Quite a few things were blooming at home on or just before June 23, so I took a few photos.  Some are common, many are rare.  In some cases I am not certain of identification, so if there are any errors or clarifications, let me know. 
Lets start at the top.  I transplanted this kniphofia, a species I got via an Index Seminum many years ago when I worked at NYBG from one of the German botanic gardens, I think in Bonn.  I believe it is a form of caulescens, whatever it is it is bone hardy and very reliable.  There are some K. northiae nearby, they can be distinguished by their wider leaves and one of them actually bloomed earlier this spring despite the cold winter.  I also planted quite a few seed grown Crinum bulbispermums out last summer and fall, thinking it would be a mild winter and maybe they would come through.  Well they exceeded all expectations, in that if they survived last winter, they will survive any that follow.  Not yet quite large enough to flower, I think the bulbs will fatten up nicely this summer so I can expect flowers next year.  The Nierembergia repens are from divisions of my plant at school, it rebounds with great vigor and is flowering away right now.  The Hedychium is something I got vie ebay from North Carolina, its an orange flowered hybrid, and I had an extra pot so I planted it against the house fairly deeply for a Hedychium, but still I am shocked at how well it wintered over.  I should get flowers later this summer.  Musa basjoo is already famed for being hardy, my small plant came from my friend Andrew Block and even though it was planted in midsummer and didn't get very big, it came back and is growing rapidly now.  A bit of a surprise was to find my Gardenia Kleims Hardy is sprouting at the base, it looked like it was toast come spring, and although it is not far from the house I didn't expect it to live.  I don't know if those basal shoots will grow enough to get it through another winter, but if we have a mild one it may do fine.
I set up a new flower bed in the front yard, smothering the grass with black plastic and digging in copious amounts of road sand and some "sweet peat" (horse manure with something else I forget) to amend the heavy soil.  Its so heavy it had that anaerobic stink when I dug it up, and I had to literally crush the balls of clay with my gloved hands to mix it thoroughly with the road sand.  In this garden, which gets sun all day long and is exposed to potential deer predation (no fences in the front) I planted deer resistant things like agastaches, daturas, salvias, ageratum, linaria, crinum, catharanthus,  etc,  It may not look like much now but in another month I expect lots of color.  Near the driveway on a raised area sits a lovely artemesia I picked up at the Stonecrop Gardens Alpine plant sale, it was labelled sp Piateck, which is the collector I assume.  I like it for its fine attractive foliage, in fact I like most artemesias except for mugwort, now that is a plant I utterly detest for its constant airborne assaults on my gardens from its wind dispersed seeds.  Now this little species is a much tamer thing, I wouldn't mind it spreading around forming nice soft mounds of foliage.  In another garden which I am adding the road sand to, Berkheya radula did well with some mulching with dead vegetation this winter and I have a white one which I suspect is a hybrid with cirsiifolia or maybe purpurea.  As can be gathered by the reader, I am rather fond of this genus of South African thistle daisies, whose potential is hardly known here in the USA.  I moved a cultivar, whose name I long ago lost, of Iris ensata from my old home to a spot in the veg/flower garden.  It was a vegetable garden to the previous owners at one time and is surrounded by chickenwire, but I put u posts and 6 foot mesh which is a better deterrent to the local deer, but since it was the only somewhat protected spot when I first moved here I put my flowers from my old home in there especially but not exclusively those favored by deer. So in there are my lilies and daylilies, and some pale colored Linaria triornithophora,
Aqulegia chrysantha with its lovely long spurred yellow flowers, Knautia macedonica, whose color I love, and many other treasured plants.  I have two plants of Dioscorea villosa that I collected in Bluefield WV, they have weird knotted tuberous like roots near the surface and very attractive foliage.  I am surprised more folks don't grow it for its foliage, its a rather nice and tame deciduous vine.  A rare pink form of the normally fire engine red Silene virginica is also in bloom, as is a Sangisorba I grew from seed, probably S menziesii.  Impatiens bicolor reseeds to excess in one area of that garden and a couple of other gardens where I let it, this is the species Panayoti Kelaidis collected in Pakistan before he had to be airlifted out due to 9/11.  It grows in a few gardens in Denver, where it always seems to need water, but here on the east coast its found conditions more to its liking, and is a reliable resower.  Like most all of the Himalayan annual impatiens, excess seedlings are easily removed, and its purple and yellow flowers make it well worth growing, even if some thinning is required. 
