Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
General Subjects => Flowers and Foliage Now => Topic started by: fermi de Sousa on January 01, 2013, 10:55:01 PM
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Hopefully Lesley has not started this Thread elsewhere!
Happy New Year everyone from the South!
Here's Isotoma [Laurentia] axillaris in the scree bed looking fresh despite the heat!
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and an unlabelled clematis [maybe C. viticella] which has tiny bells to ring in the new year!
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cheers
fermi
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The clematis looks quite a sweetie Fermi.
I have been watching your temperatures. We are due for a 30 and 35 over the next two days with strong winds!!
Everything is already dry. We have only recently gone on to water meters and so far it is difficult to tell how much I am spending on keeping things alive.
Hoses out tonight and hope the heat disappears soon and we get some rain!!
Cheers
John
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No Fermi, she's all yours. ;D I've been too busy, packing books and porcelain mostly. I have a smallish but choice collection of antique Beleek left by my mother and I can't bring myself to dispose of it. The cups and saucers especially, are almost paper thin and very difficult to pack safely. I find scrunched up newspaper is best. Then there is the large set of Waterford glasses my sister gave me as a wedding present back in 1965, over 100 glasses! She must have thought I was going to do big parties and I never have. And books - books, books and many more books. Again, I can't bring myself to throw them. I may want to read A.A. Milne again some time and certainly I'll want to read Rudyard Kipling.
We had an almighty cloudburst on NY's eve I think - seems ages ago now - and there is bad flooding on the West Coast with bridges washed out, roads closed etc and then we had another downpour yesterday from about 11am until after I went to bed 12 hours later. Quite a lot of damage to foliage and flowers, leaves shredded, flowers broken and so on but nothing that won't be OK next time around.
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Hi Folks,
This is really a good luck call to all of us facing an horrendous day here in southeastern Australia.
Hope it all passes by without any disaster occurring!
Just trod, and I mean TROD, on a 1.5 metre tiger snake while watering the nursery - Yikes!!
Cheers, and the best of fortune, Marcus
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Sounds like you had damn good fortune already Marcus after treading on that snake.
I do hate these stinking hot days -44C - plus wind.
MY best wishes to everyone who might be on a severe level forecast today.
I had surgery on the foot Tuesday and am on crutches for a few days and a moon boot. The palm spike was too near the artery and main nerve to leave to dissolve or be encapsulated by my body. It was infected so it would have had to be cut open next week anyway. We are due to have a few days at the beach Monday to Friday next week then the following week to Hobart so I better be back to normal by then.
The teenagers will be called on to help with pot watering later today.
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Thanks Marcus for yourconcern re our severe weather conditions -we survived the day without any outbreaks of bushfires here in the Dandenongs . I recorded "only" 39 degrees here and it is still 36 now at 10 pm .
just returned from a most enjoyable open air performance of Shakespeare's TWELFTH NIGHT on the theatre lawn at Cloudehill . ,and enhanced by a hamper of fine food and a bottle of Prosecco .
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Hi Pat & Otto,
Highest temperature EVER recorded for Hobart, 42 degrees, and evev higher at places around the state affected by bushfires. A large number of houses have been lost in the south east and thousands evacuated, many by boat. Just woke up today and its a gorgeous morning, almost as if in a blink of an eye yesterday never happened.
Otto you are lucky to have such a fine venue up there in hills. Pat, I am sorry to hear of your travails - I hope you quickly get back into stride (sorry I just couldn't help myself).
Cheers, Marcus
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Everybody in Hobart is suffering from yesterday's heat. I have just been assessing the damage to the garden and while there is superficial damage not too many losses. Lots of watering to do.
Unexpected loss is a considerable number of my compost worms. Even in a shaded place they seem to have "cooked" and I am not sure that I could have prevented it .
Local lilium show next weekend and it will be interesting to see if anyone has blooms at all!! Could'nt have been weather like this when you had your successes Marcus.
