Miscellaneous - Diary

Go to bottom

New: Diary, last update 9th December 2008
May 8th 2007 
There is not much more to be added to the pages as to new plants, bulbs etc, but there are all kinds of interesting events to be mentioned. I saw e.g. - for the very first time - a baby praying mantis today. It looks like a biggish ant but when you take the trouble, if you ever come across one, of looking a little close you see its heart shaped head and tiny folded front legs, quite endearing. When long ago I lived in Nigeria I once had the joy of watching an egg capsule hatch: 80 or so babies coming out and run away!!
There are rather few birds this year. I see but three swallows flying around in the valley down there, I hardly heard the hoopoe yet, but the bee eaters are there again with their peculiar call 'kwarrak, kwarrak'. Last week when I went to visit a friend nearby an oriole flew across in front of the car, starling sized, bright yellow with black wings.

Concerning the plants: convolvulus sabaticus has grown enormously and takes over a square meter by now. Cuttings are easy and it grows in awkward places.
Another thing is that the oleanders are full of buds already. Just a few more days and the first flower will be there. My first to have flowers will be 'Angiolo Pucci' , lovely, warm, salmon/orange in colour, but no smell. At the moment it looks clean, but there are odd, black warts on it from time to time. *)The yellow, single flowered species which I obtained by taking a cutting somewhere is going to flower as well. When it is oleander time I bring a pair of scissors in the car: you never know what you will meet! Cuttings soon root in water. Take the flowers out before you do that and or take a cutting from a non flowering branch. Careful when you finally put the cutting into a pot: the new roots break off easily!
*) I wonder whether this could be a form of some cancer.
Today, 10th May, the weather is lovely, it is only 12 and it is over 20° already. Just a bit of wind, bright blue sky! Just as blue as convolvulus sabaticus (used to be  mauretanicus), a lilac coloured lila lantana growing through door brachyglottis. Both convolvulus and brachyglottis are easy to grow from cuttings.
These red pansies were a real good buy: I had them for something like 10 euros last November and they flowered straight through the winter. Now they are of course larger and a bit floppier as they are nearing the end of their time. This orangey red is an excellent colour, I also had rosy reds one year. To be on the look-out for coming November!!

1st September 2007 This year not much is to be said about the garden. We were not here from the beginning of June till end July and when we came back it was the summer rest period for the garden. It was very, very dry with only a few  'pipi de chat'. The garden suffered and things have died that I did not know could do so! Like the brachyglottis, withered! I shall prune it back in spring and see what happens. (It revived marvelously, March 2008)  There are hardly any praying mantises, I miss them! But last week there were a lot of unusual birds in the terebinth like white throat fly catcher, eating its berries.

It is nearly time for the second spring though. The first sternbergia has been seen. Quite late! The cyclamen are not flowering yet. Cyclamen graecum which I finally found in the Netherlands, had one flower! Well done and rejoice! All the other unusual cyclamens I bought died untimely deaths. One might still be alive. Taking photos is no use: they just look like any other cyclamen ... Good news in the spring of 2008 though: for the first time ever I had flowers on cyclamen coum.
Today I had a real surprise: I got a cutting from duranta repens from a friend. Heaven only knows why it is called repens  as it does not creep at all. It is a small thorny bush, not resistant to frost, so in needs to be stored in the conservatory during winter. Awkward! But it has lovely sky blue flowers followed by orange berries. In tropical countries the bushes are always flowering and always producing berries which causes a nice show in blue and orange. When I lived in Nigeria I had it in my garden and loved it. Today I thought I saw buds and on a second look I found flowers ... Still too small to be photographed..
Leucojum autumnale comes under another name now: acis! It has spread all over the garden. The bulbs  started flowering at the end of May and are still going on. They are even growing among the stones. Whoever wants seed, let me know. Takes two years only!

12th September Hieke has brought a superior, unfortunately nameless alstromeria *)  from the Netherlands. It is in a bigger pot already so that it may be divided in spring. She is coming to live here permanently then.

Slowly but surely signs of the second season are appearing: podreana has longer shoots than ever before and is full of buds, there is one colchium  and some cyclamens. We may have rain on Friday ... Sternbergia is still not flowering: they should be!

*) It is called 'Fabiana'

 
13th September This morning I saved just such a beauty from drowning. I never saw one before and this is the second one today. I am quite sure as the first had part of one antenna missing.  This little butterfly is only one and a half cms. *) On a dark blue caryopteris, which self seeds. It flowers in its second year. 
*) it is called: la zygène de la coronille or zygaena fausta. Its caterpillar feeds on coronilla which is OK  with me!

15th September Podreana flowers. And one  sternbergia. Some oxalis start to appear and one  - melanostica - is in flower. Have a look on the oxalis page.