The previous owner planted tons of hostas, which of course are deer salad, so although I defend the rows along the driveway and a few others with Liquid Fence, I've also been known to put Roundup on others, especially the variegated ones which I don't like.  For some reason I never caught the variegated is special thing that most gardeners seem to feel, I like a few variegated plants but most look weird to me, and hostas are usually among them.  Plus I'd rather replace them with other things that aren't so attractive to deer such as hellebores.  Still I do have a species or two in the veg/flower garden (venusta or yingerii?), as well as a big plant of a double flowered variety.  Its a pity that they are so favored by deer as they are very useful plants, tolerating heavy soils and shade without complaint.  Even without variegation there is a wide diversity of leaf form and colors among them and they vary in size from minute to monstrous.  Many of my neighbors also have hostas, and they survive getting eaten or they are also sprayed with repellants, and I think our deer population is rather low, but still they can be destructive so I try to make my property as unwelcome to them as possible. This includes fenced gardens, regular spraying with deer repellant, and planting things they don't like in areas accessible to them.
In several locations I have a nemesia strain that I grew from seeds collected in Verlatenkloof South Africa by Panayoti.  In the past I planted a blue flowered nemesia with it and so there are some other genes mixed in, but this strain has been with me for years as it resows readily.  The originals were mainly white and pale pinks, but now they come in shades of purple and lilac too.  Wherever I go, so will this nemesia strain, they are so easy to grow and come cooler weather in fall they really shine as their flowers increase, colors deepen, and they survive the first few frosts that destroy other flowers.  A senecio species I collected in South Africa back in the early 90's also resows readily.  Like the nemesia it starts blooming in late spring/early summer but looks its best in fall when it is covered with masses of yellow daisies which, like the nemesia, resist the first frosts.  Deer don't touch it, since pretty much all senecios, native and foreign, are toxic to most herbivores.
Cotula sp Tiffendell is one of a few hardy cotula species, and arguably the best of the bunch.  It grows to perfection in Denver, and does well here too, being totally winter hardy.  It had some dieback this winter but came back strong, and its worst enemy is hot weather with heavy rains.  It makes a nice groundcover in sunny well drained soils.  Senecio polyodon has been around a while in the UK and is less known here, it comes from wet areas in the high Drakensberg, and bears multitudes of little purple daisies.  It is a perennial, and if more than one clone is planted one can get seed to grow more of it.
Larkspurs are an old fashioned flower, one of three annuals I remember from my childhood that resowed regularly in my great grandmothers garden.  The other two were calendula and opium poppies, and now I have all three in my gardens too.  I like the single flowered larkspurs the best, and it is hard to find seed of them but I spotted some growing along a road where they must have been part of an annual mix, and I collected the seeds.  The double forms lack the grace of the single flowered ones, and now that I have several plants in bloom I am confident they will resow for years to come.  This property also had tons of Lychnis coronaria, probably because it is both deer resistant and a prolific seeder.  I kept one clump because I do like it, especially in its screaming magenta form, but I will keep it under control because it can seed around too much.  It has done so in my school garden where I have both the magenta and white with pale pink center forms.  Gotta admit though I like the strong flower color with the grey leaves, and it is simplicity itself to grow, just give it good sun and its happy, even in the most miserable of soils.
I grew some Viola tricolor from NARGS seeds and got little pansies which reached blooming size quite quickly.  They are planted among some Berganthus katbergensis, grown from seed I collected in Panayoti's garden.  The berganthus are rock hardy in Denver, but did not like our wetter winter, though perhaps they would be more tolerant of a mild winter, but last winter was anything but mild.  So I had pots of them inside, separated them and planted them out and they are blooming now.  The flowers open in the afternoon/evening and are already setting numerous seedpods.  It appears they might bloom all summer long at the rate they are going, new buds keep appearing.  I will lift some plants come fall and put them in my cool garage and keep them on the dry side as insurance, along with collecting seed.  A succulent that is truly hardy here is Crassula vaginata, at least that's what I think I got it as from Lifestyle Seeds in SA.  I am growing out more, now that I see that it survived the winter.  I actually dug it up while working more road sand into that part of the garden and noticed the crown had some life to it, so I replanted it. 
Kniphofia hirsuta is one of the smaller growing species and an early bloomer.  It looks nice with the pale form of Silene armeria "Aprodite" growing nearby.  I got "Aphrodite" from the UK, as I had never knew of another color form of the easy to grow Silene armeria.  It is an easy annual which will not be in peak bloom for long, but is lovely when it does, and it is a reliable resower. 
Scutellaria ocmulgee is something I picked up a couple of summers ago from Plant Delights nursery, it is another rare native plant but wow it looks great this year.  It is full of flowers on a tidy plant, and one wonders why it hasn't been discovered by gardeners before.  Diascia fetcainensis African Queen is the hardiest of the diascias I have grown and one small plant I transplanted into my home garden is doing well so far.  It should spread out into a mat in coming weeks, and will flower pretty much till frost. 