John
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Yes the weather yesterday was a real stinker and I do feel for you near Hobart who are not at all used to this sort of heat. Especially for all the people who have lost their homes and businesses - I certainly hope they can get the fires under proper control and out pretty soon.
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Pat:
Wow, a palm spike, first I've ever heard of that. We usually just step on an old rusty nail around here.
Moon= cam walker I suppose.
Get well soon.
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Yes I know the rusty nail too Arnold. I have heard plenty of palm injury stories lately at the hospital and clinic!
Enforced rest is a hard one for me.
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It's been a dramatic time here on the Southern Hemisphere section of the forum. Lesley's had some almighty rain, Pat's foot is in the wars, worms are cooking (R.I.P.), Marcus trod on a tiger snake (must have given you a hell of a fright!) and all the southern states have been suffering heat stroke! Meanwhile, Otto is enjoying Prosecco & Shakespeare (more drama) in the gardens. I hope everyone is safe and staying cool (and dry in Lesley's case - send some over here please!).
In the past when it's reached 40 degrees or over I've found that my oriental lilium buds can sometimes burn. So I had to pick the lily below (Oriental lily "Canberra") so that I could enjoy it inside without worrying.
Gloriosa rothschildiana doesn't seem to be minding the heat (actually it's loving the heat; me not so much).
And finally some Calla lilies. Zantedeschia "Black Star", "Majestic Red" and "Purple Heart". Majetic red quite often sends up "double" flowers (or should that be semi-double?) - if you look at the bud coming up to the left of the main flower in the attached photo. What I haven't had happen before is having two flower types on the one stem, as seems to be the case with this Purple heart. There's the regular flower in the centre but the outer flower is more like the flower of Arum lily Green Goddess (complete with green tip). Does anyone know what would cause this or if it's ever happened to them? Is it reverting?
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Double up from previous entry (had problems posting - the page would just hang at this end for 5+ minutes). Maybe Maggie could kindly delete this duplicate as I can't seem to find a way of deleting it from my end?
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It's been a dramatic time here on the Southern Hemisphere section of the forum. Lesley's had some almighty rain, Pat's foot is in the wars, worms are cooking (R.I.P.), Marcus trod on a tiger snake (must have given you a hell of a fright!) and all the southern states have been suffering heat stroke! Meanwhile, Otto is enjoying Prosecco & Shakespeare (more drama) in the gardens. I hope everyone is safe and staying cool (and dry in Lesley's case - send some over here please!).
You're telling me- what a start to the year. horrible pictures of fire damage in Tasmania on TV.
You'd think that was dangerous enough without Marcus playing silly devils with tiger snakes.
I suppose that incident makes Pat glad her injury was not even more risky.
Just caught news of a 7.7 strength earthquake 'somewhere'..... good grief.....
added: Ah, this quake is off Alaska, so the Southerners should be spared that. And it seems there will not be huge tsunami as a result of this quake :-\ Hope that's right.
Some shaking in Juneau, though.... 205 mls away....
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I'm itching to show a picture of a curled up Tiger Snake on the path up to Frenchman's Cap, taken back in 1981 - but sadly it's a slide! My only experience of real drama with a snake until our dog was bitten by an adder last year. Hard to imagine those temperatures and fires around Hobart, though a few summers back we did reach a record 39°C in Kent and it was pretty unbearable.
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The south is having dreadful heat these last few days. I'm so sorry about Tasmania's fires and the shocking losses of homes, workplaces and schools in the south east near Hobart with people retreating nearer and nearer to the sea and eventually having to be rescued by boat. Thankfully it seems no-one was injured or worse. Hopefully this won't be one of the periodic really bad fire seasons for our Aussie friends but at present things look pretty dire with fires in many areas throughout the country.
We haven't had fires but Otago and Southland - the bottom of the country - had very high temps yesterday. I was working and being close to the harbour, the market had a coolish breeze until about 10am but Roger sent a text to say it was already 32C at 9am and before the day was finished, we registered 37C here at home, very hot for our part of the world. Much cooler today and in fact, a cold southerly blowing. I was surprised when I got home to find everything in good condition, having had a watering the night before, so no crisping as such days usually bring especially when accompanied by a nor'west wind.