 

26th September To take good photos of blue flowers there should not be any sun and preferably no wind either. There is a little wind today, so the photograph is not sharp enough. This is duranta repens, - which I mentioned before - a lovely conservatory plant. I am quite pleased that it is flowering at last (after 5 years)
2nd October The day before yesterday I sowed  zephyrantes alba seeds, today they are germinating! No seed is so fast. Or is an ordinary bean? As they are so quick to respond to being sown I had thought they might flower soon as well, but this is not the case. Two year olds don't flower yet!
Oxalis flava  flowers. This is a surprise indeed as it has the reputation of being difficult.  Following someone's advice I planted it in a deep pot, so that was a useful idea.   
After a seemingly endless drought it has finally become moist for the last few days. The autumn crocuses are in flower but have been flattened by the rain!.
Who knows what the small bush on the photo on the right is? It looks like eschscholzia as far as its leaves are concerned, but is is a little hairy. By now it is two years old, but has never flowered so far.

7th October Finally we had quite a bit of rain and how welcome it was. Good for a few surprises: commelina tuberosa is not a plant you expect to do well here. It looks watery! But one of mine is very resilient. Every year it manages to produce a few flowers. And what a lovely colour they are. Three at the same time is quite unusual though.

Today is lovely weather: T-shirts, sandals

 
October Wintertime starts officially today. The weather is gorgeous, sun, no wind, 22 degrees. In the garden below a row of oxalis in pots are in full bloom: the white one in front is o. versicolor, on the left and behind o. dentata, the yellow one in the bigger pot is o. flava, a bit to the left o. massoniana, blast! it is white instead of orange! and left of that o.rosea (though it sports a large, white flower) which has already flowered in spring. So has o. dentata, by the way.
I took this picture on 22nd  November. Completely covered in flowers, but it is too cold for bees and such. This creeping one grows very fast. I bought it only three years ago as a tiny plant. It does not need any care apart from a little pruning now and then. The one on the photo below was taken in Hieke's garden on 7th December!

22nd December 2007. I am in Holland and I see viburnum 'Tinus'  flowering, but white with hoary frost on it. In France it usually flowers in March.
In Holland I had put a few seeds of  lychee  in a pot wondering if anything would happen. I was quite surprised to see a very thin sprout one day. You would expect two big fat 'cotyledons', like in beans. (? This was a word I looked up in a dictionary. I have never seen it before!) A second one is just appearing on the right.

A sound, German website gives information on how to grow this plant. It will grow slowly and will eventually be a 30 meter high tree. I won't be there to witness the fact!!!

Poor acid soil, little water, as warm as possible. No fertilizer for the first few years? months? Plant in a large pot at once: they don't like removals!
If anything good comes out of it I shall give it or them to Daniel, my gardener, who is besotted by fruit trees and has over 65 different species of figs in his special gestapo fig garden. Moreover he is at least 10 years my junior!

 

1st February 2008. Contrary to the German website the lychee is growing fast. On the photo with a crocus 'Cream Beauty' which had been broken or gnawed off. It is about 10 cms now.

It is quite cold. The almond tree does not flower yet, but I have seen some in flower along the roads. There is one scilla, one crocus 'Ruby Giant', one blue hyacinth. The pink helleborus the one with freckles is in flowering and the yellow one is starting to. But  muscari 'Golden Fragrance' has not started yet.

 
13rd February There are some balmy days and you might think spring has come but then suddenly it is cold again. Like today: 10 degrees, wind.
The lychee is growing well, its first leaves are green now and rather large, app. 6 cms. 
Nothing special for the rest. Helleborus orientalis is flowering. Rosa mutabilis is full of buds (though not yet flowering a month later! and not even 6 weeks later!)

22nd February We had a nice bit of rain lately though it probably seems more than it actually was: 3 cms?
Anyway, good for a few things to get started.  Crocus tomm. 'Ruby Giant' and wild violets, on the left behind my favourite hell. orientalis one with purple veins. The one in the background on the right is always the first to flower and is gorgeous as well: pink with a darker edge (picotee) and dark freckles. Ranunculus ficaria 'Salmon's White' has opened its first blooms.

February 2008 Filippi, of the great nursery in Mèze, has published a book on gardening without watering. You may order it by  printing the order form on their website, 45 euros including package and posting. 
First he covers the regions where the most useful plants for such a garden may be found. Then there is a part on how to set about preparing the soil and the actual planting with a most interesting bit on plant roots inside a pot! Finally, of course, a great many plants are discussed. Let's hope we can buy all of them in his nursery ...
I missed aphyllanthes monspeliensis, one of the easiest plants you can imagine once you have it settled!!! And so lovely! But there was no mention of it nor of our lemon coloured local dandelion with its black centre, such a beauty and worth a spot in your garden or verbascum sinuatum, a kind of 'torch' (mullein?) with lovely wavy leaves. But it is an altogether enjoyable book and very useful. So is their catalogue ...
2nd March Today the weather is delightful, 22 degrees at lunch time, sun, no wind. On our small table on the balcony I replaced narcissus by a pot of cyrtanthus mackenii. On the right and below. Buy, if you ever come across these bulbs. They are very easy to grow, they flower early in the year and copiously, and you need not do anything about them but water them (modestly) and repot once in a while.*) In front of the cyrtanthus is pelargonium laxum, an unexpected species with a sturdy stem and pale yellow, perfumed flowers. I put it outside hoping that a few flowers will result in seed. Last year yielded three plantlets!
On the stairs is another pelargonium, nameless, oak shaped leaves which smell nicely and pretty flowers. It has been there all through last winter to protect the chrysalis on the wall from predatory birds. So far with good results. There was another chrysalis well hidden in a black crate containing pots with seedlings and such, but that one has been spotted and eaten ...
*) I did this two years ago and found eleven 6cm long, 1 cm thick grubs in the pot. See at the end of VERMIN.