A red flowered coreopsis hybrid is one of several that made it through the winter, I got it from Santa Rosa Gardens during their end of the season (late June) summer sale.  They specialize in ornamental grasses and sedges and carry many perennials as well.  I never fail to get some stuff from their sale, its probably the best sale on the internet as not only are the plants dirt cheap but they also ship free if the order is large enough.   Their normal shipping charges are also very low compared to other nurseries.  The plants might appear a little beaten up on their arrival, but are always healthy in my experience, and quickly grow once they are in the ground.  This rather large clump is in its second year only, so they do sell stuff that tends to grow well. 
A rare native clematis, C. morefieldii, is one of the viorna types that has bell shaped flowers.  Despite its southern origins, namely Alabama and Tennessee, its quite hardy here and this year has done well.  It looks nice on its trellis, and I hope it seeds so I can grow more.  Because it is federally endangered, it is difficult for nurseries to ship them even though they are obviously propagated in cultivation, not collected material, so its easiest to just pick them up at the nursery if you find one.  Never seen a cop looking for nursery propagated endangered plants yet during my travels, but I find it sad that the federal government doesn't encourage nurseries to grow some more of these endangered but beautiful plants for the horticultural trade.  It would both better protect the species from extinction directly, and also make the public more aware of its existence and value, so as to increase a constituency that would favor protecting the habitats where these rare plants occur. 
Helichrysum splendidum is the easiest of the South African helichrysums to grow here, it does not melt in summer heat and rains, and is cold hardy, resprouting from the base during the coldest winters and remaining almost evergreen during the mildest.  It is a large growing, spreading plant that ground layers itself as it spreads out.  Small bright yellow strawflowers are produced in clusters right around now, and it flowers most vigorously after a mild winter, but even this year they are flowering too. It grows easily from cuttings or seed, and like many asteraceae it is best to grow multiple clones for fertile seed set.
One of the gardens (their are raised beds and a lot of brick and slate patio work in the backyard) has become a flowering meadow of sorts.  In it I planted lots of things and some I think were part of a British wildflower mix.  I also planted a grey artemesia I have had for years, the original came form Brooklyn Botanic Garden decades ago when I worked there for a summer.  Right now there are the last aquilegia flowers, Ammi majus, a graceful white flowered annual, poppies, Silene armeria, Sedum kamtchaticum, larkspurs, lavender and many other treasures.  One I especially enjoy is Tanacetum corymbosum, it is a strong stemmed plant with a cluster of bright white daisies on top.  the foliage is pinnately divided, so it looks odd to me, I have never seen it before and don't think it is commonly grown here.  It must have come from one of the flower seed mixes I put in there, most of them from Chilterns seeds in the UK which has some really unusual stuff.  A very small flowered creamy yellow digitalis is also in there, the plant is much daintier than any of the other yellow flowered perennial species I have grown. 
Marshallia grandiflora is another rare species that pops up in the seed exchanges, and I never saw a marshallia I didn't like, so I grew several of them and they are flowering now in their second year.  All marshallias have the same sort of flower, and most come from moist habitats,  I also have M, trinerve which grows taller, and a plant of M. caespitosa which is a species from drier habitats further west than where most of them are found. 
It might seem that deer would leave poppies alone, but they do eat them so I have to spray them to be sure they leave them alone.  They wont bother the nearby Linaria genistifolia though, which is something I got from one of the UK seed exchanges.  It has grown much larger here than at my old house, up to a meter tall, with lots of yellow snapdragon flowers on a blue green foliaged plant that looks more like a perennial euphorbia of some sort before the flowers appear.  It will spread to a limited degree from roots and much more so from seed, so it bears watching, but it is rewarding and easy to grow, and pest proof so far. 
Its rewarding to see the first flowers of self sown Impatiens namchabarwensis appear.  These blue flowered impatiens are easy to grow once acquired, at least in our kind of climate.  They are smaller, less aggressive plants than the other Himalayan species I grow, which are bicolor, two forms of glandulifera, and balfourii.  All are easy plants which do especially well when the weather is not too hot.  All of them resow strongly, so some thinning is needed to keep them in check, and with over half an acre I am able to keep them in their respective areas so they don't directly compete very often.  In fact I am sure namchabarwensis would lose out since the others grow taller if they were all growing together, but I keep some areas reserved especially for this special Tibetan blue impatiens. 