I still have a few things coming into flower and the three below are a regular large-flowered Gladiolus form called 'Hint o' Mint' and a pure white Japanese Iris, name not known, but beautifully cool on a hot day. Another green is Euphorbia schillingii. One of my favourite species as it grows tall, to a good clump but though it makes seed - and I have some seedlings from sown seed - I've never found a self-sown one, unlike many others which Roger says I'm not to move when we do, such as mellifera and dulcis 'Chameleon.' Actually, the latter is already at 661 and seeding around.
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I like that Japanese Iris, Lesley, does it set seed? ;D
While Melbourne cooled down to 25oC yesterday we got up to 36oC! Which seemed a relief after 40oC on Friday.
The fires in Tassie seem so uncharacteristic for that cool little Island! I trust that the locals will display the same resilience that those around here did after the 2009 fires.
At the moment people are so much more "fire aware" around here - my workplace actually allowed people to take time off on Friday because of the conditions. I had to work as my "fire plan" is not to be at home if a fire breaks out! Our place is not defendable if a fire comes up the valley. It would be a case of grab the cats and a few valuables and head for the city!
Marcus,
you are too valuable to us to go around playing with snakes! :o
Otto,
just the one? ;)
Pat,
let me know if I need to do a physio consult by e-mail to discuss foot and ankle exercises ;D
Paul T,
hope you are coping with the heat even if there are a lot less politicians around at this time of year! ;D
cheers
fermi
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Thankfully Oz seems to be cooling off somewhat and so are we, the 23 we were promised for yesterday being just 19 and today's promised 19 reaching about 13 so far, with light, cold rain.
I really hope all the missing and unaccounted for people in Tasmania turn up safe and sound soon. When phones, cellphones, Internet etc go down, we are left stranded and it seems almost as if the world has come to an end!
Fermi I don't know about seed on the iris. It's the first flower. I did hand (and of course self) pollinate it but I don't have great hopes as the flower folded very quickly in Saturday's heat and is no more. Most of the modern forms tend to be sterile anyway but some must be fertile or otherwise where do the new ones come from? :) If by a remote chance there is seed, I'll send it along.
Now you can help me by telling me, is the pic below, an Eremophila by any chance and if so, which is it likely to be?
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Hi Lesley,
it looks very much like Eremophila debile which I grow ;D
cheers
fermi
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Hi Everyone,
John's post conjured up some lovely thought pictures! The immediate danger seems to be slipping away here in Tasmania and its count the cost time now. Lots of shell-shocked people and a lot of sad, burnt out dreams to say farewell to.
Its a common misconception held by "mainlanders" that Tassie is some sort of icebox. Hobart has, when I last looked, more sunlight hours than Melbourne. It is on the same comparable latitude as Rome and is slightly cooler because it is stuck out in the Southern Ocean. Thats the problem! We suffer dreadfully from bushfires because we have more forest as a proportion of land mass than any other state and we are situated at a point where large pressure gradients occur and this tends to produce more episodes of massive winds. Thursday and Friday were the result of perfect storm conditions: a very large block of hot, dry high pressure over the mainland and an approaching cold front sweeping up from the Southern Ocean.
Tim, did you live in Tasmania for a while? What were you doing out there on Frenchmans Cap? Did you get to Mount Anne?
John K - Are you going to the Lily Show next week?
While we are on snakes: Thats not the closest call I've had. Whilst on a fishing expedition in my youth I had one fall onto my plate, while I was buttering the bread, from the ceiling of an old hut we were staying in. And on another youthful hunting trip I had one launch a strike at me and grab the cuff of my jeans after my stupid dog had trundled right over the top of him. I think I broke the high and long jump in the same stride - it did the trick - he came adrift. I have seen many snakes in Greece, in particular vipers in the Peleponnese and a beautiful, slender, greeny-grey snake with white markings arounf its mouth. Does anone know what this species is?
Enough retelling of campfire stories!