7th March Unpleasant fact: this year's winter starts in March. It is nasty, tramontane blowing; o, that hateful tramontane! 

As there was warm weather in January and February things are flowering a month early like coronilla glauca 'Citrina' .  This has become a full grown bush by now: what a beauty it is and what a great position just behind that boulder. Coronilla is one of those things you should have: lovely shape, lovely leaves, nice flowers with a subtle perfume, very drought resistance, hardly needs attention, self seeds. Young plants can be transplanted easily, what more can you wish for.

Pelargonium laxum has been returned to the conservatory

 

In this time of year when there is yet so much green in the garden you have to look out for snails, slugs and caterpillars. This one - green at first, brown when larger - eats about everything. I don't know its name or what moth will eventually grow from it. I just hate the thing! It is not easy to find as it stretches along the branch it is currently using for dinner, but curls up when disturbed. Nearly every night I catch one or two of them nasty buggers on gladiolus tristis which has just started flowering. It prefers flowers rather to leaves.
Today, 13rd March, the weather is great so I put a few pots from the conservatory to our front balcony. Cyrtanthus mackenii was already there, pelargonium laxum was inside again, but now again outside, so is pelargonium ardens on the right with lovely, velvety, deep red flowers and  pelargonium 'Splendide' (left), already flowering again. The first cutting  I succeeded  making of the last one shows a bud! Quite nice, it is said to be difficult.
Lovely again today. Something like 22C and only one o'clock. I have seen the first swallowtail butterfly, the one with stripes, which is always earlier than the familiar type which will show up in May and again in September. As they are quite 'tame'  you can usually have a good look at them. Oxalis rosea is full of flowers and the little 'red tail?' (small dark bird, red tail) is to be heard everywhere. Sounds like two pebbles being rubbed together.

Gladiolus tristis is in full flower now. It is gradually spreading. The first year I had only two miserable shoots from 5 bulbs, now I have some 12, the youngest - from seed - being miserable though! Now I have to think of something to keep those horrible caterpillars away. Every night I go out with a lamp and, like a witch, I collect nasty beasties ...
It is only March and so many things are already in full bloom: coronilla glauca, irises, vinca major and ipheion (little old ladies in Dutch). The picture has been taken just along the road.
Even crazier: there was a poppy on the roundabout at  Ecomarché, our supermarket. Poppies are associated with June in my mind!
Daniel, my gardener, came today. He has taken out a big part of the old almond tree and pruned the olive trees rather severely. I don't like olive trees in my garden, but adore one hundred year old ones in an orchard. Or one very thick one standing solitary in a prominent place. But not thinnish ones in a garden full of bushes and stuff. That part of the garden looks better after the job. There is more light now.
Somewhere in our village somebody has viola odorata in her or his garden. Nothing special, but these are a lovely pale blue. Last year I did my utmost to collect some seed. When you know them violets you understand the problem: seed ready to go? Off they are! So I visited this garden quite a few times - the violets were growing in the gutter outside on the road - to try and get some seed and finally I collected nine or so. I put them in a pot and left them outside: nothing happened. Until suddenly last week they started germinating. Wow! My friend Hieke told me later that they will only germinate after what we call 'frost has passed over them'! We had very little of that, but fortunately just enough. It is now 20th March and the car is frozen each morning: winter at last ... The days are cold as well, tramontane blowing.
Yesterday we had to play a competition near Perpignan, closer to the sea where we saw a roadside red with poppies!

25th March  Today the chrysalis that was on the wall of the staircase to the entrance of our home gave birth to a lovely swallowtail. This is the earlier flying 'flambée'. I would have recognized the caterpillar of the common swallowtail, but this one was a funny light brown/orange colour and I had no idea what it was at the time.
The poor thing will have a hard time as it is still quite cold. It was not quite finished pumping up its wings yet just now, so I'll see if I can take another picture.

