Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
General Subjects => Flowers and Foliage Now => Topic started by: kiwi on May 01, 2010, 01:32:24 AM
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Arum pictum still flowering strong.
Same with Haemanthus albiflos.
Unknown Crocus species.
First Galanthus coryrensis for May! Sorry about the focus!
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Love the Arum Doug --the ones you gave me a while back are just in leaf so a year or two until they reach flowering size i guess.
Back in 'October in the Southern hemisphere' thread Lesley mentioned her success in taking Weldenia cuttings in the autumn --As an experiment i showed a pic of a cutting i had taken then during that month and although it had formed a small root by xmas i neglected to take a pic before i passed it on to Doug.
So while dividing one of my clumps 6 weeks ago back in March ,(13th),i took a number of new cuttings --these were the side stems growing at varying distances along the main stem/s and placed them in riversand.
Interestingly although my numerous plants in the garden proper have died back the cuttings have stayed green and are just now showing signs of decay.
This is what i found today....
Cheers dave
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Good on you Dave. In my experience the cuttings taken in autumn form calluses, rather crusty bits on the ends and don't really make new ROOTS until the spring when they are starting into growth again. I expect yours will too.
Doug, I think your crocus could be Cr. longiflorus. Mine is out at present but I'm not going out to compare as it's raining and bl..... cold. Maybe tomorrow when the blooms may be open.
The Arum pictum is a real beauty. :)
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Good on you Dave. In my experience the cuttings taken in autumn form calluses, rather crusty buits on the ends and don't really make new ROOTS until the spring when they are starting into growth again. I expect yours will too.
Ofcourse we garden in quite differing climates Lesley.....
To my eye these 'crusty bits' are clearly the roots forming --what else could they be ?. :D.
Cheers dave
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Dave,
you look set to corner the Weldenia market! :o
We had a few more crocus come into bloom on the weekend,
Crocus oreocreticus, bought this year from Marcus Harvey,
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Crocus biflorus ssp melantherus, also from Marcus but a few years ago,
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The tiny Crocus cambessedesii (I think - I remember planting it here but I didn't find the label) It's Crocus laevigatus as identified by Thomas H!
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And this Crocus niveus had a visit from one of the myriad of little butterflies which I think are known as Azure Blues, but I could be mistaken,
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Last year I posted a pic of this salvia under the name S. cryptantha, which Luit pointed out is actually NOT a purple colour! I've since learned that it's Salvia pachyphylla from the USA,
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cheers
fermi
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Dave,
you look set to corner the Weldenia world market! :o
cheers
fermi
Nope too late for that Fermi.
I think Lesley has achieved that already ;D ;D ;D ;)
Cheers dave
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Yep, I already did that Fermi. I've sent them now to 7 different countries, and so far as I know, quite successfully.
Dave, to me those knobby bits on the sides look more like new side growths which will develop as rosettes of foliage, rather than roots. Might be wrong though.
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Fermi, I'm sure this is not Crocus cambessedesii - looks like laevigatus..
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Fermi, I'm sure this is not Crocus cambessedesii - looks like laevigatus..
Thanks, Thomas!
cheers
fermi
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Dave,
you look set to corner the Weldenia market! :o
We had a few more crocus come into bloom on the weekend,
Last year I posted a pic of this salvia under the name S. cryptantha, which Luit pointed out is actually NOT a purple colour! I've since learned that it's Salvia pachyphylla from the USA,
cheers
fermi
just took a closer look at this--really great foliage..
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First frost this morning! All the (weedy) vegetable garden and the top of my car are white. Brrrrr.
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The autumn Crocus flowering season is coming to the end in my garden : here are a few of the last ones .
Cr. caspius has white to all different shades of pale lilac flowers - this one is my darkest seedling . I wish Cr . robertianus would increase a little faster , maybe there is a clone that does so ?