Me with the costus rhizome as a fashion statement

When it comes to buying plants I admit it, I am usually quite thrifty (or cheap).  I grow a lot from seeds, and I'd rather buy a small inexpensive plant than buy a big expensive plant in most cases.  I take pride and joy in growing seeds or small propagations into nice specimen plants.   But there was this one plant I absolutely had to have that was on ebay, and I spent a whopping 70 dollars (about) to get it.  I can be seen wearing my trophy right out of the box in the first photo, it looked like a large brown circular tapeworm.  In this case it was money well spent (unlike the real money I have spent on orchids during the NY orchid shows, most of which was not a good investment).  This fabulous plant is a native of tropical Africa, from Zimbabwe on up and west.  It forms flattened rosettes on the ground from which rise huge exquisitely beautiful yellow flowers.  Individual flowers don't last long but new ones keep coming for some time.  In nature the rhizome branches and a whole colony of plants can form which look sort of like waterlilies on the ground.  Check out this link to see what I mean:
   http://www.spirit-of-the-land.com/galleries/amenshi/images/LZmL.534%20Yellow%20Trumpets,%20Costsus%20spectabilis,%20N%20Zambia.jpg

This has proven very easy to grow, I am surprised it is not more common in cultivation, at the time I got it I could find no other sources for it other than the expert plant grower I got it from in California.  It goes dormant in fall and I store the pots dry and relatively warm in the house, I havent yet stuck them in the garage where it is about 50 F during the winter.  They arent much warmer, maybe 60s in the room I keep them in.  Each piece of rhizome that breaks off will generate a new plant, and the questing rhizomes often come out of unexpected places like drainage holes in pots.  They also circle around the pot edge trying to escape.  So this is a plant to grow in as large a pot as you can, and even then it should be divided up periodically so you dont get too many rosettes crowding each other in the pot.  It goes outside in semishade for the summer, it does get some hours of sun but too much may scald the leaves in very hot weather.  Too much shade would likely cut down on flower production, but I have found it easy to please. It growth cycle coincides well with our eastern US climate, and it is no bother to keep during its dormant period.  It wont come up too early, rather it waits until conditions are warm enough before it really starts to grow.  I doubt it has much in the way of frost hardiness, if it has some it would be a great plant to grow outside in parts of Florida perhaps.  By now I have about 4 pots of it growing and gave away a small prop to a friend recently.  They will need dividing again next year after they complete another growth cycle, 3 of the pots are blooming now and I expect the fourth to most likely flower later on.  So far I have been unable to set seed on it but I will have to try again. ginger flowers have columns like orchids do so their pollination is slightly more complicated than with some other flowers.

Finally I have a nice flowering plant grown from seed I collected many years ago in South Africa of this unusual yellow flowered dianthus.  I collected seed of it when I was traveling with Ernst Van Jaarsveld of Kirstenbosch fame in the Klein Karoo area of the south Cape.  We were in an area with a fair number of succulents and bulbs, and while photographing the bulb I realized one flower looked like it had five petals.  A closer look revealed it was a dianthus that was evidently mimicking the pale yellow flowered bulb that was also in bloom in the same area.   Ernst told me at the time it might possibly be a new species, but I have not heard anything new since.  I've grown it during my time at NYBG but I think they have since lost it as with much if not most of the material I brought them, and I decided to start some stored seeds again last year.  It comes from an area with primarily winter rainfall but can get some summer rain too.  It grew well under lights with some sun in my cool garage and set buds, which took forever to open.  They began to open in numbers when the plant was outside for some time and are still opening.  Hopefully the plant will set another crop of seed, I have not observed any daytime pollinators so far so I may have to do some hand pollination. 
South Africa actually has a decent number of dianthus species which are largely unknown outside of the country.  Most are winter growers, some are summer growers and D. basuticus is definitely winter hardy as well.  Many of the Cape species come from semiarid areas, so they would likely do well in other Mediterranean climate areas.  This species tends to have long trailing branches, a feature it shares with several other Cape species.  It could make a nice windowbox or basket plant in areas with the right climate.
One day I shall have to write Ernst to see if he remembers this plant.  For now though I am content to enjoy its pale yellow flowers in my personal plant zoo.   

This bulb finally bloomed from seed for the first time this summer, and its an odd one.  It comes from wet areas and ranges to very high altitudes in Kwa Zulu/Natal into the Free State, so it probably is hardy here.  I set some unflowered plants out in the garden a week ago to test this, meanwhile I'll keep the pot with the flowering plant as a backup just in case.  The peculiar flowers have elongated thin petals that project outwards, the umbel is vaguely reminiscent of some kind of weird tulbaghia.   This is another plant that is probably not being grown by anyone in my area but diversity makes for an interesting garden and plant collection in my view.  I don't think we will ever see this plant in the big box stores but it might make an interesting addition to the garden if it proves winter hardy.  The fact that it comes from marshy areas would indicate a high tolerance for wet ground, which is a good indicator that it would survive our winters since it can take both cold and wet in its native haunts. 

