January 2010 in the Southern Hemisphere

[Tecophilaea King]

Thanks Maggi, for quitely correcting some of our mistakes in the background without complaining, what would we do without you.  

[Maggi Young]

 Thank you , Bill. It is obvious we have never met.... I have never been guilty of being quiet...... I was told at an early age to speak up and I've been doing that ever since... best advice I was ever given!

I complain plenty... its just that you can't hear me  

What would you do without me?.....What indeed? Good grief, such a loss to the world is too awful to contemplate.... so I'll keep taking the vitamins!

[johnw]

Myosotidium-hortensia

Bill - Wonderfully grown!  Funny you should post this today as I was just reading David Lyttle's thread on his visit to the Chatham Islands last night and was blown away by the border of Myosotidiums at Admiral Farm.

Is that a self sown seedling in the right hand corner?

johnw

[David Nicholson]

Ross are Tigrida hardy where you are?i have heard of people leaving them out here in parts of the uk in the winter but i would imagine they would have been hit hard this year

Dave, I have a patch of Tigridia pavonia in the garden grown from bulbs I bought from B&Q planted in Spring 2008. They flowered well in 2008 (pics below) and even produced seed, some of which I sent to PaulT. I didn't lift them and they flowered again in Summer last year in spite of a bad winter in 2009 although not as well as in 2008. Time will tell if I have any left this summer. At the same time I bought a pack of Ixia hybrids these flowered sparsely in summer 2008 before reverting to winter growers and flowered really well in spring 2009. They are in leaf now and don't show any frost damage so far. Again time will tell!

[maggiepie]

Wow, Bill, your Myosotidium-hortensia is stunningly beautiful.
How big does it get? It looks much bigger than the hellebores next to it, which btw are lovely too.
Would love to see more of the area where these are planted.
How hardy is the Myosotidium-hortensia?

[Rogan]

"...its good to have your posts again there hasn't been any for a while."

Thanks for saying that Dave, I have not been too far away, just distracted by my 7 acres of wilderness in the southern Cape. I'm building a little "frontier" holiday cottage there with a magnificent view of the Cape fold mountains and the local "fynbos"  

While there, I collected a large quantity of Watsonia aletroides and W. laccata seeds from a friendly farmer's property, so if anybody would like some, please let me know privately (with your address) and I'll send you some as soon as I've caught up with my long-neglected correspondence and trades.

[Maggi Young]

Wow, Bill, your Myosotidium-hortensia is stunningly beautiful.
How big does it get? It looks much bigger than the hellebores next to it, which btw are lovely too.
Would love to see more of the area where these are planted.
How hardy is the Myosotidium-hortensia?

 Helen, here are a few links to this plant in the Forum......

http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=2510.msg58844#msg58844  ..... white form in the garden of Dave Lyttle in NZ

http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=3329.msg90556#msg90556 .....  blue form in the garden of Ashley Allshire  in Cork, Ireland

http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=1000.msg23339;topicseen#msg23339 ........ as a  grave decoration in the Chatham Islands ...... this shows what a lush, large plant this can be.




The Rankins of Kevock Nursery near Edinburgh say they overwinter plants successfully in pots under cold glass.

[maggiepie]

Maggi, thanks for the links, you're a treasure as usual.
I am a sucker for blue flowers, the white is a real stunner too.

[angie]

What would you do without me?.....What indeed? Good grief, such a loss to the world is too awful to contemplate.... so I'll keep taking the vitamins!


[/quote]

I agree Helen what we do without Maggi, shes like a little book of treasures.

Thanks for the picture of Myosotidium hortensia , wast sure how big the plant was but showing it growing next to the hellebore's shows its true size.
Angie

[Paul T]

yea i wouldnt of said it otherwise. More so in the shade where it lasts for a couple of months cause its cooler and moist...

 i use to have the inside kitchen window freeze on really cold winter nights..until i had central heating built in. I would hate to live in the northern hemiphere and have their cold..brrrr! i get enough here, although we havnt had a cold winter for a while but i think we're in for one looking at whats happening up north...extreme wether conditions fom hot to cold..climate change?? sorry gone off topic

Stephen,

I just hadn't realised that you get that much colder than us.  We get cold overnight, but the ground pretty much always thaws out during the day, and would certainly never be frozen constantly for a month or more.  I had no idea that you were that constantly cold.  And I thought our -8to-9^oC on occasions here was bad enough. 

Does it remain frozen very deep?  Here, we'd get maybe a cm or two at the top freeze, but almost always it would thaw during the day.  Bulbs below ground would stay snug and away from freezing thankfully in most cases I think, well in the ground anyway.  I'm sure a lot of the bulbs in pots get frozen at times.

[daveyp1970]

Dave thats incredible i wouldn't dare leave them out here i dont think my heart would take it,if you collect seed of them this season can i put my name forward,would love to try them from seed.

[David Nicholson]

Dave thats incredible i wouldn't dare leave them out here i dont think my heart would take it,if you collect seed of them this season can i put my name forward,would love to try them from seed.

I've made a note.

[Lesley Cox]

Thanks Maggi, for quitely correcting some of our mistakes in the background without complaining, what would we do without you.  

There would be more chocolate left in the world, for the rest of us.

[Lesley Cox]

Bill mentions a pure white form of the Myosotidium, not yet released comercially. I suspect it could be tissue-cultured then, as the "normal" white, in the link to David L's is easily available from seed and comes pretty much true I think. It's true to say though that it is often not PURE white, but has a slightly bluish cast in the centre of each flower, making the wholly blue a much lovlier plant, to my mind at least. A truly pure white would be very good.

[Diane Whitehead]

I also leave the bulbs in the ground. The ground would freeze solid at least for a month or two

I'm amazed. 

I'm on the Pacific coast of Canada and I can remember only once in my lifetime that our ground froze. When I walked on the garden it felt as though I was walking on a road.  It took me a minute or two to figure out why.  It only stayed frozen a day or two.

I know you are growing North American plants.  Perhaps ones from the East coast are used to being frozen, but West coast ones are not.