Cheers, Marcus
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Marcus (the snake charmer of the south),
I was watching the high temperatures in Tassie from here in Melbourne with great interest. I was shocked to see that sub-alpine Cradle Mountain was 32 degrees C on that hot day! Devonport seems to be a cooler area though. They only reached 25 degrees on the day (mind you that temp. is recorded at the airport which is right next to the water). I suppose northerly winds would be cooled traveling over Bass Strait before hitting Devonport on the mid north coast, then warm up again traveling over land down to Hobart and other areas.
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Marcus - I was really lucky to work at the University for six months back in the early 1980's (with Profs. Jim Reid and Ian Murfet). I tried to take off as much time for bushwalking as I could, often with the Hobart Walking Club, which did a trip up Frenchman's Cap (and also a long wet and tiring one to the base of Federation Peak, which was shrouded in mist!). I went to Mt. Anne on my own and was quite chuffed to have got to the top (only beaten by Mt. Geryon in the Labyrinth). The most wonderful trip though was to the Western Arthurs and camping in a cave and watching the sun rise over the mountains the next morning. As you can tell, completely unforgetable memories - the sense of wilderness in parts of Tasmania just calls to you.
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Hi Marcus,
Yes I'll be at the Lily show just to admire and to get some perspective on how much more I have to learn.
I invested in some of the Matisse varieties (see below) - red, yellow pink and cream - and in a statement of absolute defiance i planted them in the garden.
AND THEY DID VERY WELL! so I have learned a little more. Yet to see them survive a cold wet winter.
John
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I should have said the "bottom" in the background was entirely accidental!!
J
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So John, if i fail as a bulb grower I might have another possible string to my bow as a snake charmer ;D?
I wonder how many will exhibit at the show given the excruciatingly horrible weather? I won't be. Had a few lovely stems reduced to shrivelled rubbish in a matter of a few hours.
Tim, Mt Anne is a big effort on your own. It makes a lot of difference when one makes the journey there. On a mid-summer, sunny day a few of my friends have done it as a long day walk but I prefer to fiddle about and look at the flowers. Did you go when Geum talboltianum was in flower in the boulder fields adjacent to the acropolis? Also lots of Milligania densiflora along the plateau above Mt Eliza. And scads of Isophysis tasmanica on the mid-slopes of Mt Eliza along with Blandfordia punicea and Dracophyllum milliganii. Yes it is a very primordial sort of paradise - it feels almost like you are glimpsing the prehistoric beginings of nature. Is it similar to the Highlands of Scotland? Never been to the Labyrinth - is that up through Pine Valley - top end of Lake St Clair? People tell me its another fairyland.
Cheers, Marcus
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Perhaps I should start practising by charming this monster? Killed by deer shooters last February and not one I personally would like to encounter!
Cheers, Marcus
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In case anyone is wondering where Tim went - here is a nice picture (not mine) of Mt Anne Looking from the NE.
Cheers, Marcus
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Oh, the cushion plants are (I think) Abrotanella forsteroides and the other steely leaved thing growing in its folds is Astelia alpina. The big woolly things in the background that look like Chewbacca out of Star Wars are Richea pandanifolia.
M
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Just for the record: I can link this mountain to the Archibald Archive. It is from here that I collected the seed of Milligania densiflora that Jim listed on his 2004 catalogue and I think at a latter date, maybe 2006, seed of Geum talboltianum and Isophysis tasmanica
M
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Fermi I think you are right re Eremophila debile. It looks exactly like it even down to the little spikes on the edges of the lower leaves. Mine hasn't flowered yet. I have no idea where it came from! But I have about a dozen.
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Fermi I think you are right re Eremophila debile.
Thanks, Lesley, except I always make the mistake of saying debile when it should be debilis!
Flowering this week in the garden:
Allium sphaerocephalon - is that bee from NZ?
Nicotiana sylvestris - making a re-appearance after the parent plant died in 2003!