I have seen that orthrosanthus laxus has a bud ... I have sown them 2 years ago, transplanted a few into the garden last year and kept one in a pot, just in case. One in the garden is now full of promise. It is belongs to the iris family and will have lovely blue flowers. Moreover it stems from the Perth area. I have spent four great days in Perth in 2000. The moment that has always stayed with me was when we went for a walk in a woody area and I looked around and saw ABSOLUTELY NOTHING that looked more or less familiar. 
December 2008: the orthrosanthus was a little disappointing, wishy wahsy, but lots of seed. It may do well in the wilder areas of our garden.
In the Netherlands viola laboradorica grows all over your garden if you don't do anything about it. Here it grows really slowly. The one in the picture is in a part of the garden where I water quite often. (I always throw the water used when cleaning vegetables over the balcony over this area ...)  Yet it has not reached an impressive size over  a period of five years... There is one other one in a bit with more sun and less water and it is even smaller. Lovely colours even when not in flower and matching the vinca minor atropurpurea beautifully. Atropurpurea comes to my mind spontaneously, but I am pretty sure that must be its name. The leaf belongs to a tulip which should bear a purple flower on an purple stem, but is more or less a thing of the past now. 'Recreado', is its name, a great tulip.
Geissorrhiza radians, possibly this spelling is not  correct. A South African beauty which enraptures all visitors. This year she bears more flowers than in 2007. I strictly keep to the rules: feet in water during growth and flowering time. After that allow to dry out and stay dormant in the hot months. Behind: another beauty: pelargonium x ardens. The geranium is so compact that I can't make any cuttings. There is no seed either, sorry. 

There is quite a demand for the geissorhiza, so I tried to get some more from Jim/Capeseed. He informed me though that mice had eaten all his corms so that he would have to sow to acquire new ones. Fortunately that seems to be easy and better even: they will flower in the same year.

This is one of the loveliest euphorbias I have met. You come across it everywhere along the roadside. Of course I have already tried to transplant one but failed. I don't know its name either: might be euphorbia serrata but its leaves are not toothed, or euphorbia biumbellata if it grew closer to the seaside. The plant in the photo is in my neighbour Gisèle's garden. The house, the garden and sadly this gorgeous plant are up for sale...

'Serrata' it is, very finely toothed. I have to take off my glasses to see that ... Filippi sells them!
For those who have wondered how my lychees are doing ... Well, it is growing steadily, nearly 20 cms high by now. New leaves are reddish in colour and for some reason when they start turning green begin to hang and look wilted. Not to worry, it seems to be a habit with this one. The two top leaves of the bigger one are app. 11 cms long and quite leathery. 

Both plants had two sets of double leaves to start with but new ones grow in two parts. (there must be a word for that, the dictionary says 'bipartite' but so far I have never seen that word ...) 

4th April 2008. This is tulip 'Recreado'. But this is the last one that is going to flower, the other have dwindled.
Today I went to Iris du Thau with my friend Hieke. Unfortunately there were hardly any flowers yet.  Too early! But there were plants for sale and I had been afraid that they could only be ordered.

Afterwards of course a quick visit to Filippi's: Not much in stock either but there is always something. I bought e.g. cistus Natacha, lovely pink tending towards apricot, spreading.

Filippi's is in Mèze, Iris de Thau on the road to Villeveyrac, no more than 10 kms away.
9th April The yellow, double rosa banksia is flowering ever so great. It is five years old now, quite a large bush and very reliable. Lots of flowers. My only problem is that it will be a lot larger in the long run ...

Below a sad picture: finished bulbs dying! Most of them are oxalis, then some daffodils and a small pot containing a scilla  ... ? (senior citizen moment). Only one flowered, quite nicely though. Last row, second left. I leave these pots as they are all during the summer and will replant end of August. Then they will be watered again as well. They will grow (and flower) in winter or in spring.

 
May 2008 Everything is in flower, but I discussed al of those somewhere on this site before. New is this small flowered amaryllis, hipp. sonatina 'Veneto', which flowered once before  in 2003 ... Lovely, isn't she? In the backyard there is another one with red flowers, but those are well known. 

Amaryllis is not such a reliable thing as concerns flowering, but they do not disappear. I have no idea what will happen in case of unhoped for severe frost. Once in a while then there is a flower, nice! One in the garden below the house sports a large bunch of leaves, good sign.

In the background something I do not know the name of. I think it belongs in the carnation family. There are always plenty of them in pots where they come uninvited. Usually none in the garden.

It must have come in something from the Netherlands.
Expecting rain a row of buckets is ready to catch the water. In each bucket a stick so that I won't find lizards drowned in them.
When We came back from the Netherlands I found the afore mentioned little 'unknown' flowering. Quite disappointing!  

I'll put it somewhere in the garden and wish it the best of luck, but the pot deserves a nicer inhabitant.

One that loves it here is a  ? (English name?) helianthemum...? , second name not known either. Its feet are somewhere under the paving of the terrace, but most of the plant itself lies on top of the often hot stones and seems to love it. 
This cistus is somewhat more yellow but resembles in all respects monspeliensis. Its name is cistus monspeliensis 'Vicar's Mead' and I love it, nice subtle colouring. I have had it for only three or four years and its has become quite a bush, covered in flowers. May is one, large cistus party! Unfortunately it does not last more than a month. Cistus is a very easy thing to grow, but they do not live very long. Contrary to what I was made to think they do not mind pruning.

Rain today, 12th May.

 
The first geranium, the rosy red, comes from la Jonquera in Spain where we had to collect Gita and Tini who came to visit. The second is from the garden center at Carrefour Narbonne. They are splendid together and form a lovely dressing of the wall at the entrance of our house.
Flowering festuca glauca and nigella. They are great together, but when the sun is shining it is difficult to take a good picture. I found a seedling of lavender stoechas this morning, a purple one. Nice!

