Spring has arrived!

  • 18 Replies
  • 13620 Views

Caroline

  • Full Member
Spring has arrived!
« on: August 29, 2014, 01:33:38 AM »
The first section of my garden to be planted up two years ago, - well-drained, reasonably sheltered, and I'm gradually improving the horrible clay.  This photo shows Euphorbia wulfenii with Narcissus "Tête-à-tête" in front.  A very satisfactory combination
I am establishing a garden on Waiheke Island, 35 minutes out of Auckland. The site is windy, the clay soil dries out quickly in summer and is like plasticine in winter, but it is still very rewarding. Water is an issue, as we depend on tanks. I'm looking forward to sharing ideas. Caroline

Trevor Australis

  • Sr. Member
Re: Spring has arrived!
« Reply #1 on: August 29, 2014, 11:11:23 AM »
In NZ there are sme terrific daff breeders, esp the little ones. You should soon be able to make a great show. Check out viridiflora hybrids. Maybe Fermi can give you some contact names in NZ.

M Land. Arch., B. Sp. Ed. Teacher, traveller and usually climate compatible.

Joanna Savage

  • Sr. Member
Re: Spring has arrived!
« Reply #2 on: August 29, 2014, 01:28:28 PM »
Caroline, that is a lovely looking tree behind your garden. Is it endemic to your island? Perhaps you would post some closeups of leaves and flowers. It looks as though it might be coastal, but aren't those grapes in the background? And congrats on your Wulfenii and daffs, very cheerful after the winter.

Caroline

  • Full Member
Re: Spring has arrived!
« Reply #3 on: August 30, 2014, 09:58:41 PM »
Hi Joanna - the tree is Metrosideros excelsa or pohutukawa which is endemic to northern NZ.  It's a tough, slow growing, evergreen coastal tree which in December is covered in red flowers - quite a sight!  I am lucky enough to have five big specimens - probably 150 years old - around my house.  I'll send photos at the appropriate moment as you are all hunkering down for the winter.

And yes, that is a vineyard you can see; I built my house at the bottom of the chardonnay block which I can see out of my kitchen window. Go to <www.tewhau.com> if you want to see more. We have four blocks of grapes on the property, all cleverly protected from the wind by remnant coastal forest, as well as a small olive grove. Pruning finished last week, and the chardonnay is now bursting into leaf.  :)

Trevor, you're right, I need more exquisite little narcissi like those in the photos Fermi is posting.  But first I need to finish the basic structure of the garden and put in the big stuff!
 
I am establishing a garden on Waiheke Island, 35 minutes out of Auckland. The site is windy, the clay soil dries out quickly in summer and is like plasticine in winter, but it is still very rewarding. Water is an issue, as we depend on tanks. I'm looking forward to sharing ideas. Caroline

Trevor Australis

  • Sr. Member
Re: Spring has arrived!
« Reply #4 on: August 30, 2014, 10:57:47 PM »
Not too much big stuff 'cos later you may well end u taking some out - esp if you want more little bulbs.

Do you grow Poor Knight's Lily? I grow mine in a large pot of leaf mold and scoria nodules. I feed it occasionally but it never flowers. Any clues as to why?
M Land. Arch., B. Sp. Ed. Teacher, traveller and usually climate compatible.

Umbrian

  • Hero Member
    • Email
Re: Spring has arrived!
« Reply #5 on: August 31, 2014, 07:13:04 AM »
Here "Autumn has arrived" - the first small flowers on my Eleagnus ebbingeii have opened and yesterday their delicious perfume was wafting on the air - I wish I could post that on the a forum for all to share :)
MGS member living and gardening in Umbria, Italy for past 19 years. Recently moved from my original house and now planning and planting a new small garden.

Caroline

  • Full Member
Re: Spring has arrived!
« Reply #6 on: August 31, 2014, 08:39:46 AM »
I don't know if I am the best person to ask about Poor Knight's Lily, Trevor.  I started out with 3 very small ones ten years ago, and for a while all was well - they grew and I kept on feeding them and potting on into marginally bigger pots.  Then when I moved back to Waiheke two succumbed in quick succession to phytopthera.  :(    However last summer the sole survivor, nicely pot-bound, did flower for the first time - two spikes only but better than nothing.  I am about to plant another at the top of the retaining wall behind the house to see what happens - there are some growing locally in similar conditions which have done well.  Try <www.tawapou.co.nz> for some expert advice - you will see that a ten-year wait is not unusual! 
I am establishing a garden on Waiheke Island, 35 minutes out of Auckland. The site is windy, the clay soil dries out quickly in summer and is like plasticine in winter, but it is still very rewarding. Water is an issue, as we depend on tanks. I'm looking forward to sharing ideas. Caroline