A lovely Aurelian Lilium - 'X-Phi' and close-up,
cheers
fermi
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This is the 3 Chinese Pistachio bed where the liliums are making a brave stand against the heat!
cheers
fermi
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Oh yes, because of having been Myoporum debile. :)
Marcus, how tall does Richea scoparium grow please? Mine is now about 12 cms and very bushy but I have a potful of babies in urgent need of potting separately. It's a lovely thing as a small bush but hasn't flowered yet of course. Golly it's spikey though!
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Hi Lesley,
Richea scoparia can grow up to 2 metres high but usually it billows outwards rather than upwards at about 1 metre.
Yeah its not a plant that invites stroking. I could be wrong but I think the colour phases seem to a have a strong geographic determination. For example flowers on Mt Wellington are red while in the Central Plateau around Great Lake they are white to cream. The species relies heavily on a little lizard, the Snow Skink, which assists in pollination and seed dispersal.
Cheers, and a Happy New Year, Marcus
PS They are super slow!
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Hi Marcus,
That was quite some snake. Could this be the reason we can't find any foxes??!!
John
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Hi John,
Mmmmm ..... wow thats opening a can of worms. Maybe you could suggest to Fox Task Force that they look to recruiting killer snakes into their arsenal of tricks. Couldn't be any worse than baiting down at Howrah :P
Cheers, Marcus
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Anyone heard any news from any of our Australian friends? Hope they are OK, horrendous pictures on the news yesterday and today.
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After about 3 years in a pot my Blandfordia Punica is beginning to flower.
I wondering whether this is the normal behaviour for a "first flowering" plant or whether it needs a richer soil to send up the spike?
Any advice?
Cheers John
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I had a PM from Fermi just yesterday morning and he didn't mention fires or any problems with Aussie gardeners of our ken, so hopefully all is well. It seems the fire season, sometimes bad, is horrendous this year. We saw appalling pictures of burnt but live animals last night. Farmers have the soul-destroying task of putting them down, but I can't imagine the pain and horror experienced by the animals beforehand.
Canterbury too has been having bad fires over the last 48 hours with 4 houses razed at Prebbleton just south of Chch and at least 3 schools have been burnt, maybe deliberately in the South Island this week. A chicken farm near Prebbleton was also burnt and a nursery, according to this morning's news. I don't know which but Texture Plants, a fascinating place with super plants and great guys owning/running it, is very much in that area. I hope they are OK.
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Hi David, there are currently hundreds of fires burning across Eastern Australia. Today there is a slight lull because winds have eased. Temperatures however remain ridiculously high on the mainland - I think Melbourne has a max of 37 degrees and its probably hotter in Adelaide. Winds are forecast to pick up over the weekend and the emergency conditions from earlier in the week are to return. We need a decent rain or at least much more settled weather for things to return to manageable.
I think Otto (who is in a very fire-prone area) is OK as is Fermi. I think Pat is at the beach so can't be too bothered.
The trouble with fire is that it all can change very quickly especially when we have nutters out who are firebugs or just plain stupid. One of the large fires to the north of Hobart resulted from an unattended campfire - the person has been caught and charged. Over 25 unattended fires (people who can't put a campfire out correctly) were put out by emergency workers in the southern region of Gippsland in Victoria and that was on a A TOTAL FIREBAN DAY!
Where these people come from and how they have managed to get through life so far boggles the mind.
Hope that might give you a clearer picture?
Cheers, Marcus
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Back from the beach and on both feet now with no aids. It was so much cooler down there. Yes I have been watching the broadcasts on all the fires while at the beach. It has shattered so many people's lives over the last week or so.
Noticed lots of scorched rose leaves (from the fierceness of the sun) as we drove in this afternoon. Harry has valiantly watered my potted forest since I have been gone.
Now to organise myself for my flight to Hobart on Monday leaving Adelaide at 6am. Now where the heck is that usb that has all the files on it that I have to pass on. Most is on my laptop thank goodness but not all.
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Hi John,
I think you are doing well getting your Xmas Bells to flower. Its another one that moves at glacial pace. Why not ask the folks up at the Tasmanian Plant nursery for advice. They also sell especially developed potting mix for difficult natives - they might even have fertilizer.
