi
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Thank you everyone for the wonderful feed back on Mt Kosciuszko we always find it a joy to visit but a very long drive from here its about a 6-7hour trip with a stop in the middle many thanks Viv
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For those of you who do not have one at home, Amorphophallus titanum flowering at the Dunedin Botanic Gardens. When I photographed it there was a smell of a dead animal carcass in the vicinity but apparently the smell was a lot stronger earlier on in the previous day. Several thousand people have filed through the greenhouse to look at it. It was very busy yesterday but things were a bit quieter today.
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I visited on Saturday late afternoon and the smell was definitely of wet and stinking shoes, well worn, as recently in my garden in the heat and wet. Utterly disgusting but not of rotting meat. The flower was wider open while the one above seems to have started to close up. I was delighted to see a lot of children present. Surely many will have gained an introductory interest in the plant world.
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I wonder can I.....?
This was the day before or maybe before that (3rd Feb).
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Amazing plant Lesley and about as far from rock gardening as you can possibly get!? All going well I'll get to see TWO flowering together in a week or so. I'm prepared for the smell.. I think.. :o
Speaking of disgusting, the weather is horrible here in Adelaide lately. It hasn't rained for yonks and hot and sunny relentlessly. I'm taking a few losses in the rock garden. I'm very worried about my beloved Silene acaulis. It doesn't look good at all. How are you all fairing over East? Any better in Victoria guys?
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An early Cyclamen flowering in my nursery, a silver leaf hederifolium selection by Marcus.
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My own Silene acaulis succumbed to dryness a couple of weeks ago - we've had no rain since November and temps in he high 30s as also did one of 2 forms of Androsace sempervivoides. They were watered but it just wasn't going in. However I have small nursery plants of both. The white silene was also a bit burnt in a trough but has recovered mostly, now we've had some rain. Still very touch and go though. The rabbit scrapings show how shallow the rain penetration was, only 5 or 6 centimetres. we need a lot more yet.
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My January Journal arrived yesterday. As always, a wonderful production with stunning photos and lots of great reading. No matter how good the Forum or even Facebook, the photo in the Journal are just so much better and there's nothing so good as something to take to bed or spend an hour with on a sunny sofa on the porch.
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Well, the Australian Government has finally done it - only commercially packaged seed allowed in from 25 January 2018 (or seed with a Phytosanitary certificate). :'(
https://bicon.agriculture.gov.au/BiconWeb4.0/ViewElement/Element/Alert?elementPk=815125 (https://bicon.agriculture.gov.au/BiconWeb4.0/ViewElement/Element/Alert?elementPk=815125)
Very sad news. We won't go down without a fight though.
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Indeed, you must fight this. I can't say I know how but it is an outrageous action to enforce this. A commercial packet or a phyto certificate ensures nothing at all. It's all words and doesn't mean any seed will be cleaner or safer. The only consequence is to isolate Aussie gardeners. I won't be able to send seeds to my friends. I can't package in such a way as to make it seem a commercial parcel. I haven't machinery etc. and a phyto certificate is very costly even once let alone perhaps several times in a year or so.
I really hope you and the greater horticultural community in Australia can solve this problem before it becomes entrenched.
Having said that, I can only hope that the NZ govt does not follow suit now or later. It's far from impossible. By and large our regulations while frustrating and nonsensical to some degree, are workable and in the main our officials do try to be as helpful as they can within the law. But the law can be changed without notice and at the whim of officials with their own agendas.
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Well, the Australian Government has finally done it - only commercially packaged seed allowed in from 25 January 2018 (or seed with a Phytosanitary certificate). :'(
https://bicon.agriculture.gov.au/BiconWeb4.0/ViewElement/Element/Alert?elementPk=815125 (https://bicon.agriculture.gov.au/BiconWeb4.0/ViewElement/Element/Alert?elementPk=815125)
Very sad news. We won't go down without a fight though.
I have passed this info on to the rest of the Seedex team. Do keep in touch if you hear anything else.
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I would hope that the neatly labelled packets of SRGC Seed Exchange seed would now be acceptable to the Australian authorities - a clear reason to illustrate what a great idea it was to institute this improvement in service to all members.
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The SRGC Seed Exchange envelopes are great. Last December the Australian department that monitors agricultural imports made a change that a “supplier’s declaration” was also required which the SRGC Seed Exchange team graciously provided. Now they state that they will only accept the declaration from commercial suppliers.
I think this change seems to be less about bio security and more about reducing their workload. As a first step we’ve recommended that AGS Victorian Group members (and anyone else affected) contact their local federal member of parliament to ask for this change to be reversed. The committee will soon meet to determine future action.
I would also suggest that, as stakeholders, the SRGC and AGS send letters to the minister for Agriculture and Water Resources, David Littleproud MP. Explain the impact of this change and ask for it to be reconsidered.
https://www.aph.gov.au/Senators_and_Members/Parliamentarian?MPID=265585 (https://www.aph.gov.au/Senators_and_Members/Parliamentarian?MPID=265585)
I think this change is a threat to our bio security because it could increase the black market on imports. When has prohibition ever worked?
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I hope the SRGC Seed Team will be bringing all this to the attention of the SRGC President, since he would be the main person to write concerning SRGC fears on this matter.
Members may contact the President, David Rankin, directly by email via this link (d.w.h.rankin@ed.ac.uk)
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Colchicum variegatum, flowering very early this year. It has never increased, still only one flower after 4 years. ::)
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Colchicum variegatum, flowering very early this year. It has never increased, still only one flower after 4 years. ::)
Such a spectacular flower - one is enough!
We have a few amaryllids in bloom now:
1) Lycoris incarnata;
2) Acis autumnalis;
3) Calostemma purpureum;
4) Crossyne flava;
5) Amaryllis belladonna seedling
cheers
fermi
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Colchicum variegatum, flowering very early this year. It has never increased, still only one flower after 4 years. ::)
Seed from Marcus Harvey maybe 6 or 7 years ago. No germination - yet.
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The bulb I have I bought from Marcus in 2014. I had some seed from Marcus too Lesley and I just sowed it today. Fingers crossed.
Here's another picture of it with raindrops. Yes, you heard right, it's raining (a tiny bit).
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A couple of autumn flowering cyclamen starting now:
Cyclamen graecum
Cyclamen rohlfsianum
cheers
fermi
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They look really happy under your conditions Fermi 8)