Caroline

  • Full Member
Re: Spring has arrived!
« Reply #7 on: September 03, 2014, 09:50:25 PM »
Another sign of spring - Clematis paniculata is now flowering in the treetops.  The photos are of a female plant which has smaller flowers.  :(   I didn't plant these lovely things, they self-seed through the forest (bush to us antipodeans).
I am establishing a garden on Waiheke Island, 35 minutes out of Auckland. The site is windy, the clay soil dries out quickly in summer and is like plasticine in winter, but it is still very rewarding. Water is an issue, as we depend on tanks. I'm looking forward to sharing ideas. Caroline

Caroline

  • Full Member
Re: Spring has arrived!
« Reply #8 on: September 03, 2014, 09:52:24 PM »
OK, have to work out how to post two photos on one post.  Second photo now I hope
I am establishing a garden on Waiheke Island, 35 minutes out of Auckland. The site is windy, the clay soil dries out quickly in summer and is like plasticine in winter, but it is still very rewarding. Water is an issue, as we depend on tanks. I'm looking forward to sharing ideas. Caroline

Caroline

  • Full Member
Re: Spring has arrived!
« Reply #9 on: September 08, 2014, 02:00:18 AM »
And finally, the other sign of spring round here is the kowhai  (Sophora microphylla[/i) ]flowering - a small tree which is covered in these yellow flowers, which are the favourite food of native wood pigeons.  Flower a bit out of focus as a gust of wind came along at the wrong moment.
I am establishing a garden on Waiheke Island, 35 minutes out of Auckland. The site is windy, the clay soil dries out quickly in summer and is like plasticine in winter, but it is still very rewarding. Water is an issue, as we depend on tanks. I'm looking forward to sharing ideas. Caroline

*

Fermi

  • Hero Member
    • Email
Re: Spring has arrived! 2016
« Reply #10 on: October 08, 2016, 11:59:11 PM »
Rather than start a new topic I thought it would be better to resurrect this one,
Here are some of the South African spring flowers in our garden:

Sparaxis tricolor (orange form);
Geissorhiza splendidissima;
Geissorhiza tulbaghensis;
Bulbinella cauda-felis;
Spiloxene capiensis;
Sparaxis grandiflora (purple form);
Hesperantha vaginata and ssp stanfordiae (pure yellow);
Geissorhiza ornithogaloides;
Sparaxis (maybe) bulbifera;
Sparaxis tricolor (red form);
cheers
fermi
Mr F de Sousa, Central Victoria, Australia
member of AGS, SRGC, NARGS
working as a physio to support my gardening habit!

*

Alisdair

  • Global Moderator
  • Hero Member
Re: Spring has arrived!
« Reply #11 on: October 09, 2016, 08:12:39 AM »
Splendidissimo! What a wonderful collection of these mediterranean-climate bulbs/corms you have, Fermi, and it's great to have the chance of seeing them in such good condition, especially as many of them are very rare indeed in gardens.
Alisdair Aird
Gardens in SE England (Sussex); also coastal Southern Greece, and (in a very small way) South West France; MGS member (and former president); vice chairman RHS Lily Group, past chairman Cyclamen Society

*

Fermi

  • Hero Member
    • Email
Re: Spring has arrived!
« Reply #12 on: October 12, 2016, 10:18:07 AM »
Thanks, Alisdair,
we've been building this collection for over 20 years and there are some that I got back in the 1980s!

Australian native plants have been a more recent obsession - mainly since moving to our current home in 2000:
Eutaxia microphylla (prostrate form);
Tetratheca thymifolia "Alba";
Conostylis aculeata;
Calytrix tetragona (prostrate form) x 2;
Senna artemisioides x 2;
Eremophila 'Augusta Storm';
Prostanthera incisa x 2;
cheers
fermi
Mr F de Sousa, Central Victoria, Australia
member of AGS, SRGC, NARGS
working as a physio to support my gardening habit!

Daisy

  • Sr. Member
Re: Spring has arrived!
« Reply #13 on: October 12, 2016, 12:59:22 PM »
It is the best time of the year and your garden certainly celebrates it. Lovely photos Fermi. I love your Prostanthera, I have always had a soft spot for it.
Daisy
Amateur gardener, who has gardened in Surrey and Cornwall, England, but now has a tiny garden facing north west, near the coast in north east Crete. It is 300 meters above sea level. On a steep learning curve!!! Member of both MGS and RHS

*

Alisdair

  • Global Moderator
  • Hero Member
Re: Spring has arrived!
« Reply #14 on: October 13, 2016, 09:21:51 AM »
More fascinating plants, most of them utterly unfamiliar to us in the northern Hemisphere (prostantheras are perhaps the only ones as popular here as they deserve to be); thanks again, Fermi!
Alisdair Aird
Gardens in SE England (Sussex); also coastal Southern Greece, and (in a very small way) South West France; MGS member (and former president); vice chairman RHS Lily Group, past chairman Cyclamen Society