Marcus Harvey and his friend Susan left for Greece and Turkey yesterday on a botanising trip . but all the latest news does not bode well , Athens Airport closed and no public transport - almost anarchy .
Otto.
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I wish Cr . robertianus would increase a little faster , maybe there is a clone that does so ?
Otto.
Yes it's a lovely clone Otto. I have a similar one from Marcus that is at last starting to increase after 3-4 years but also gave some seed this season.
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I hope Susan and Marcus don't find themselves stranded, or worse, caught up in the violence in Athens. I wonder do they have the option to go to Turkey first?
Your C. caspius clone is really exceptional Otto, Mine are much paler, and just about white. I love its big flowers though. My C. robertianus from Marcus (1) last year, has 3 flowers this years, flowering at exactly the same time as yours. C. longiflorus is increasing quickly and seeding as well.
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Just a few dianthus flowers to show today.
The first is "Mars"
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The rest are a mix of seedlings in the bulb beds and will need to be removed for them to survive the summer without watering!
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cheers
fermi
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I do love your Dianthus Fermi. When you see the old catalogues so many were available - how many are available now here in Australia? - not many. Marcus sent me a couple of bulbs of Arum pictum - I will look forward to flowers next year. Marcus seems to be having a one man fight ( not quite the right word) with Biosecurity in Tasmania. They keep tightening the import restrictions - especially Tasmania.
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Very few of the "old" Dianthus here now either Pat though there are some more recent seedlings around which are to all intents and purposes the same, under different names. Fermi's flaked seedlings are probably based on the old 'Highland Fraser' of long ago.
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Talk of "old Cottage Pinks" made me think fondly of Mary McMurtrie a local artist and plantswoman who wrote and illustrated a book on the subject....a wonderful woman, still painting at 100 years old, she died in 2003... she visited the Aberdeen show in her last year.
http://haston.fireflyinternet.co.uk/sunhoney/books.html
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Maggi I have Mary McMurtrie's Scots Roses book which I love for the illustrations.
Oh wow a book on pinks too.
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With winter nearly upon us, it might be strange to welcome a few species of the Narcissi family, especially the early flowering "hoop petticoat" Narcissus cantabricus, which can be very variable with several subspecies, and not to forget the little, charming, scented Narcissus viridiflorus, the green flowering autumn species, always a delight to grow in a container, permeating its intoxicating perfume all around the nursery.
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Lesley, while we're on the subject of the beautiful Weldenia candida, when do you start taking those cuttings, do you wait until dormant, or split them up green, like Dave showed us in his posting?
I would like to have a go with the Weldenia you send me, and like to know where I can find your posting regarding that method. Any other tips?
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Some useful Forum links for you re Weldenia:
http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=295.0 thread subject: Weldenia candida
http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=3510.msg94862#msg94862 : this thread includes Lesley's AGS Bulletin article .
http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=474.msg13106#msg13106 : splitting merntioned
http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=4103.0 : switching hemispheres
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With winter nearly upon us, it might be strange to welcome a few species of the Narcissi family, especially the early flowering "hoop petticoat" Narcissus cantabricus, which can be very variable with several subspecies, and not to forget the little, charming, scented Narcissus viridiflorus, the green flowering autumn species, always a delight to grow in a container, permeating its intoxicating perfume all around the nursery.
the green is fascinating! a good one for someone often not a fan of narcissus.... ::)
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I've never seen Narcissus viridiflorus before, very interesting ;D
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Hi Bill, the links Maggi gave will probably tell you everything you need to know, but since I'm here, I take stem cuttings right now or a little earlier, as soon as there is obviously new growth from the main greenery. The new is lighter coloured and a little finer leaved. It usually starts after some decent autumn rain, which we in Otago haven't had this year but I've watered enough to make a few new shoots. Take them with a node (not easily seen) and keep them green as long as possible so they can callus before dying off. They should come though again about October. I do mine into dampish gritty sand with some potting mix underneath.