Asclepias viridis

Asclepias sullivantii

Asclepias syriaca colony

Never one to follow others when it comes to gardening, I just grow whatever I like.  While I do have a soft spot for a number of "common" garden flowers like poppies and daylilies, my real passion is growing things that are never seen in my area.  That means, in many cases, growing it from seed as often plants are not available in the trade of lesser know species.  Asclepias is a wonderful genus full of really cool plants, I even have the aggressive Asclepias syriaca on my property, it was already here when we brought the place. Fortunately it is confined on three sides by short walls and the other side opens into the neighbors property to the north and there is a mess of Hibiscus syriacus and assorted saplings/weeds to restrain it from going that way.  I will selectively remove some of that mess, even if it has to be by stealth, as I don't want bittersweet and maple saplings there because they can become bigger problems in the future.  I don't think the neighbors will care much either, they have children who play in the yard a lot so letting the border area get too unkempt could provide a habitat for deer ticks which of course carry Lyme and other horrible pathogens.  In fact I am not sure if they even know where the boundry is between our properties.  But I do love even the common milkweed, it smells wonderfully fragrant in bloom and before it emerges there is a colony of lily of the valley which also emits a wonderful fragrance earlier in the year.  It also provides a potential food source for monarch butterflies, of which I have sadly seen only one in the last year and a half.  I saw none last year and one in a nursery one town down from here a few weeks ago.  I hope more appear and some avail themselves of the common milkweed, for there is enough to share.  I do strip the pods off though, as I don't want endless progeny to waft their way into my other gardens. 
As for more uncommon milkweeds, Asclepias viridis is probably the largest flowered milkweed in the US.  It has a south/central distribution but is perfectly hardy here.  It tends to recline as it grows and right now the magnificent flowers are at their best.  A bit earlier is prime time for Asclepias sullivantii, the prairie milkweed.  It can spread underground so it has to be watched, but the leaves have a colorful midrib and the flowers are a bit darker and prettier than the common milkweed.  The plant also tends to be shorter, maybe three feet at most.  Neither species is native to NY to my knowledge but they seem happy here, and they sailed right through our hard winter.  I amended the heavy soil here with road sand so it drains better which probably suits them fine.  I did have an Asclepias purpurea, a lovely species in one of my gardens without amended soil and it perished, so I will have to try it again in a better position. 
Most asclepias are hard to find as plants because they often don't look their best in containers.  Its the knowledgeable gardener that will know their potential beauty, and either buy plants if found or raise them from seed.   Seeds are easy to grow, the most difficult thing is finding the odd species and also remembering that most do prefer a period of cold stratification before they germinate.  Once they are growing get them in the ground as soon as practical for they flourish better in the ground than in pots. 

