Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
General Subjects => Flowers and Foliage Now => Topic started by: fermi de Sousa on February 02, 2009, 01:48:46 AM
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It's a bit hot out here still though there's been thunderstorms through the area this morning. Nothing much new I can show you to start off the month, but I remember some time ago someone asked about growing Delphinium semibarbatum. I have one seed grown plant that I thought had died as it certainly didn't look alve! But this time last year I decided to repot it anyway and lo and behold! in spring it sprouted new growth. I've taken a pic of it this year to show you what it looks like when dormant,
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and I'll keep fingers crossed that it comes back to life in spring! It might even flower.
cheers
fermi
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Perhaps it's one of those tuberous species like the Americans DD. nudicaule and orfordii which die back to a little black, thick tuber-like root and sprout away again when the weather is moist. They're more bulb-like than perennial. What Kristl would call ephemerals.
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Does anyone know what's happened to the AGS website? I can't get it to download and I've just realized my sub payment didn't go through late last year. Haven't been able to look at the Online show results either.
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it's running OK at the moment Lesley.
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It wasn't for me David, but I got there eventually through the link to Diane's latest log, then to the home page. Sub now paid but at full rate, when they owed me 3GBP and I'll have to write that off it seems. The renewal thing had a set amount which couldn't be changed. I would have had to pay this year's sub by writing a letter and sending a bank draft which costs a lot more than the 3GBP.
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I was all set to have a bit of a gloat - quite a large one actually - about the state of Australian cricket at the moment but it all seems a bit silly in light of the apalling fires yesterday in Victoria. At least 14, maybe as many as 40 people are dead as bush fires swept through forest and towns. The temperature reached over 48C in some parts, over 46 in Melbourne! I shall never again complain about our current mid 30s.
I can only say how very sorry I am, and I hope it all comes under control very very soon. What makes it so much worse, it seems that most of these bushfires are deliberately lit by people who can only be described as seriously sick.
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What a catastrophe in Southern Australia !! :'( Our thoughts go to the victims and their families faced with this immense drama ! I hope things become to normal as quick as possible without further loss of life and that all our fellow Forumists and their families are ok !
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The weather situations in Australia are frightening enough without idiots lighting fires ---hard to comprehend these fools. Terrible to read of the loss of life and homes ......only hopethat it is soon safer for all.
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Gloating about cricket aside (heh, heh!) the fires in Australia are cataclysmic and tragic. The south-western Cape is also experiencing wild fires at the moment but, thankfully, not on the same scale as Australia. Here on the eastern seabord we also experience devastating fires occasionally, but only in the winter months when the grasslands and pine plantations are tinder dry and the fires are driven by the relentless 'berg' winds from the western interior.
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Here in NZ we get very little news about what happens in South Africa Rogan. Occasionally there's something about the SA government but really, almost nothing.
SA's recent cricket series in Australia remains an outstanding achievment: NZ's current games are at an interesting stage when either side could win the series so no gloating at present.
In view of the current devastating death toll in Victoria - almost 200 and still not final - my comment above seems distinctly underwhelming. We elsewhere, just can't comprehend the scale of this tragedy.
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South Africa's recent cricket series in Australia remains an outstanding achievment: NZ's current games are at an interesting stage when either side could win the series so no gloating at present.
In view of the current devastating death toll in Victoria - almost 200 and still not final - my comment above seems distinctly underwhelming. We elsewhere, just can't comprehend the scale of this tragedy.
The Aussie Cricket team went to cheer up the locals and play cricket with some of the youngsters affected by the fires. Our Captain was clean bowled for a duck by an eleven year-old ::) I think he has been signed up by the selectors! ;D
Just to show that there are still flowers during this horrid summer,
My favourite double red "Sweet William"
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Crassula falcata just starting to flower
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Ismene festalis
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cheers
fermi
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Good to hear from you Fermi. All the Aussies have been quite quiet lately, not surprizing at all, in the circumstances. Glad to see you are not too traumatized. Julia watzername spoke in the Aus parliament about Saturday the 7th Feb being the worst day in Australia's peacetime history, but surely even in war time, not so many were killed on a single day. Gallipoli? Passchendaele?
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Lovely to see you back Fermi and with plants to show us.
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I posted a picture of Dicentra 'Ivory Hearts' back in November I think. It has flowered again and made a little seed. I didn't realize this until I was weeding yesterday and a seed flicked out and hit me in the eye.
They are black and shiny like Corydalis seeds and the pods remain green so that I hadn't noticed seed. Most had gone but I was able to retrieve 4 seeds and sowed them immediately.
The original plant was Laurence Moon's, on the Old Forum, early May 2006. What has happened to him? He seems to have vanished off the radar. Not the usual reason I hope.
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We had our AGS Vic group meeting on Saturday when we looked at DVD pics of the gardens of two of our interstate members, Gavin in Denmark, Western Australia and Lesley Crowden (kaydale on this Forum) in Tasmania; both were wonderful to see and envy - they looked so lush in the freshness of springtime!
Before the meeting we had our committee meeting at Otto's, so I took some pics to share with the Forum. (Otto's had some computer problems so has been "off-line" for a couple of weeks).
