Hi all, welcome to summer!
Thank you to everyone for their wonderful garden pix, advice and fun.
We came from here.
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1057009/
Here is a sunny bunch of lilies. Sorry Judy, I do not know if they have a scent.
Beautiful Lillies Wayne. How come you don't know about the fragrance? Doesn't your sniffer work? I haven't got a pic of anything today, but we have had some light afternoon rain, and if everything can survive the falling gum bark, I'll see whats blooming tomorrow!
Sue
Hello everyone. Echinopsis. Colleen
Hi Sue, tell me about bark and gum leaves!
The boyos & I have been raking all last week and this. The Angophoras are at their max. I keep up the motivation level by reassuring the "willing hands" that their blisters will only last a week or so more! :)
Yes, I am "a cruel man, but fair!"... :))))
My sense of smell is quite deminished. No medical reason. Quite a pain really, descriptions of "lemon tea cake" scented Brugmansia from Chrissy have me wondering.
Lovely Echinopsis Colleen! Those softly combined colours in the bloom are so delicate. Glad you got 'Bucks Fizz' to strike. It will be beaut to hear how the colour goes with your hard water.
Here is a little "cactus" with a visitor flying in. Colleen, can you help me with a name please? This came as a gift last weekend.
This message was edited Dec 1, 2009 3:18 AM
Wayne. Can you put up another pic of the plant to give me an indication of it's size and also a pic of the flower front on please? Colleen
Hi Colleen, I am not much up on these plants...
The native bee might indicate size.
Thanks for your help. Only have the following pix.
This message was edited Dec 1, 2009 6:25 AM
one more...
G'Day Wayne, The insect is not a native bee it is what is called a Hoverfly, they are predators and handy to have around the garden with the "Beetle Mummies".
Brian
Thank you Brian. I do not presume to be an Entomologist! LOL :)
Perhaps your identification of the insect will indicate the scale requested by Colleen.
This message was edited Dec 1, 2009 6:36 AM
Back again Wayne. The cactus appears to be a Rebutia friebrigii but it is a very variable species with flowers from yellow to red to orange. By the way. I haven't got it so would be very p[leased if some pieces found their way to my mailbox if there's any to spare please. Are you into collecting cactus? I noticed another one in the pic as well. I have spares of some of mine if you're interested. Colleen
G'Day Wayne, I'm not an entomologist either and thought they were little bees until on one of my nursery trips was shown the desirable insects to control Aphids in rose bushes. There was a little wasp that laid its eggs in the aphid and the young ate the Aphid from inside and the Hoverfly and Lady Beetle that are predators.
Brian
wayne not lemon tea cake ...lemon pound cake which is a buttery yeasty lemon fragrance ...I think some people are fragrance note "blind" like some people are colour blind. I lose my sense of acute smell in cold weather ...then I can only detect sharp fragrances.
I give a description of smell because someone asked me to ...my descriptions are only my perceptions, what smells wonderful to me may not be wonderful to someone else, I remember alistair saying some jasmines and various other heavily fragrant blooms have a cat wee undertone due to a certain chemical (can't remember the name) ...this chemical may not be detected by some noses. Hopefully none of the descriptions of mine have that note in them *smile*
I get quite depressed when my nose does not work.
I love gardenias but sometimes it smells like burning rubber to me when the bloom ages.
Star jasmine is beautiful when first open ...then it takes on a sort of mouldy orange peel scent as the blooms die away ...to me.
http://www.greengold.com.au/greengold/CARENOTES/CARENOTES/fragrant.htm
Since I live surrounded by farms ...a chicken hatchery,and a huge fertilizer place over the hill it is not always a good thing to have a strong sense of smell. ^_^
Colleen, your Echinopsis is spectacular & so pretty!
Wayne your pic of the cactus' visitor is great! Catching an insect in flight with a camera can be tricky!
Brian, the "native bees" we get here are about 1cm long (or smaller) & quite dark - would they be native bees do you think? We get lots when the dwarf date palm is in flower (last month actaully).
Here's my orchid (Cattleya?) in flower again.
Chrissy, I have a jasmine that flowers prolifically & then when the flowers are dropping, I can smell that cat wee undertone :-( Luckily it usually only lasts a few days until all the flowers drop off!
Speaking of perfumes, this orchid has a lovely scent, which "gathers" in the morning so you can smell it, but if you sniff the flower directly, you can't!
And my paint brush lily is out like clock work! But sadly it only lasts a few days!
Hi Colleen, thanks for that ident. I really do not have many cactus, mainly succulents. This one and the other little one (orange flowers) were gifts. When it grows a little "pup" that I can roll off I will post down.
Nice rain overnight, we needed a dust off!
Leisa, lovely Paintbrush. It is sad that they do not last long. I hope it is somewhere that you can keep an eye on it and enjoy. Pretty orchids too.
Hi Leisa and Wayne. Beautiful orchids and love the paintbrush. Wayne glad to help, if you change your mind about another passion let me know. Colleen
My little echinopsis has flowers.