I think facebook and all of its plant interest groups has taken my attention away from my blog, so its about time I write something.  Its been a good gardening year after the most horrendously cold winter in decades.  We did get the at least one hot humid wet spell during early summer that spelled doom for some of my ice plants, notably Delosperma "congestum", which I fortunately have several more of, and which is the toughest of the lot when it comes to dealing with winter cold.  Its probably not even a delosperma, just an undescribed species that is now common in the horticultural trade, along with its white form "White Nugget".  The same spell was also hard on the "Jewels of the Desert" delosperma series, I think only "Garnet" made it.  I do have to note that the affected plants were all in the same area and it was flat, many other delospermas did fine.  And they all liked the dry end of summer and fall, it was ideal for flowering and seed set.  Another delosperma series, the "Wheels of Wonder" group, set copious seed that I am curious to grow out, and did well even though they were in an area that gets a little less sun than the others.  I suspect they have D. floribundum in their bloodlines since they bloom constantly as does the species, and have a growth habit not all that different.  D. floribundum did so well it actually self sowed into nearby areas.  The late summer drought was not so good for woodland type plants, nor the impatiens species I grow, eg I bicolor, glandulifera, balfourii and namchabarwensis, all of which did fine till rather late, although namchabarwensis did well pretty much until frost, by which time the rains had returned.  All of these species are vigorous reseeders in my gardens and I keep them mostly in their own areas otherwise I think it would be a battle between glandulifera "Red Wine" and bicolor.  Another form of glandulifera I grew from seed exchange seeds as a sp from a Chadwell collection is taller than Red Wine but not as resilient to heat and humidity, but it persists though not in large numbers.  Helichrysum splendidum came back strongly from winter dieback, it even flowered a bit, but not as much as in years where it isn't killed back to the base.  Two seedling dieramas bloomed, a white and a purple one, and the latter set seeds.  Many more grew stronger this year and from the mélange of species and hybrids I've grown I expect to see some nice ones next year.  Berkheyas did well also, namely radula and purpurea in my home gardens, and speciosa flowered in its first year from seed.   Other spp have been planted and I hope they will all make it to next year.  Kniphofias also did very well, particularly one I think is caulescens or a form of it I grew from seed from one of the German botanic gardens years ago at NYBG, it has followed me since and is bone hardy.  K. triangularis also put on quite a show in midsummer, it looked lovely in front of "Little Joe" Joe Pye Weed.  Some really nice gladioli hybrids bloomed for the first time, and their were plenty of survivors in the glad patch in the former vegetable garden, including "Ruby Papilio" and my dalenii and Atom hybrids.  A surprise was the survival without dieback of Hibiscus paramutabilis "Shanghai White", it doesn't bloom a lot but it is not in the sunniest of positions being near the northwestern facing house wall.   A tragic loss was finding Clematis morsefeldii eaten at the base of the stems by some rodent just as it was setting lots of seeds, then the plant died after making one feeble sprout.  I am trying to germinate some of those seeds now and am hopeful that some of them got mature enough to sprout.  The new vegetable garden took over another patch of lawn and we were overrun with tomatoes, beans, and Asian cucumbers.  I am sure the compost we brought and I dug into the ground helped immensely.  In the front of the house dog fennel grew lush and tall, as did Arundo donax "Peppermint Stick" which surprisingly did die in the school garden.  I suspect winter salting may have done it in, I am glad I propagated it before it expired, it is a stunning plant and I don't say that lightly for a variegated plant, as they are usually not my thing.  I set up a new garden in the front lawn and planted crinums, snapdragon species, agastache hybrids, and loads of other stuff that seem to be quite happy there.  One particularly successful plant was a species of Gomphrocarpus that I collected in the south Cape, probably from near Luipaardsekop as I saw a picture of it as I was scanning slides recently.  Unlike the typical "hairy balls" plant as the genus is known for its interesting seed pods, this one is not  a lanky plant, it branches well and covers itself with lots of white milkweed flowers.  It set relatively few pods so I cut the branches with the pods before frost and let them dry in the cool garage--it worked, after a few weeks the pod began to split and reveal good seeds inside.  I think they just took the remaining nutrients and water from the stems and used it to mature the seed as a survival strategy; where they come from unexpected droughts are a way of life.  There is so much more to say about this year, but I think I'll end it here and just put up some photos from this past season.  Perhaps I will expound in more detail about some of them, or other plants, later on this winter.

A special glad hybrid of mine with delicate picotee spotting

Tigridia pavonia seedling

Tigridia vanhouteii pollinated by wasp

Lapeirousia schimperi, a tall summer grower unlike most in its genus

Arctotis venusta

Microseris ringens

Ursinia from an old seed mix from Kirstenbosch, alas it did not set seeds

Impatiens bicolor, its indestructible around here

Crepis rubra, a nice but short lived annual

White form of this thistle from Spain whose latin name always escapes me.  I'll come back and edit it when I remember.

Rudbeckia subtomentosa, a long and spectacular bloomer

Giant swallowtail on lantanas in the front

Costus spectabilis, a truly magnificent plant even out of flower

Dianthus species descended from seeds I collected in the Cape.  Has pale yellow flowers, might be D. caespitosus.

Gladiolus "Ruby Papilio" a large hybrid that tends to come true from seed

Niermbergia repens, likes being divided and spread around, blooms forever, why don't more people grow it?

The nicest African crotalaria I have ever grown, but of course it is self sterile unlike most of them.  Have to figure out which one it is and get more seeds from Silverhill.

A pink form of Helichrysum cooperi, which is supposed to be yellow.  Both colors bloomed and set seeds.

Impatiens glandulifera,

Eucomis vandermerwei,  a fine dwarf potplant

Eucomis montana



Lantana "Radiation Biohazard" a good grower and bloomer.