I divide a bigger plant toward the end of dormancy, say August/Sept. Once lifted and if not too old, it usually just falls into separate pieces.
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Some useful Forum links for you re Weldenia:
Thanks Maggi, as always vigilant and on the ball.
Lesley, thanks for the tips, what about tissue culture, my neighbour (Orchid grower) has got a laboratory ?
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I hadn't thought of it associated with tissue culture Bill. Good Lord, we might start seeing it in the garden centres next! ???
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Thank you for the photo of narcissus viridiflora, not always the most photogenic of plants but always fascinating. I kept three bulbs for four years which I flowered twice but last year they just vanished off the face of the earth leaving not a trace behind them - as the song has it, "I should have loved you better"- but I will be trying again.
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After some welcome, overdue rain, accompanied by thunder and lightning and a few heavy semi-tropical downpours over the weekend, all of a sudden most of the (recently planted) dormant container bulbs made good growth and pushing up above the surface, waiting and in anticipation of the spring to come in the near future.
Already, a few charming species like Polyxena ensifolia and Polyxena paucifolia could not wait, displaying their floral delight, with more bulbs to come, hopefully to start off another successful upcoming season.
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Both lovely Bill. Well grown and well photographed.
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Just a few more of the winter flowering Oxalis species flowering at the moment, this time the delightful Oxalis versicolor and Oxalis meisneri.
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Just a few more of the winter flowering Oxalis species flowering at the moment, this time the delightful Oxalis versicolor and Oxalis meisneri.
Hi Bill,
your O. meisneri looks like what I have as O. kaajvoegensis, but my source for it died a few years ago so I have no other info on it (google only links back to my entries on this Forum!) - what can you tell us about yours?
I've posted pics of other oxalis on the "South African Bulbs" Thread.
We have a flower out on Iris reichenbachii - a bit out of season!
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And after saying elsewhere that G. peshmenii is the only autumn snowdrop we get to flower, up came a bloom on Galanthus reginae-olgae!
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Nearby more dianthus seedlings continue to bloom; this one has an amazing array of spots and looking at it on the screen I get the disconcerting sense of looking at a "Magic Eye" picture!
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Crocus pulchellus "Albus" is starting to flower - this was split up in the summer so isn't as prolific as it was last year.
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A few more blooms on Crocus cancellatus ssp mazzariacus,
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This crocus is in the garden of our friend Cathy Newing in Macedon; she got it as Crocus ochroleucus, planted about 20 and gets a varied number of different sized blooms over a number of weeks,
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She also has a great bulb scree where Oxalis perdicaria/lobata and Oxalis purpurea are making a great display,
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A native small tree she grows looks like some sort of pinus
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till it flowers and it's obviously a Geebung, Persoonia pinifolia,
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cheers
fermi
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your O. meisneri looks like what I have as O. kaajvoegensis, but my source for it died a few years ago so I have no other info on it (google only links back to my entries on this Forum!) - what can you tell us about yours?
I've posted pics of other oxalis on the "South African Bulbs" Thread.
Yes the Oxalis genus is very large, (with over 800 species) and information often scarse and very confusing.
Our Oxalis meisneri originally came from Terry Hatch in Auckland, a well known authority, plantsman and collector of SA bulbs including Oxalis species.
There is an correct and true illustration and description of this species in "Bulbous Plants of South Africa" by Niel Du Plessis and Graham Duncan.
Hope this has been helpfull Fermi.
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Gladiolus dalenii (syn.G.natalensis) is one of the most variable of all species and has many synonyms.
This vigorous form with orange and yellow flowers in autumn and early winter is widely grown.
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Thanks for your help, Bill.
I'll have to look for that reference/text!
cheers
fermi
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Crocus pulchellus "Albus" is starting to flower - this was split up in the summer so isn't as prolific as it was last year.
Wrong again! It looked pretty good on the weekend - except where something has taken a bite out of them!
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cheers
fermi
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So good when they clump up like your picture shows Fermi