Now that the sun has gone I could take another picture, but they are more beautiful in real life!

Salvia roemeriana is in Sutton's book on salvias page 44, a picture to fall in love with. When I had found the plant at Filippi's I started searching for the right pot and after a while i found the correct one. But the salvia hated it and never wanted to grow, did not flower well, got seeds without having proper flowers ( cleistogamy) and after a while I gave up. I planted it in the garden where it happily died. Gill Pound considers it an annual!
One year later I found a baby among the stones of the terrace in front of the garage. That where it loves to be!! More information on this weird plant in 'perennials'.
Always loved amaryllis. Or hippeastrum, whatever. This one is flowering in the garden and its name is 'Amalfi'. Not my taste in amaryllis, too large, too much colour. It is difficult to choose plants from a catalogue and order by mail. I am pleased with the fact that it flowers in the garden, but I am going to have it out and put it in a pot.

3rd June The weather has been poorly of late with quite a lot of rain. Which in itself was really necessary, but does not invite to working in the garden. I have been trying to form a small field at the top of the place, near the gate for the guests. I have taken out the rosemaries and pricklies and will try to get a greater variety of wild flowers. Maybe some wild orchids?. 

News: the large privet is going to flower. It has taken a while: it is the sixth year it is here! It is quite a large tree by now. I love the smell, the essence of summer!*)  Also the small dianthus which I sowed two years ago look promising: dianthus amurensis a bluish species with a darker ring in its center.  *) it did not smell half as nice as ordinary privet hedge ...

I have quite a lot of triteleia 'Corinna' I am never sure of the name, it may be called broddeia. They perform quite well and are spreading rather fast by self sowing. They are great as cut flowers. In the picture on the left side they are in a shady position, on the right they get more sun.

The wall at the front of our house seen from the outside. The idea came from Daniel,  our gardener. His suggestion: plant on the inside and make the climbers droop on the other side. Originally we had  flowering solanum which died, a variegated ivy, mühlenbeckia and trachelospermum jasminoides. The last one is now (June) in flower and its smell is heavenly. 

Pictures below: this hypericum was present when we came here, a spread of uninteresting dark green leaves, showing a flower now and then. I cut it off in spring because I was looking for something and because it was such a mess. Here is my reward: lots of flowers! It is quite an ordinary plant: hypericum calycinum.

In June they are at their best, the oleanders. Not all  have started yet, but today e.g. there was a first flower on a small yellow one. This yellow species is a cutting that I took a few years ago, but its position is not the best it could wish for so it has not grown any larger than some 40 cms. Oleander 'Barcelona' in this picture has more or less the best spot ever, at the bottom of the stairs where it is watered daily. It has grown fast and I keep loving its special colour. Now I am waiting for the saponaria underneath, which is almost the same colour and the same shape. Lovely together!
22nd June 2008.  Suddenly plain summer  30+ degrees. Quite late! In the garden at the bottom convulvulus sabatius  continues flowering, two square meters by now and sometimes awkward because of its sheer size, but wow! 
My own camera, Panasonic Lumix FX12, does not produce the right blue, it is too pale; Ko's somewhat older one HP (?) photosmart makes the colour a little too much. Blue is a difficult colour to do photographs of, only in the shade to start with! 
18th June Leucojum autumnale is already in flower. What a great small performer (if you like tiny/dainty). It will continue flowering up to November.
30th June Usually we are not here at this time of the year. It is really hot, but there are a few nice things flowering: lilium henryi - see bulbs - and a nice bush? or perennial? a very tall perennial, 2 meters: althea cannabina. I was given one by  Anne van Beusekom and did not know much about it so I was really disappointed when it disappeared in autumn. What a relief when it showed up in spring! It grows too tall, which is a pity, so I intend to do the before-1st-June-trick on it: cut the plants to two thirds of their height before June 1st. An awful thing to do for a plant looks its best at that time! The trick works very well for phlox, sedum, campanula lactiflora and the like. 
The flower of this althea is quite small,  to 4 cm in diameter smaller than in the picture. Its center is darker than it shows here. Lovely flower. The leaves resemble cannabis, whence its name. 

*) On phloxes: phlox paniculata species. I never tried them here, but in Holland they were excellent plants. My favourite is the original pale blue one, phlox paniculata without any extra name. Those may be cut before June starts. The pieces that you cut off may well be used to make cuttings. They will be some 10 cms. Take off the bottom leaves, dip in water, shake off surplus, dip in fresh rooting powder, shake off surplus. Dig (a) small hole(s) where you want your plant(s) to be. Fill with special medium for cuttings.  Plant your cuttings in this hole/ these holes, press the soil around them and water well.  When it does not rain you will have to water again, otherwise leave them to their fate. The good thing about the procedure is that the original plants become sturdier (don't cut all the stems) and flowers over a long period, but the cuttings will flower as well, just a little later.  Low growing phloxes are just as easy to make cuttings from!
6th July The first mantis of the year. No more than 4 cms and nearly albino! She showed up when I was watering and is cleaning herself in the picture.
I saw something really nice today: in our neighbour's garden was a  mama- or daddy hoopoe with a baby. I was only three meters away and froze on the spot so that I could watch them for a while. Fantastic!