Zantedeschia jucunda

Talinum calycinum

Delosperma sp,

Albuca shawii

Beerkheya purpurea

Helichrysum splendidum

Delosperma "congestum"

First seedling diorama to bloom

Leonotis leonurus

Crocosmia aurea

Felicia mossambadensis, one of my own African introductions

Liatris ghoulsonii, a rare species

Hedychium cv, that survived the winter and bloomed well this summer

Musa basjoo, another winter survivor that came back and more than tripled in size

Crinum bulbispermum "Jumbo"

"Jumbo"

C. moorei

C. moorei

Found crinum from South Carolina

The other found crinum from South Carolina, growing in the same location as the pink one above

Crinum is a fairly large genus with quite a few hybrids, and some of the species and hybrids are more cold hardy than might be expected.  The species C. bulbspermum is especially cold hardy, and all the bulbs I planted out in my home gardens came through last winter, the coldest in decades, unscathed.  They were young bulbs, maybe 3 years old in most cases, from 2 different sources, a few of a "Jumbo" strain from a PBS seed distribution, and many more from South African seed. One of the Jumbos bloomed in October, much later than it should have, so the flower didn't open completely due to the cold but I was pleased nonetheless.  C. bulbispermum tends to not offset readily, but its hybrids often do.  I have one such hybrid or selection growing from seed now, it has been named Oaklawn Cemetery strain from where it was found by Nestor, a crinum aficionado if there ever was one.  He sells on ebay as bulbsnmorenurseryfl, and the numerous seeds were a bonus I got with an order of three crinum bulbs.  I am overwintering the seedlings under lights so they can grow continuously and get large faster so I can plant them out in the garden.  The true bulbispermums that I did plant out last year were maybe the size of tulip bulbs or smaller and I planted them deep, but they were quite quick to resume growth once the danger of frost was past, and I hope the bulbs fattened up so many more will bloom next year.  Jim Shields of Indiana has posted information on Crinum hardiness in a climate that is colder than mine, according to that information C. variabile is the most hardy.  I have small seedlings of it coming along so it will get its chance in the open garden one day. 
At school I have a pink C x powellii that has survived for several years in an unprotected location.  C. powellii does not set seeds (though I think its pollen can be used for hybridizing) but does offset readily.  I planted the alba form in my new flowerbed I carved out of the front lawn, it is a blooming sized bulb from a Brent and Becky's late season discount sale.  It didn't flower, which is not unusual as crinums don't like disturbance and take a while to settle in.  Next year I am pretty sure it will flower, its got great sunshine in its location and I amended the heavy soil we have here with roadsand and compost to make it more suitable for what I like to grow. 
In pots I also grow several other crinums, including C. moorei which I grew from South African seed. It has lovely pink flowers and offsets readily, and it fairly quick to bloom from seed. I just haul the pots inside for the winter into the cool garage and allow it to remain semidormant with an occasional watering.   I also grow C. macowanii from Malawi that a friend collected for me, it never offsets and wont form seeds.  I have since acquired both seeds from South Africa of the same species and a large (well huge actually) bulb from Telos Rare Bulbs when they were having a sale on crinums and oxalis early this fall.  I only wish I had ordered more crinums, Diana was trying to get rid of some of them because they take up a lot of space, and the bulbs I got were impressive to say the least.  They will have to grow new roots, so I am keeping them unpotted till spring, at that point they will be able to grow new roots when it is warmer and their is less risk of root rots.  If the macowanii from Telos blooms next year I can cross it with my form from Malawi and then get my own seeds. 
Nestor sells a lot of crinums on ebay, and with each order you get a cd that has many nice photos and a great deal of information on the various crinums he grows, including many "found" ones growing in all sorts of odd places. You see, crinum grow all over the deep south, and are indestructible (we don't have the amaryllis caterpillar that is their main enemy in Africa), often outliving their owners or even their homes.  So there's lots of "found" heirloom crinums to hunt for down south, where they have been surviving as long as they get enough sun to grow.  I also found a couple of crinums in a field off a highway entrance ramp in South Carolina, I dug up one example of each and they are in pots now.  I don't know if they were purposely planted there (but crinums aren't the sort of thing highway beautification folks plant) or, more likely I think, they might have been on a property that was demolished when the highway was built.  Either way there are plenty left where I found them, and they should grow for many more years as they are not that close to the roadside.  The biggest threat they face is probably trees growing up around them, they can survive in shade but really need full sun in most cases to do their best. 
No one around here grows crinums, as with most parts of the USA homeowners only grow what is familiar to them or what their landscapers suggest.   I could never have my gardens look like everyone elses, after all novelty is the spice of life, especially in gardening!  So next year if more crinums bloom in the front gardens I guess the neighbors will be gawking at one more "weird" flower growing here as I continue to expand and remodel the gardens at my home.
If you want to try growing C. bulbispermum in a cold climate area, it is best to either get large bulbs or grow your own from seed in pots. The pots can be allowed to dry out and go dormant for winter if you don't want to keep them growing year round, and then when the bulbs are large enough to plant with their noses at least several inches under the ground surface, you can place them out in the garden.  As far as I know they do not successfully resow in cold winter areas so it seems it is necessary to get the bulbs to a decent size before putting them outdoors.  And if it is too cold for some crinums that you wish to grow they do fine in pots, just make sure the pots are as large as possible because they are greedy feeders with thick roots.  Haul them in for winter and dry them off, or if you have the space and good sun you can keep them in leaf.  If you are down south, well growing crinums is idiot proof, just plant in sun or partial shade in the case of C moorei, and provide enough water.  Soil type wont likely matter, they can even manage in the clay soils that are so common down south.  They will take time to establish, but once they do, remember, crinums are forever. 