They're lovely aren't they Jean. Here's Echinopsis seminudus. Colleen
This yellow Echinopsis is flowering this morning. For many years we knew it as E. eyriesii yellow form. Now E. eyriesii & E. multiplex have been lumped in with E. oxygona and we don't know if the yellow form fits in or not. It might be an unknown hybrid. Good lord we have gone from having a little knowledge to totally ignorant in a short time. Suppose it's old age that does that because I reckon when I was in my teens I knew nearly everything and now very little.
Brian
G'Day LeisaD,
You might like to have a look at this site. I was quite amazed to see just how many Native Bees we have. As a side issue in all my years in outdoor work and recreation I only once saw a leaf cutter bee at work. It was cutting perfect circles out of peach leaves and taking the pieces to a burrow. To see the leaves after it had finished you would think that someone had been there with a wad punch.
http://www.aussiebee.com.au/index.html
Brian
#Oleander
One I collected as a cutting last year..Had never seen it anywhere so I am guessing it would be quite rare.I have about 14 different Oleander cultivars growing..and hope to add more to my collection when my U.S seedlings finally bloom.
Just some of the many seedlings..
Here is a closeup ..such a lovely shade of pink
Warming up again and the Cacti are flowering all over the place.
Rebutia spegazziniana in flower again. Only just IDed this one now I find it has been renamed. In this case the new name is very apt since the plants are smaller than the flowers, it's a little beauty.
Rebutia diminuta ssp diminuta
Brian
This message was edited Dec 2, 2009 12:07 PM
I still have some Asiatics flowering. Colleen
Which buddleja is that that first (purplish) one, Chrissy?
Remember to stick your nose deep into the flowers of the Silver Anniversary buddleja. There should be a faint but pleasant scent, a little fruity rather than the so-called 'honey' scent of most buddlejas--but only if the moon and stars are correctly aligned ;-)
I think it was a new type of Globosa ...I will look up my notes and see, for now I must away ...hubby wants to go to the hardware shop.
Just wanted everyone to note that the oleander cuttings that grew roots in the water are growing twice as fast as the pot rooted ones ...amazing!
they are the ones with the bright green growth ...they all struck though ...I can plant a walk of pink ollies now ...thanks judy.
Ah, you mean the pale-yellow Buddleja x weyeriana whose pic you posted on this forum at http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/fp.php?pid=7319706. It *is* an interesting colour. You can really see its heritage in that colouring (dark-purple B. davidii crossed with the yellow B. globosa).
Good info about the growth of the water-rooted oleanders. Some plants put on a lot of roots in water but really slow down when transplanted to soil, but it seems that oleanders are not one of them. All healthy looking ...
Yes it is ...the purple is much more pronounced now, it's very pretty.
I wanted to tell everyone about the oleanders because they are easily obtained from many places where they hang out over fences and grace many industrial areas ...just be a little careful about the sap ...take the cutting (not touching the stems with the dripping sap and place straight into the plastic bag.) from the tips and trim up the leaves, just leave a few cut down ones on top. Then place in tepid pre boiled water ...about one and a half inches. Check the water level every other day. The roots grew in just 3/4 days but I left them for a few days before planting very gently into the washed river sand.Be sure to remove any leaves except for the very top and remember to wash your hands afterwards.
wayne,first time i've entered flowering in dec,,,and guess what?you stole my thunder with the opening pic....almost.....in this case,size does matter...these babies have been in for 5 years..the main flower is 6" tip to tip......32 buds on the stem......nothing to prove here,this one pulled in at novice champion last year...blooming early this year[sadly]....will have a brilliant dark orange hopefully by tomorrow
Not sure of the species of this Echinopsis but think it is probably another E. candicans.
Brian
Chrissy, here is my other Buddleja x weyeriana, a nursery-bought plant that was mislabelled as a globosa. (I think buddlejas are almost as often mislabelled as brugs!) Anyway, there is virtually no difference between it and the ebay-bought plant labelled as 'Gold'. Unfortunately, I'd cut back my 'Gold' plant to almost a stump after sending off cuttings to Wayne, so I've included mainly cuttings from the pictured plant in my parcel. Hopefully you'll be able to strike both types and then compare them for yourself.
Not flowering, but fruiting: my red Alpine strawberry. Has the most intense strawberry flavour. Bunnings has them for sale now ...
Here's my ebay-bought white Alpine strawberry. I can't taste any pineapple flavour but, once again, it has an intense strawberry flavour. A friend said I was lucky to have them fruiting in this climate at this time of year, but I think the poor things are just confused ... don't yet know they're now in the subtropics :-)
I've also bought a yellow Alpine strawberry but, as it's the most recent purchase, it hasn't had a chance to set fruit yet.
This message was edited Dec 4, 2009 10:33 AM
For comparison, here's an ordinary red strawberry (can't remember the variety offhand). I've found that the strawberries have the best flavour when they're watered just enough. Too much and they lose flavour and just taste watery. Growing them in hanging pots reduces the chances of overwatering and, just as importantly, keeps out the snails and slugs. But you have to net them against the birds.