7th August You can see we are in the nothing happening summer period! This though, is weird: I bought a sweet small rose when still in the Netherlands. It had small well proportioned flowers with some perfume, rather lovely. This year the still small bush suddenly had a whole bunch of flowers and now there are flowers of a completely different shape with a green center. Strange!
16th September We are back from a short stay in the Netherlands. Rather late this time. High time to start on the pots containing autumn flowering oxalis. Waking the pots! I call it. Some will be done all over, new earth and so on, some will just have a fresh layer of soil. Depends on how long the bulbs or corms have been in it. One has already started growing (oxalis bowiei) and I don't want to interfere. 

Once the work is done you need to water more than usual as the pots themselves are completely dried out. In one sack of potting soil I found some twenty larvae of the maybug. Last year I saw maybugs for the first time in something like 50 years!! But I found their larvae in a pot containing cyrtanthus mackenii a while ago, also like twenty. I throw them in the compost container as I think they do a useful job there: changing waste into manure ...

In the back yard vallota (speciosa) is flowering. the one which is called Scarborough lily by the English. It should have been white, but I was sent a red one. Now red is a very good colour for these parts, but I was curious to see its white counterpart. Never mind!  They work in the same mysterious ways as the amaryllises do: you never know when they are going to flower. 

Though I got a replacement for the red one which was said to be white it never worked out and till this day I have not seen a white one.
Many people won't be able to understand that I was really pleased to see quite a number of the caterpillar of a hawk moth on the euphorbias. Too many for one plant so I transported a few to other plants which were big enough to cope with them. The caterpillar will grow into a 8 or 9 cms long thing as thick as a man's finger.  Later on in life it will become blacker with red spots, quite beautiful

It changes into the pupa in the soil, after having gone walkabout for days. To find a good spot? To empty its bowels? Do caterpillars have bowels? Eventually the moth will appear, in April or so. Another beauty, olive green and dusty rosy pink. The whole process is an absolute miracle. I did not see a single caterpillar last year. Which was a poor year in many respects: hardly any mantises,  those I saw were mostly damaged, no toads, no caterpillars, no snakes. 

18th September Today I put labels in the pots when necessary. The first growth is visible. Nice.
Last year I repotted camellia sansagua as it did not flower. Now it has a larger home and I found a good spot for it in the shade of an olive tree it has developed plenty of buds. Soon the will be flowers as it is an early one, October/November.

I dug up amarylis 'Amalfi' and put up three bulbs in one big pot. The flowers are too big and too colourful to my liking...
The garden downstairs is full of leucojum autumnalis, these days called acis as far as I know. If anyone wants seed ...

21st September 5 days after their wake up call things are happening in the oxalis department. The one sporting one leaf is now full of leaves and showing flower buds. Oxalis flava, top right, shows weird beginnings.

The caterpillars have either disappeared of have become twice as big.

 

22nd September I must have written it down before: I love this part of the year. The only thing that spoils the fun is the knowledge that winter follows beyond doubt. And I do HATE winter. 

Abelia x grandiflora begins in August and goes on and on. A graceful, very strong bush with bending branches gleaming leaves which is bronze coloured in spring. It will flower forever from August onward into December. Mine is under the almond tree and does not get so much sun and is watered on a daily basis. I do not know for sure, but I believe it also performs quite well in poorer circumstances. Photo bottom, left.
In front of it masses of small cyclamen. They self seed. An annual torenia in a pot and cyclamen purpurascens in a gorgeous, low, grey pot, brought from Holland. This cyclamen has a lovely perfume. I hope to be able to keep it in good health. 
Here and there a few zephyranthes alba. Its first seedlings begin to flower. Seed germinates in two days! and takes three years to flower.
Cyclamen graecum flowered in two spots, but I only saw one as I was not here at the time. I will grow among the rocks in full sun! I hope it will spread.
23rd September When feeding the feral cats this morning I spotted something white: salsapareille in flower. It looked rather nice, but I do hate the plant which is a horrible weed full of thorns. Very difficult to get rid of. A new seedling looks lovely with shiny dark green leaves with white spots. When it is not pulled out in time it will become a very long creeper that is really difficult to remove.

A week after waking oxalis bowieii it shows flower buds. What growing power! I was very late this year, i usually do this at the end of August, but we were in Holland at the time. The pot had no water whatsoever on the cupboard under the balcony. 
Oxalis brasiliensis is also sprouting.

Such a cheerful picture is due in this part of the year. They grow in the neighbours' garden and as far as I know they hardly know they are there. Shame! Sternbergia lutea a native species. The bad thing about them is that the fun only lasts for a week or two.

Yesterday I came along when our car, in need of repair, was loaded onto a truck to take some pictures for our home web. I passed this lovely what do you call it? just behind a wall in the center of our hamlet. Lots of things growing on top: 2 different kinds of an annual ipomea/convulvulus, a grape and a passion flower with both flowers and fruit. Wow. To keep in  mind.

