Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
General Subjects => Flowers and Foliage Now => Topic started by: fermi de Sousa on June 02, 2011, 04:36:28 AM
-
Officially the start of winter and it felt like it the last two mornings!
Still a few things in flower, like
Gladiolus dalenii
[attachthumb=1]
[attachthumb=2]
[attachthumb=3]
cheers
fermi
-
We also an out-of-season flower on a DBI "Pause" (insert pun here!)
[attachthumb=1]
And our trailling Grevillea lanigera is in full bloom,
[attachthumb=2]
[attachthumb=3]
cheers
fermi
-
You're doing better than I am Fermi, with just a few bulbous things and a dianthus and a geranium (papuanum) but these last two with the flowers too far apart to photograph well. Also a few late flowers on Genista aetnensis. I picked qhite a lot of seed from it this week and broke my thumbnails in parting the seeds from their pods. >:(
The Grevillea is very nice.
-
Fermi, your Gladiolus dalenii is gorgeous!
BTW. your Ixia amethystina is flowering here now and after two strong winters when I left a few outside in the garden they seem to be very hardy.
I don't know if they will flower though?? Or the bulbs are still too small?
I potted the now flowering ones in November and put them inside when it was very cold.
-
Fermi can i ask is G dalenii winter green for you then because i have just sown some seed reading it was a summer grower. >:(
-
No intention to answer instead of Fermi but the question is very interesting. Davey, you are right, it is winter dormant but flowers so very late, at the end of the long season of growth, this meaning flowers appear practically into the winter season.Same with Gladiolus callianthus (Acidanthera). In cold climates it means you will have to wait and see the flowers frozen.
-
Thank you Alberto,I am so glad you are part of this forum. ;D
-
Hi Davey,
as Alberto says this gladdie flowers very late and I took the pic before all the spikes were out because they might get frosted before that!
The Winter Narcissus have started with Narcissus cantabricus foliosus
[attachthumb=1]
Still a flower out on Crocus cancellatus ssp mazzariacus
[attachthumb=2]
and on our "Mother's Day Nerine", Nerine flexuosa "Alba".
[attachthumb=3]
cheers
fermi
-
The Narcissus are kicking in here too – various old fashioned and unnamed tazettas but most delightfully some “hoops” N. Ta_Julia (7/90) from Glenbrook Bulb Farm. I’m afraid the wire in the picture does nothing for the aesthetics but I’ve got it over nearly all my potted miniature bulbs to stop the wretched blackbirds digging the plants out.
Interesting that Fermi’s G. dalenii are just starting, as mine are just finishing. I would have thought that it would have been around the other way as Fermi’s region is colder than Adelaide.
If anyone wants Gladioli seeds in a couple of months let me know. I wanted to increase my lot and planted seed two years ago. This year, to my surprise, the most vigorous bulbs flowered. I’ve got no reason to keep seeds for myself now so I’ll dead head in the next few weeks unless seeds are wanted.
Interesting too that Fermi’s N alba is flowering… mine didn’t this year. I put it down to our unusually cool and wet summer as they have flowered pretty reliably for the past decade despite drought. It’s swings and round abouts - I had things like Sprekelia flower and Vallota lilies (Cyrtanthus elatus), posted in Feb, and Amarine tubegenii flower (posted April) this year, that haven’t done for a number of years presumably because of the wetter summer.
Cheers Anita
-
My own hoops are coming along nicely, N. romieuxii 'Atlas Gold' flowering earlier than ever, but 'Tarleton' and 'Nylon' are later so that they're all out at once with foliosus and a couple of others.
I potted up what I thought were seedlings (labelled as such) from 'Julia Jane' but they too are in flower (40 pots of them) are all 'Atlas Gold.' Don't know how I came to make that mistake. I wasn't planning to sell them this year so no matter.
But I think what will be one of my most favourite late autumn/early winter daffs from now on, is this little N. tazetta ssp. patulus given to me by Betty Clark. The two stems are just 12cms high (5") and are bearing a total of 8 flowers. They're deliciously perfumed too. Started late May and will finish into late June by the look of them. Betty sent me a picture of her clump, really gorgeous.
