[Joanna Savage]

Avocado?

[John J]

Well spotted, Joanna.

[Caroline]

Sorry to have caused you extra bother, John - if you will float these teasers past us yokels at the bottom of the world....

[David Dickinson]

I wrote some time back asking for help in growing single flowered Kerria japonica in mediterranean climates. The replies were not very encouraging and sad experience has proven them right. However, I think I have found my substitute in Pavonia spinifex. Not identical of course but similar colour flowers and leaves similar in size and shape. It is my plant's first year but it is doing well and has already produced seed.

[Joanna Savage]

Your Pavonia spinifex is doing well David, but has given  me a query. Do you know anything about the origin of the specific name 'spinifex'? It is hard to imagine any greater difference than that between your plant and the arid-growing grass Spinifex.

[John J]

Pardon me for butting in on this, David and Joanna, but as you no doubt know spinifex means spiky and the seed pods of Pavonia spinifex are very spiky and can be quite dangerously irritating if they get under the skin.

[John J]

Caroline, I sincerely hope I haven't said or done anything to infer that I think people from your part of the globe are yokels!
I have met some extremely pleasant people from down there over the years and spent 3 good ones attached to ANZUK Forces in Singapore, working alongside Australians and New Zealanders. 

[John J]

Ceratostigma plumbaginoides, still very small but establishing well under our limited watering regime.

[Caroline]

Absolutely not, John - I was pointing the finger back at myself as I 'm usually quite good at word association.

[Alisdair]

Hilary has just put up another plant of the day, adding pictures of Campsis radicans to the thread on this climber which you can find by clicking here. Thanks, Hilary!

[Joanna Savage]

Spinifex. Oh Dear. Thanks for putting me right on the meaning John. Of course it is obvious, once you know. My young days were spent near spinifex country and it had never occurred to me to wonder about the meaning. It simply meant having to wearb shoes outside the back gate as there were too many burrs and spines for even the most hardened feet.

[David Dickinson]

Plant of the day seems to have gone off the boil a little so I thought I would be excused by sending in an old picture of a plant which is currently flowering for me (no time to take a new one as work is calling). Maurandya barclayana is a lovely delicate-looking climber which takes all the sun mother nature can blast at it providing it has a little water once a week. And that is in a pot. Good chance to plug Chantal's seed exchange again which was the source of the seed.

[David Dickinson]

Sternbergia lutea is just beginning to show on my balcony. The first flower on those I have in a pot opened this morning. I have been watching  leaves grow on what was evidently a stray bulb in among my succulents for at least a couple of years and waiting to see what flower eventually came up. Sternbergia lutea showed this morning. I don't know if it self-seeded or if a little bulblet got detached and fell in among the Crassula it is growing through. Very happy to have it whichever is the case

[John J]

Afraid I have neglected this thread a bit of late as with the daytime temperatures here still over 30 and no sign of rain on the horizon finding plants in flower is no easy matter. However, the following plant does flower for most of the summer even with limited water, although not so profusely as during the cooler months and with smaller individual flowers. I've always known it as Solanum rantonnetii but it seems I now have to learn to call it Lycianthes rantonnetii.

[David Dickinson]

I am just about to start the task of putting new labels on all my plants so your info about the name change came just in time. Thanks

PS mine, in a pot, didn't start flowering again until about a week ago. I get some flowers early summer and then very little until September.