25th September One of the caterpillars has become reddish. Isn't he a beauty? There are some six, on several plants. The one behind is is still only black and yellow and about 2 cms smaller. Another one is already 7 cms long and as thick as your finger but lives in a difficult spot to take pictures of. I think the birds don't like these caterpillars as the food they eat is highly toxic. Some have disappeared though.
Oxalis flava has grown some more. The young leaves look like graceful hands.

This lovely grass - left - is called stipa brachytricha. Its flowering plumes are pale pink and look great when the light shines through. Modestly self sowing. When I want to replant something and the weather is not suitable (too dry) I water the plant I want to dig up thoroughly, wait a bit and then do the job. This works quite well for this grass. 

The oxalis below is dear to my heart. Fresh green leaves and the palest pink flowers with a darker center. I have written it down as oxalis triangularis 'Mijke' , but when searching the internet with this name I find a dark leaved variety. This is a second flowering period this year. 
Marco Verschoor sends me a mail that it might be 'Birgit' is. But on the internet again Birgit has a green center.

The above mentioned oxalis is in a  square, glazed grey pot. For some reason they are hard to find. Priceless for any plant you want to put in a container. Everything looks great in a grey pot!! Buy whenever you come across one! 
I was lucky last summer when they had them in the sales in our local garden center in Voorthuizen: BINGO! 2,75 for this superior item, now filled with cyclamen purpurascens, not an easy one though. The flowers have a subtle perfume like lily of the valley.
The cyclamen is still in flower: 9th December!
 

27th September This morning I spotted a seedling growing with this white oxalis whose name I don't know. Quite strange as it is another oxalis and not e.g. erigeron which is about everywhere. Secondly  it is an exciting one as it looks just like oxalis lasiandra, but the leaves consist of only four or five sections whereas lasiandra has seven or more. I do hope it is a cross of some kind.
Oxalis pes caprae, the invasive one showed a bit of green early in the morning. Later, the same day, there were 7! Some had already grown into leaves. It takes a long time though before it will start flowering. (Not yet on 9th December)
The caterpillars grow like mad as well. 11 days ago they were 2 cms, now they are the size of my index finger. They are neat eaters, a leaf is completely finished before they start on the next one. There won't be many flowers as the like the top leaves best ...
And they like company. When you put one on one part of the plant and another one on the same plant but quite far away, they will probably be together the next day. 

30th September  Unfortunately nearly at the end. 
Oxalis pes-caprae germinated last Saturday, small green dots, now as big as this in just 3 days. Lovely leaves, yellow flowers later.
The first of the caterpillars has gone walk about. Gone. 
12th October 2008. We had a short holiday. Before we went Angiolo Pucci was full of buds, the same now. Just one flower opened. Why? Not warm enough?
The oxalises, below left, have grown fast after their waking up call four weeks ago. Bowieii is in flower and flava in its big pot as well. The latter needs depth to make it flower, a shallow pot does not do the trick. The other have all grown leaves, the loveliest being those of oxalis melanostica which like alchemilla looks especially beautiful with a drop of dew or rain. Flowers will be yellow and large. See bulbs and oxalis page  for more information and pictures.
14th October I have known the story forever but so far I had never seen the awful event with my own eyes: a mantis eats her partner during copulation. Today was the first time. Green Truus married a small, brown guy and his fate was sealed.  The head was gone when my neighbour Anky discovered the couple. Everything is eaten, even the wings (the males fly) and the weird thing is that all parts keep moving, even without a head. He is food for future offspring ... 
The female has wings as well and can fly, but she hardly ever does. I presume because she is relatively heavy.
19th October What excitement Crocus mathewii, named after the famous crocus man Brian Mathew and recently discovered, in Turkey 1994.
They are still tremendously expensive, but, to speak with Rita, I do not drink and I do not smoke!
On the internet I had found a company in England which sold bulbs and they told me to contact them in the beginning of August. Which I did at the end of July. At that time they had only two left! For me! When they arrived they appeared to be five, three small ones. but they all flowered.
Camellia sansagua is in flower again, after having refused to do so last year. It will perform over a long time.

22nd October I got a nice e-mail today from a professional grower about names. He said that the pale pink oxalis in a pot, see 25th September, might be 'Birgit'. I bought this species once, so that is quite possible. But when you look at pictures on the internet Birgit has a green center. Lovely as well, but different.
27th October I saw no crocus oxonian at all this year. They should have flowered quite some time ago and for some reason they must have gone ... Crocus goulymii  is more faithful, a very good autumn species which will flower in dry spots and will keep upright even in heavy rain. Below left crocus mathewii in sun, goulymii on the right.
2nd November Wow, rain! And a lot. At least 10 cms and still pouring. That's what we needed. It is still 17 °. 
The bulbs which Hieke brought from Holland last week were out on the balcony and got soaked, so I quickly went to Gau's  and bought a sack of proper potting soil and mixed it with the poorer stuff I had in store.
One day I found gorgeous simple but very large grey pots in a sale, bought all of them straight away, one for myself, one for Anky, one for Hieke. I filled mine in layers: first tulips  'New Design' and 'Recreado' and on top pink pansies..
The grey one from the sale last summer with a large multy bulbed, small flowered, orange red amaryllis  and another one with a new species of hippeastrum: 'Evergreen'. Photos later. The latter is supposed to get small, green flowers...
Tulipa 'New Design' has grey green leaves edged in dream and pink flowers, really beautiful. Not easy to find though. I bought mine at  Verberghe's. 'Recreado' is my all time favourite: dark purple with a dark stem as well. Combines beautifully with almost everything but pure white _ according to my taste - pale yellow, pink, blue, whatever.
The multy bulbed type of amaryllis is called Hippeastrum 'Supreme Garden' a cluster of some 12 bulbs. They showed clusters like that on the IBS forum. So I planted it according to their instructions: roots only! All the bulbs themselves on top of the soil.
All seeds and stuff in downstairs have become soaked as well so I sowed everything in despair.

