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

Just for the eyes - Itoh Paeonia Garden Treasure

Philesia magellanica - Tree nursery Rein en Mark Bulk


Last weekend I was in The Netherland for a workshop about exam assessment. On Saturday, after the workshop the temptation to visit some nurseries in Boskoop was to big. So I did it. This town is famous for its nurseries, particularly woody plant and perennial nurseries, of which more than 700 are located on long stretches of land, nicely divided by narrow canals. One of the highlights is Tree nursery Rein en Mark Bulk. The catalog deserves some very nice surprises. Several rare species, especially from South America, including Euchryphias, Berberidopsis, Drimys,Lapageria, and more. To be honest, I organized myself from the beginning taking with me a quite bigger suitcase as needed for a 3daystrip. So I had plenty of space for new species. I have now a couple of new species, e.g. some Chilean Lomatia, a Drimys andina (or Drimys winteri andina), or a Grevillea Big Red (that, I hope, will resist my winters). The nursery owner Mark Bulk is extremely nice and helpful.

2004 Philesia "Cutting" with a double clay pot to maintain constant humidity. The plant is in a small pot because Philesia like Lapageria dislike been in too big containers.

Exactly eight years ago I visited the nursery and ask for Philesia magellanica. Mark had only one "mother" plant and just two small cutting that were at this time technically spoken "just cuttings" with few brittle roots. It was not easy but at the end I was the proud owner of two small Philesia. Well, Philesia magellanica is extremely "take it easy" plant. After years and years, you may recognize the first true growth. In my case this was for three years (2009). So I was proud to tell Mark about my success with "his" Philesia cuttings.

2012 One of my "Bulk Philesia".

And last but not least, yesterday a noticed the first flower bud. And one of my great whishes is to be able to cultivate a cross between Philesia and Lapageria, the Philageria. This hybrid seems to be like The Holy Grail, everyone speak about it, but no one had saw a single plant....

2012 Flower bud.

Laeliocattleya BLUE BOY x Laelia purpurata WERKHAUSERII

I have just few Cattleya hybrids. I prefer species, buth this one had irresistible colours!

Sowing a new generation

I'm working a lot these months, but I try to have some time for my passion. So I ordered in December/January some seeds from South Africa and other regions with Mediterranean like climate. The most important point is to known for the single species if the seeds require special treatment before sowing (or even after sowing) or not. Several species require smoke treatment, and even more species require after sowing changing night/day temperatures with at least 8°C difference.

It is important to note exactly what you do (e.g. sowing time, seeds treatments, sowing medium) and also the results in order to progress from year to year.