March 2013 in the Southern Hemisphere

[anita]

Hi Anita,

What are you growing the colchicums through? I ask this because Michael McCoy has a piece on his blog asking gardeners how they dealt with the problem of companion planting with these plants. Here is the link: http://thegardenist.com.au/2013/03/rsvplant/

Cheers, Marcus

Marcus,
I guess the answer is lots of  stuff. I basically avoid having bare ground so have lots of groundcovers to suppress weeds. Areas which are shaded during summer are covered by various Ajugas. Areas in full sun are covered by violets. Surprisingly viloets are pretty tough. They will collapse in heatwaves but revive with a cool evening and a drink (bit like me).
I'll have to checkout the blog as I'm fond of Michael's writing.
Cheers Anita

[Anthony Darby]

I had to Google oxtongue lily.  I was distracted by the quantity. I'm still awaiting my first flower on the plant in a pot on its lonesome.

[arillady]

Anthony I could not recall the botanical name at the time of posting the Oxtongue lilies - Haemanthus coccineus
Photo taken this morning of their progress - we just shooed a few kangaroos out of this front garden just now - they went under the fence - they certainly damage the fences and I have noticed roses that as well as being trimmed have broken branches, apple trees being stripped of bark. Come on rain!!
Urginia maritima spent flower stalk - 1ft more than my 5ft height.
Both these plants have been in our garden for about 30 years.
Barkland at present as the red gums shed their bark - and sometimes ... limbs.

[Anthony Darby]

Pat, should you ever have seed on the Urginea maritima I would be interested in a few. I suspect they take a while to get to flowering size, but I haven't located anyone selling bulbs here in NZ.

[Hillview croconut]

Anthony if I had known you were after Urginia seed I could have plucked you bags of it when I was in Greece last year. I never collect it probably for the same irrational reasons that I eschew asphodels and their kin.

I have the same bark and kangaroo problems as you Pat. Happily the plants in the nursery are fenced off from the roos' hungry maws but the garden is exposed and I have a cranky old pademelon chewing away at my lilies (I must say he is most particular - he only nibbles the leaves).

I leave the gums to it for a month and then clean it all up once they have completed their deschabillage.
It is a bit niggling for a tidy freak like myself but I have trained myself to restraint!

Cheers, Marcus

[Anthony Darby]

When my ship comes in I'll be at the airport Marcus.

[arillady]

I had a flower stem this year on an Urginea grown from seed but unfortunately I did not write the date on the label as to when I sowed them. I will find a few seeds for you. I left the Habranthus tubispathus a day or two too long to collect seed - the winds the other day certainly didn't help.
Anthony there are a few green seed pods on that Urginea stem. Seeing the Eremurus in NZ was mindblowing but I just seem to not be able to grow them from seed.
 

[fermi de Sousa]

Rhodophiala bifida has finally started in our garden!
The first is a single bulb from some we received from Paul T, the second is a clump built up from a few we bought from someone commercial - possibly Hancocks - more than 10 years ago.
They all seem a bit paler than the ones Jon and Otto and Anita grow.
cheers
fermi

[fermi de Sousa]

Some more bulbs in flower:
Sternbergia lutea
Sternbergia sicula
Acis autumnalis
Narcissus obsoletus
White Cyclamen graecum
cheers
fermi

[Hillview croconut]

Lovely to see all these treasures growing so well with you Fermi.

Cheers, Marcus

[Anthony Darby]

Well, we had a shower of rain today, but my rain lily (Zephyranthes candida) anticipated it by a few days. This clump gets very little sun.

[arillady]

Anthony this time of year I have noticed that rainlilies can herald rain I am sure.

[Anthony Darby]

Well blow me. Tonight it is chucking it down. The rain lilies were right.