[attachthumb=1]
The other thrill today was as I finished hanging the washing on the line, I saw what I've not had in 12 years of growing the darned thing, flowers on Clematis napaulensis. It had grown through from the shady to the sunny side of a shade cloth fence and finally was performing. I picked a long strand with dozens of clusters mostly of buds so it's just starting. Lovely to have this flowering through the winter.
[attachthumb=2]
[attachthumb=3]
Today has been cold and horrid with a strong easterly wind and heavy cloud. Whenever there has been a gleam of sunshine, the sky has looked muddy and apparently this is the ash from the Chilean volcanoes presently erupting. Air flights have been cancelled and now the sky is positively black and there is rain slashing in, almost snowy sleet. And Roger's just set out to walk the dogs. I don't expect they'll be long.
-
What a gorgeous clematis, Lesley!
-
I know it sets seed so if mine does, I'll retrieve some for you Lori. I think it has been on the seed lists. The main problem with it is that I'll have to clamber across a large patch of blackberry to reach it. Roger says "I suppose you want me to lie across it and you walk across me, safely?" so I've agreed to that. ;D
I was right about the walk. I'd hardy finished posting when back they came, bedraggled and cold.
-
Clematis napaulensis is lovely.... display of flowers like that makes up for the long wait, Lesley ;)
-
I too love your Clematis Lesley. Something to cheer you up on not such a nice day.
Angie :)
-
Lesley, that is spectacular.
-
Thanks everyone. I've draped a piece along an oak dresser which is covered with bits of pottery, a fruit bowl, photos and other family tat (and a ceramic polar bear from Finland) in hope all the buds may develop. If they do I'll take a picture.
-
Lesley,
Mine is in full flower here as well. I just love it, as do all the honeyeaters. I get plants coming up in the garden all the time, as they freely set seed. I tend to cut mine back heavily after flowering, to control it's growth a bit. There is a hint of perfume to it at times, reminiscent of Daphne, but VERY elusive. I tend to only smell it when I'm not trying to (if you know what I mean)
Regarding Gladiolus dalenii..... apparently depending on where it was sourced from originally in South Africa depends on when it flowers. I have dalenii or daleni hybrids that flower from spring to autumn, depending which variety. The late on like Fermi's always tend to get hit with frost when it is at peak flowering, then goes into dormancy. But I have a nearly identically fowered one that flowers just before Christmas as well, and a red form that flowers more towards the height of summer.
BTW.... apologies if I miss-spell things or miss spaces..... still getting used to new computer (a laptop this time, and oh-so-different) and it's keyboard. So if anything reads wrong, sorry.
-
Welcome back Paul. I hope all is well with you and Yvonne.
We're under a red cloud here. Well actually the sky looks perfectly clear but when it clouds over, at any time of day, everything is tinged red. It seems to be keeping frosts at bay. We've only had a couple of very light ones so far.
-
Lesley,
So the ash is apparent in the sky when cloudy then? I was wondering whether it could be seen by the naked eye?
We haven't had many recent frosts here, after two -7oC about a month or so ago. Some very confused things. I was repotting Lilium 'Triumphator' yesterday and found them all showing signs of reshooting (or two inch growths in somecases). Not good, in that I haveno ideawhat they'regoing to do when they hit the surface and get frosted. :-\
Yes, Yvonne and myself are OK. 8)
-
I certainly haven't seen anything that looks like the actual ash. There should be some around today as Air NZ cancelled flights to and from Invercargill, Dunedin, Chch this morning, the first they've cancelled, but I see/hear they're in the sky again this afternoon. I remember when Mt pinatubo (?) blew up some years ago for weeks we had a layer of ash on everything; the trees, roofs, cars etc. Nothing like that now.
-
When the Adelaide airport was closed yesterday due to ash the sky looked perfectly fine apart from a few clouds which didn't look ash like.
The airport is open again today.
I have been checking this site for the last few days :
http://www.christchurchquakemap.co.nz/today
The Canterbury Plains looks awfully like a volcano top in the photo on the site.
