Flowers and Foliage now - December 07

[Maggi Young]

So you've been lurking over on the GB site then

forgive my ignorance... which site is this, please?

[rob krejzl]

GardenBuddies: http://www.gardenbuddies.com/forum/messages/12648/12648.html.

See Maggi, you just can't trust us to remain faithful.

[Tim Murphy]

I find the that the period between germination and the plant emerging again with the first true leaves is the hardest with vesicarius. The seedling doesn't put a lot of root down and there's a fine line between giving too much moisture during dormancy and it rotting off, and keeping it too dry and having the seedling dessicate.

Once the seedling re-emerges with the first true leaves, it's not a particularly difficult species, it's just slow. It can be grown outside in the UK for sure; summer wet is more of a problem than winter cold. I'll post some photos of my vesicarius again when they are flowering.

[rob krejzl]

That's why I thought it was a possibility for me. I'm drier than most places I can remember from the UK, but also have access to water for irrigation. Now to tear myself away from the keyboard and start shifting the load of topsoil which has just been delivered. Oh joy, oh ruapture!

[Maggi Young]

GardenBuddies: http://www.gardenbuddies.com/forum/messages/12648/12648.html.

See Maggi, you just can't trust us to remain faithful.

I'll have a lurk there, too, looks interesting!

As to your fidelity, Rob, I suppose that boys will be boys 

[Maggi Young]

So now we know that Rob K. is getting a rupture for Christmas.... anything to get out of the washing up, eh, Rob? 
I covet all sorts of hellebores but the BD keeps telling me we have no space for more of them  .

[David Nicholson]

Another picture of one of my Lewisia cotyledon hybrids still flowering. This one got chucked out of the greenhouse in mid-November owing to lack of space and was deposited in the racking I use to over-summer my Auriculas, where it was promptly forgotten about. It hasn't been watered for many a week.

[Maggi Young]

Those Lewisias of yours are giving very good value, David... thriving on neglect in some cases , it seems!

[Diane Whitehead]

I grew this Pelargonium from seed sown in 2002, and it has been growing
next to the street ever since.  It was named P. quinquelobatum on the
seedex packet, but I think it is P. quercifolium.  It was killed back to the
root last winter, which was a particularly stormy one, with trees blowing
over onto the house, but grew again in the summer, though not yet to the
size it was before.

I just noticed a single flower on it.  I'm sure it has never flowered in winter
before.

[mark smyth]

Yes I would say P. quercetorum.

P. quinquelobatum looks like this. It is duck egg blue

[Anthony Darby]

Don't know either, but I suspect the leaves are similar - i.e. "oak leaved" or "five lobed". Incidentally, according to a journalist in one of our local rags, the singular of leaves is leave! How hardy is it? Worth trying in Scotland? The following pics are Galanthus peshmenii flowering in a trough now and a day lily which produces flowering stems in October, but they never open.

[Diane Whitehead]

An easy way to tell if something will be hardy for me is to look at the
data for each plant in those Phillips and Rix books. 

If they say  "Hardy to -15 C", then the plant will never be damaged.

"Hardy to -10 C", - it will be hardy except for horrible winters that even
damage native trees, perhaps every decade or so.

About Pelargonium quercifolium they say: "Min. -3 C, perhaps less".
Maybe it was -4 last winter when its top growth was killed.  It is
planted with no shelter from northeast winds, which are the ones
we get when it is cold.  (Our more usual southwesterlies blow up
from Hawaii.)

I'm not sure where they get their data, but you should be able to
compare this with your conditions.

[ashley]

P. quinquelobatum looks like this. It is duck egg blue

Which of us is colour-blind Mark?

[Paddy Tobin]

Ashley,

This is simply the effects of the Northern Lights reflecting on the petals.

Paddy

[Lesley Cox]

Lucky duck!

Some odd things happen. The posting in my Inbox comes up as "Lesley, This is simply the effects....." whereas it's actually Ashley who's on the receiving end.