Firstly the steadfast little hybrid Campanula x stansfieldii of which I posted a pic 2 years ago as well!
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The next is the first of a few gentians, G. sino-ornata
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And then a sizeable clump of G. paradoxa,
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and a darker form in a different clump
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And finally, G. septemfida
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cheers
fermi
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Still at Otto's place:
The Cyclamen purpurascens are still in bloom
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And the Cyclamen hederifolium are starting,
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This one is growing behind a rather devastated Rhododendron forrestii ssp repens
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It didn't much like the 46C it was subjected to last week!
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I told Otto I didn't think I should post these pics to the Forum as it might make Maggi cry to see how the Rhodo is suffering!
To cheer you up here is a cheerful clump of colchicum!
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cheers
fermi
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Finally from Otto's:
a pretty clump of Dianthus campestris,
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the last of the Stylidium graminifolium,
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And a few flowers left on Tulbaghia comminsii
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While over in the Alpine House, the first flower on Acis rosea (syn Leucojum roseum)
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Back at our place the Crassula falcata is now in full bloom
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And also in the shadehouse a plant of Commelina elegans puts forth a succession of fleeting blooms,
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And a couple of campanulas, C. isophylla (blue)
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and C. cashmeriana,
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cheers
fermi
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Thanks for the pix Fermi !
Summer seems to be moving along...
We don't mind... it brings our Spring closer every day ! ;D
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Very nice pics thanks, Fermi and Otto. I hope you are both enjoying some cooler weather. When I go out in the morning now the air has a distinctly autumnal feeling. Maples and rowans are beginning to colour already though the bigger oaks and beech trees are still in hard summer colour. The white fruit look good on the chocolate leaves of Sorbus koehneana.
I'm thinking the first of Otto's gentians is not really sino-ornata, too pale and the foliage very light green and lax. I'd be surprised if "true" sino-ornata is anywhere around now, down here at least, so many people and nurseries have hybridised intentionally or otherwise, usually based on the original 'Drake's Strain.' Nowadays I give the whole lot the "lumped" name of Asian hybrids, or sino-ornata types. I have them in deep blues (from Ian McNaughton's seed when he was in NZ), mid blues and pale to extremely pale shades and of course a number of different whites. They're all lovely though.
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Great pics Fermi. Just catching up with this topic. SOOOOooooo much added since I last had a look around here at the forums..... no idea when I'll ever catch up, but I'll try to at least keep up with the Southern Hemisphere topics as I can. ::)
As to flowering here in my garden.... Dahlias, Cannas, Roses, Liliums just finishing, Platycodon, Salvias, Dianthus of assorted types, Campanula carpatica 'Pearl Deep Blue' (great small one that I had never seen before spring when I bought it), Cyclamen (purpurascens, intaminatum, hederifolium, cilicicum), Amaryllis beladonna (although a dreadful year for flowers of those this year in my garden), Nerine species are sending up buds, Lagerstromia indica (some finishing, anothe still in bud), Clematis..... sounds like a lot but it is mostly bits and pieces here and there rather than a good display. Still not bad for this time of year I think, particularly with the warm weather we had a couple of weeks ago. The last fortnight has been almost unnaturally cool for February, but pretty much no rain to speak of, unlike the flooding a few hours north of here. We missed out on the rain yet again. :'(
But..... we haven't had any major fires in this area this year as yet, and hopefully it stays that way. Seeing the fires in Victoria is bringing a lot of trauma to those who lived through the awful fires that hit Canberra in January a few years ago (400+ houses lost, but only 4 lives thankfully). Over 200 lives lost in Victoria now confirmed, and they've just found more remains in some houses that were declared clear.... so they're now going through and checking all the houses again before demolition can take place. Even 600km north of there as we are.... we still have had smoke in the air here quite regularly in the last few weeks, and the temperatures are heating up again this week as well. I feel awful for those firefighters who still haven't really had a break even with the cooler weather, as they just can't get the last of the fires under control. And we lost a firefighter from here in Canberra too, who went down to help with the Victorian fires and was killed when a tree fell on the truck. Such a dreadful thing that so many of these fires were deliberately lit as well. :o
OK, I've rabbited on enough for now. Sorry to break the lovely peace and quiet you've had without me the last few weeks. ;) ;D
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I'm thinking the first of Otto's gentians is not really sino-ornata, too pale and the foliage very light green and lax. I'd be surprised if "true" sino-ornata is anywhere around now, down here at least, so many people and nurseries have hybridised intentionally or otherwise, usually based on the original 'Drake's Strain.' Nowadays I give the whole lot the "lumped" name of Asian hybrids, or sino-ornata types. I have them in deep blues (from Ian McNaughton's seed when he was in NZ), mid blues and pale to extremely pale shades and of course a number of different whites. They're all lovely though.
Of course, Lesley, you are right! Otto reminded me that he told me that it was a hybrid but I forgot to write it down.
Paul,
nice of you to re-join us! You're definitely ahead of us this time if you already have Amaryllis in flower, only a few stems just starting to arise in our garden though I have seen some in OPG ;D (other people's gardens). I know what you mean about catching up on the Forum! I got back to work today and there were 3 pages of "Unread threads"! thanks goodness for tea-breaks!
cheers
fermi