Cheers, Marcus
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Thanks for that Marcus, I'll drop in on POTN and get some advice.
Since I wrote that post, the spike is gradually elongating so I guess all is well so far.
John
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The last days have reported that in Australia and Tasmania forest fires and the terrible heat. Colleagues, worried about you!
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We've been following the bush fires on the news. There has even been some homes destroyed by bush fire in Christchurch, New Zealand, but our hot dry spell is nothing compared with Australia.
I picked up this unidentified Gladiolus yesterday.
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That's rather nice Anthony. I'm sure there has been something the same or very similar on Luit's Dutch flower show thread. I've never wanted to grow the larger, modern Gladiolus forms - too close a reminder of Dame Edna, but I see in my new garden, there are several in bud now that I'd not noticed before so it will be interesting to see what eventuates. Every time I go down there, about 3 times a week at present, I see new things. My deep red Calla (shown here a day or two ago as 'Midnight Red' but I have it just as 'Midnight') and my very dwarf pink Eucomis are out too. Choc. cosmos in bud so lots of reds at present. I even bought an ivy geranium the other day, deepest boysenberry colour, for growing on our morning deck.
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I found it in bush being cleared for building. Tree ferns and manuka being bulldozed, so I rescued it. A pair of California quail (Callipepla californica) kept me company.
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The last days have reported that in Australia and Tasmania forest fires and the terrible heat. Colleagues, worried about you!
Natalia , I very much appreciate your concern for our safety here in Australia and Tasmania . As far as I know no FORUM members have been threatened by fires . There were a few smaller bushfires some 20 km from here on Friday when the temperature climbed to 40C , much cooler today ,only 16 C . but more heat on the way
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it's a form of G. daleni, with a serious thrips attack
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Thanks. The white on the petals is mostly loose pollen.
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Anthony what is the rose in the pot next to the Gladiolus?
I finally met Marcus and Susan in Hobart on Wednesday evening when my hosts and two other Heritage Rose Execs met for dinner at a riverside restaurant.
It was a lovely evening and to finally meet face to face :D :D :D
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Hello Anthony,
Your gladiolus looks very much like one that I have growing here in my garden sold as (Las Vagas) herein Australia.
regards John.
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The rose is labelled "Hybrid tea Dioressence (Deldiore)".
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I bought 3 roses at the market yesterday. They're being held for me until we have moved. In spite of there being so many roses at 661, most are either miniature which I don't like very much, or in harsh orangey colours which I don't like very much (in roses) or are so old that there are huge stumps with maybe just one or two growing stems from them and in my opinion, should be dumped. There are also standards which I don't like at all! It's very picky of me I'm afraid but the resident roses will be either abandoned altogether or replaced with others, climbers or shrubby. The 3 I bought are 'Mme Alfred Carriere,' 'Alberic Barbier' and 'Gloire de Dijon' so it's easy to see the general direction in which I'm heading. ;D I'm looking at rose catalogues which I've never done in my life before. ???
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Excellent selection Lesley of old roses. Mme Alfred is nearly thornless and flowers for ages and ages. Alberic Barbier will probably cover a shed fairly quickly in your conditions - mine is a mound on the ground - mainly spring flowering with lovely yolk yellow double flowers which fade nicely to cream. Gloire de Dijon can be a good gentle climber but most of the ones in Oz are not very good growers. Hope the NZ form is more robust.
Anthony I looked up your rose on www.helpmefind.com/roses (http://www.helpmefind.com/roses) as I did not know it at all. Helpmefind also has a section for paeonies.
Great websites.
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Vivienne received the rose as a gift from a cousin in Australia via something akin to Interflora.
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But it would have to come via a NZ source surely.
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Yeah. If I send flowers to my sister in Tauranga for her birthday - she has everything else - they are delivered from a Tauranga florist, not from Dunedin. Planning to send red roses to David N for his 70th next month and to Otto for his 75th the month after. ;D ;D ;D
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I had Alberic Barbier and Mme Alfred Carriere in my first non parental garden, when I married. They were gorgeous and I've always intended to grow them again so now will be the time.