7th November We had lots of rain, nice! It is beautiful right now, with glowing autumn colours. There are many mantises about, often on the middle of the road. Nobody knows why. Something for 'Freaky Facts' on Animal Planet. 

This specimen was a lovely shad of pale chocolate with delicately veined wings on a less delicately spotted hand ...
11th November Sometimes there are unexpected bits of luck; the mantis in the rosemary, the one I had seen eating her spouse, had not been flushed qway by the rains.  I found one seedling of a very pretty helianthemum, that I bought 6 years ago and never saw again. This will please Hieke! Crocus medius or ligusticus showed up after all, though quite few, but they are still there. At this time of year the annuals start germinating to flower in spring: hundreds of nigella which does really well and omphalodes ...?
Amaryllis 'Evergreen' is already sporting a bud.
12th November From Verberghe: hippeastrum Evergreen, supposed to have small, green flowers. Yesterday I saw a bit of green in the depths of the bulb - you can see at once whether a bit of green will be a leaf or a flower - today that bit has grown into a 2cm bud and another one has appeared at its side. The bulb itself is very large, surprisingly so as it is to have small flowers.

Left below: 3 days after the first growth. On the right one more day. Really amazing! Now I'll stop until the flowers appear.

 

18th November The weather is not very good for this time of year. It is often still lovely in November, but it is coldish and there is a nasty cold wind. In spite of that our neighbour's plumbago is still covered in flowers and I discovered a flower on one of the succulents in a trough . On a tiny, tiny 'living stone': lithops. There are many different varieties, from South Africa. They support some cold, I always leave them outside, but sheltered from our nasty Tamontane. Rain often comes in from the other side so once in a while they get plenty of water. When there is no rain I water once a month and not too much either. There is another one in the same trough: a fat - 10 cms - clump of grey 'stones'. This one flowers every year in spring. 

Camellia sansagua (3 other names/spellings) maybe 'Shi Shi Gashira', is in a pot. I plan to have the olive tree behind it removed as well as the trunk of a pine that we took out in our first year, prepare the hole of the trunk with nice peaty terre de bruyère and plant the camellia in it. It will be out of the morning sun and in the shade most of the summer and we will be able to build our dreamed of balcony. After having saved some more money ...

Contrary to what the books tell you this species supports frost and as the flowering period is from the end of October up to December or even later the buds hardly ever freeze to become that unpleasant brown shade. I had a white one in Holland, in a sheltered position, yes, but it flowered faithfully and never showed any signs of frost damage. 
28th November Here hippeastrum 'Evergreen'  indeed small green flowers. A drawback is its lack of balance by the absence of any leaves. It took 17 days from the first green bit to the first open flower. There are fifteen flowers in all. As the bulb lost its firmness and I do not know if it will survive I pollinated a few flowers with  a thing to clean your ears with, cotton wool on a small stick. Photo:1/12.

Another amaryllis shows a flower to be on the outside of the bulb at the bottom. It does not seem right, H. 'Amputo' and the complex of bulbs so far only grew leaves H. 'Supreme Garden'. I'll keep you posted.

1st December Today  a first bud is visible in 'Supreme Garden'.

4th December Jan Bravenboer, cyclamen man (Ede) informed me of the name of  the variegated, cream flowered alstroemeria: it is  'Fabiana' . I am always pleased when I have an answer to  a question. Thank you, Jan!

7th December 2008. Today is slightly less cold so I did some work that was to be done. I removed lots of seedlings of caryopteris from a pot with muscari, and other things, but not intended to contain caryopteris. You can do a nice little hedge with them. They are very strong, so I was not very careful, knowing that they will grow anyway. They are in small pots and whoever wants one or two is welcome to them.

The garden is full of acer seeds, thousands of them. I sweep away as many as I can as the will easily germinate in spring and if you forget to pull them out or they grow unnoticed there will be another small tree which is not all that easy to get rid of. I have never seen that much seed! 
Last year there was not much but this year the almond tree is full of buds. Let's hope there won't be any severe frost in February. There are buds in the  helleborus, bulbs are sprouting. one of these days the tiny daffodil, narcissus romieuxii will flower. I often miss it as we are usually in Holland when it happens. But it has been cold and I don't see any buds yet, who knows.
 
 
  top