June Yellow

I did a quick foto shoot from yellow blooming pearls from my garden.The first one is Cattleya xanthina, a medium large Cattleya from South America, nice pastel yellows but no scent. The second one is a small rupicolous Laelia also from South America, Laelia briegeri. The single flowers are small (4-5 cm in diameter), the culture is quite different as for normal epiphytic Cattleya. Rupicolous C. like when their roots attach to rocks, so I use small rocks and charcoal as potting medium. These species need also less water than epiphytic ones. For the third species we need to change continent. It's a small Arisaema flavum from Asia. The leaves are dark green and glossy. The small flowers appear quite late in the season (from middle June toward). This species is not difficult at all in cultivation, but it 's still one of my favorites.

Cattleya xanthina

Laelia briegeri

Arisaema flavum

Arisaema flavum

Lilium pumilum

This is a nice small species (reaching just 40-50 cm), from North Korea, Manchuria, and Mongolia, that thrive in semi shade to shade conditions in my garden. It's useful to fill short gaps in the blooming season. The pity is, that like all the other Lilium, Fritillaria, Cardiocrinum, they are the favorite dish for the lily beetles (Lilioceris lilii). There are only two solutions: you control twice or three times a day your plants and remove all the adult beetles AND also the eggs, or you go with pesticides.

Creeping Banksias

The flower heads of banksias remain still attractive months and months after flowering. In this days my Banksia petiolaris shows all her beauty displaying huge inflorescence. From the top it is possible to admire the pink color of the anthers. Despite the low temperatures of the past winter the flower buds were not damaged.

Bansia petiolaris

Banksia petiolaris, details of the anthers

Banksia blechnifolia prefers this spring to concentrate in new branches, with warm pastel discoloration and plenty of fine hairs. But the past inflorescence are still impressive.

Bansia blechniifolia, new growth 2012.

Bansia blechniifolia flower head 2011