A large friend of Roger's is coming this week and we'll move troughs and other heavy stuff down the road. It's really happening now.
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Yes, that's the way Interflora works - order from one place, source from another. Vivienne's sister in Stirling also received a rose. It was in remembrance of their mother. Not sure if it was the same one? It has a lovely scent, though my favourite scented roses are "Blue Moon" and "Zephrine Drouhin". I'm going to the tennis next weekend for my birthday. 8)
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I finally met Marcus and Susan in Hobart on Wednesday evening when my hosts and two other Heritage Rose Execs met for dinner at a riverside restaurant.
It was a lovely evening and to finally meet face to face :D :D :D
Lovely to finally meet you too Pat ;D
Cheers, Marcus
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Anthony - Dioressence rose is distributed through Rankins Roses here in Australia. They are known for their French roses (they are the sole distributor for some of them here). Dioressence is inspired by the Christian Dior perfume of the same name. http://www.rankinsroses.com.au/shop/Delbard-French-Roses/Dioressence-1.aspx (http://www.rankinsroses.com.au/shop/Delbard-French-Roses/Dioressence-1.aspx)
I have Dioressence and a couple of their other roses. "Hommage a Barbara" is unlike any other rose I grow. It is covered in flowers from top to bottom en masse and is a very strong performer, even through very hot weather. It grows into a neat rounded shrub (1.2 metres). It doesn't make a good cut flower but when in flower it looks like a bouquet of flowers growing in your garden. "Red Intuition" makes a beautiful long stemmed cut flower. It won the International Cut Flower of the Year in 2000.
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It's lovely. I prefer scented roses.
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Hi Folks,
A reptilian visitor to my nursery - not the snakey type luckily. Been feasting on dropping plums ... looks quite fat ... maybe pregnant.
Its an Eastern Blue Tongue Lizard - sometimes known as a stumpy tailed blue tongue.
Cheers, Marcus
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Looks very nice Marcus. I bet Anthony would like some of those. ;D
At the NZAGS Study Weekend starting Friday at Lincoln Uni, we have plant sales for a short period on the Sunday morning. I'm taking up some plants and also some dormant bulbs/corms including 2 Chocolate Soldiers. It has done so well here. The minimus Bavella Form also. So many thanks to you. :)
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Wow Lesley! Thats impressive - I haven't even listed Crocus minimus Bavella Form yet. Should have maybe auctioned them?
I did have a lovely pot full of Crocus chrysanthus Sunspot but I think something untoward has happened to them. I'll look when I am stronger ;D
Did you ever get that white form of Crocus longiflorus from me?
Hope it all goes well over there.
Cheers, Marcus
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Had to take a photo of this stumpy too yesterday. Certainly had plenty of fat in its tail and looked very pregnant.
Also I thought these seedpods of a local bulb whose name is not coming at present were interesting with their pink tips.
Now to find the photo of this bulb.
Burchardia umbellata
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Nice seed pods, Pat, they almost look like allium pods!
We bought this water-plant for our new water-pot,
Nymphoides crenata - a native plant
And in the shade house once again the blue Campanula isophylla has come into flower - this one is a seedling which came up in another pot on the other side of the aisle from the parent plant!
cheers
fermi
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These liliums have finished now but were out about a week ago
Lesley Woodriff
Pappo's Beauty
Off to NZ in the morning so will probably "log in" while there!
cheers
fermi
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Super shots, Fermi. Enjoy the conference and please pass on our very best wishes to all the lucky delegates.
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Hi Pat,
Your Blue Tongue looks the more westerly occuring species commonly known as a Shingleback.
Cheers, Marcus
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Yes Marcus - we also have the smooth skinned version too with the long tail - blue tongue.
Must try to get a photo of it too when I see it next.
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Love the shingleback. I have a pet blue tongued skink. He loves snails and banana, but I give him baby fruit desert too.