Hot Summer Day's & Night's.

Hot Summer Day's & Night's.

Some plants just love the heat but others struggle, Acis do not mind the heat but the flowers do not last long. 

Acis autumnale (Above and Below)

Acis valentinum from Archibald seed (Below).

Colchicum bivonae from Janis Ruksans via Otto, are just loving the heat with many flowers but as with the Acis the flowers do not last as long in the sun either. (Above)

My favourite Colchicum is C. parlatori from Marcus Harvey the envelope just had on it Colchicum Collected Greece, if you are on instagram sorry to repeat myself but many are not. So to get back to Colchicum parlatori I sent a photo to Marcus asking if he knew what it was and explained about the label, well he was so excited and asked if he could use the photo "of course" I said. The sad part was I don't think he ever did use it. To see the tessellation on the flowers click on picture.

Another Colchicum from Marcus is Colchicum stevenii quite a small one only reaching about 10cm.

Erodium variabilis 'Bishops Form' I purchased 3 plants from Di's Delights at the last Tesselaar Plant Sale day, they were very tiny plants, obviously bought in as tissue culture. I nursed them through winter and planted a pink Gentian and another form of Erodium in the crevice garden all have survived, I'm pleased to say. Its disappointing there will be no more plant sales day at Tesselaar's as they have decided to discontinue that particular day. But I think Larkmans Nursery and Di's Delights Plants will be having a very similar plant sales day, I'm not sure of the date or what the day is called but will update you when I find out more.

Anemonella thalictriodes Floro Pleno is thriving in the crevice garden on the shady side and has not stopped flowering since I planted it

Cyananthus incanus from Czech seed with very dark blue flowers and a yellow throat, the flowers are normally a sky blue with yellow throat.

Cyananthus lobatus from Czech seed, they no longer will send seed to Australia disappointingly, due to bio security conditions. The most common species in gardens over seas. The leaves and flowers are quite hairy, this and the above species are doing well in the crevice garden. Appreciating the cooler root run, but I dare not get too confidant as we don't know how long this heat is going to last and other plants in the garden are quite stressed. I just can't seem to give them enough water deep down to their roots even with milk bottles buried very deeply beside them.

Cyclamen intaminatum pink flowering form.

Gentiana sino ornata with Aarons Saxifraga x Fritschiana St John's from seed, so it may not come true from seed, but so far it is different to my other encrusted Saxifraga so I don't mind. Both are just divine and very cheering in this difficult gardening climate.