-
Pat,
Interesting site. It's just been so aweful what ChCh has had to go through. It just never seems to end. They say that this week's quakes will spawn aftershocks for the next 6 months again, and that this lot were on a different fault line, which is even more worrying. I can't even begin to imagine what people there must be going through. :o
-
Superb Clematis Lesley !!! :o :o :o
.... and welcome back Paul ! The Southern Hemisphere just isn't the same without you... ;D
-
Luc,
Thanks. Now I just have to work out how to edit my photos so I can post them again. I'm going to have to get back onto my old computer and find out the package I was so used to using..... You think I can remember what it was to download it. ::) Just a pain to have to connect the old computer up again. I wish I could remember what it was. Otherwise I will have go and try to find something else, unless there is something on the laptop, or in Office 2010. :-\ Sigh!
-
Woo, hoo.... I remembered once I had a quick troll around the Net. Irfanview. Hopefuly I can get some pics uploaded tonight or tomorrow. 8)
-
When the Adelaide airport was closed yesterday due to ash the sky looked perfectly fine apart from a few clouds which didn't look ash like.
The airport is open again today.
I have been checking this site for the last few days :
http://www.christchurchquakemap.co.nz/today
The Canterbury Plains looks awfully like a volcano top in the photo on the site.
The activity since Monday is pretty shocking......
On a brighter note, that is a stunning Clematis Lesley.
-
Have a look here http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=7471.0 to see Southern Hemisphere plants enjoying life in Eastern Scotland...... 8)
-
Our pre-winter has been very mild with warmer than average temps for April and May but we're getting (not heavy) frosts now followed by days that would normally be brilliantly sunny, if cold, but are somewhat overcast because of the Chilean ash cloud. That is perhaps why the frosts are not heavy too. Whether it is the warmer than usual temps I don't know but already I have several spring crocuses out, CC cvijicii x veluchensis, baytopiorum, biflorus alexandri and many more in bud. C. biflorus mazziaricus has been out for a month as has laevigatus (probably v. fonteneyi) and the gold backed form was finished three weeks ago as was the white minimus.
Yesterday I found the first Iris 'Katharine Hodgkin,' fully out but bitten clean off by something but many more buds evident, perhaps a month early and most of the retics are well into bud, as well as two I. danfordiae, the only time I've had flowers on a 2nd year patch. They were buried quite deep in the first place though.
Many small hoop petticoats especially rom. 'Atlas Gold,' seedlings from 'Julia Jane' and the Australian 'Mitimoto' are well out, and also Galanthus 'Lady Beatrix Stanley' and 'Lavinia' (if correctly named).
The only form I have of Iris unguicularis usually flowers from August, very late but has started already this year. (Anthony, the one I sent to you was from a different source and is flowering now in her garden.) My only Camellia sasanqua form, a white, continues well. I must try for more of these they're so wonderful in mid winter. My one regret is that I don't have a wintersweet. I had a good one in my last garden but somehow the opportunity to replace it hasn't arisen. We have so few proper tree nurseries now and we have to rely on garden centres who usually stock what one doesn't want or won't grow here in the south anyway - except for natives of course by which we are inundated.
-
The buds of Clematis napaulensis which I draped over the dresser have come out but perhaps not quite so well developed as I would have liked. Now the stamens are beginning to fall.
-
First flower yesterday on Iris planifolia
[attachthumb=1]
The last on a Colchicum grown from seed as C. pusillum which it isn't - probably a form of C. corsicum
[attachthumb=2]
And Crocus cancellatus ssp mazzariacus has come into a second flush of flowers!
[attachthumb=3]
[attachthumb=4]
cheers
fermi
-
Fermi,
I've had flowers on Iris planifolia for a month or more now.... so very early. Quite small flowers, but beautiful.
I also discovered yesterday that one of the Eranthis hyemalis is nearly open. Also very early. It's a strange year.
-
Sure is a strange year . They are doing snow chanting and dancing over here to make some turn up http://www.odt.co.nz/news/queenstown-lakes/166693/food-1000-goes-down-well