Crotalaria is a large genus with both annual and perennial species.  Most are concentrated in Africa though they are found elsewhere too.  This year I started several from seed but two got large enough to get out into the garden.  Unfortunately I lost the tag on the yellow species, it is an African one and I will have to grow out more seed from what I have to figure it out.  Another very unfortunate thing is that it is not self fertile (the only crotalaria I have run into so far with this annoying trait) so I did not get seed from it, nor was I able to propagate it from cuttings.  It has blue green glaucous leaves and gets quite robust, and bloomed all summer long right till frost.  Since I have several spp of crotalaria seeds, I can rule out a few names but will have to actually grow more out from what I can't eliminate as this species and make sure to get more than one plant started.  Perhaps I will send a photo to the supplier so I can get a good ID and more seed of it, I don't think I could have too much of such a nice flower. 
The second species is one I collected many years ago in a cornfield in Malawi, where it grows as a weed.  It has lovely bluish flowers, not common among African crotalarias, nearly all of which are some shade of yellow.  I think it is C. polysperma.  It is easy to grow but only opens its flowers for several hours each day, but it does produce abundant seeds and is very self fertile.  So its no problem to propagate, this one plant made hundreds of seeds even though it was off to a late start due to me not getting the seed started earlier. 
The seed pods of all crotalarias are known as rattleboxes because they actually do rattle when dry due to the inflated pod and numerous seeds inside. Like other legumes, the seeds benefit from being soaked and/or chipped and soaked to ensure that water gets through the thick seed coat.  This speeds germination, and they like full sun and warm to hot weather to do their best.  Some species bloom in winter, which is unfortunate as they would otherwise be good garden plants.  I collected seeds of some species in Malawi that are also nice plants but have the fault of winter blooming habits which precludes them from anything but greenhouse use in NY.
There are some other species I have grown earlier and need to restart from seed as well as some that are being maintained indoors as small plants because they didn't come up fast enough to get out in the garden in time.  They will have a head start next year so I should have some more of these intriguing African legumes to experience in my garden later this year. 

Salvia is a justifiably popular genus with many species that boast fragrant foliage and wonderful flowers.  There are other genera in the same family that are equally wonderful but hardly known outside of their homelands.  Orthosiphon labiatus is one of these treasures.  It came to me as a plant from Steve Owens of Bustani Plant Farms  in Oklahoma, where a plant has to be tough to survive.  It is not a hardy perennial there or here (then again I didn't leave the plant outside through a winter), but blooms continuously once it gets started in early summer till frost.  The foliage isn't particularly pleasant smelling but its not obnoxious either, and in any case like most members of the mint family it is of little interest to critters such as deer, so that's always a plus.  It roots easily from cuttings and produces plenty of seeds.  I cut back and dug up the plant after some light frosts and put it in a pot in the garage, where it is still alive.  Not doing much but still alive, hopefully it will act like Salvia guarantica Black and Blue which I also dig up (only one of 2 clumps this year, they are getting too big to fit in pots) and cut back and keep alive till spring when it can go out.  It gets some light and cool temperatures where it is camped out for the winter.    
Orthosiphon includes a few species from Africa and this one ranges from South Africa into Zimbabwe and is sometimes grown in gardens in both countries.  It is a magnificent thing that just gets larger and more floriferous as the summer goes on, and of course attracts all kinds of pollinators.  I truthfully knew little about this plant till I grew it myself, and I was surprised at how well it performs with minimal care and some good sunshine. 

Eucomis zambesica

Eucomis montanus

E. montanus

Eucomis vandermerwei

E. vandermerwei

Eucomis autumnalis

E. autumnalis

Eucomis are becoming more popular of late, and there are now a number of hybrids that can be grown in pots and gardens.  But I find the species even more interesting, and although I grow most in pots, many are hardy in the ground based on reports I have come across.  I only have E. bicolor in the ground, and it took forever to emerge this year, July to be exact so it didn't have time to flower, plus it probably didn't like the move from the old house.  But I anticipate it will flower next season as it gets used to its new home.  Of the ones pictured, E. zambesica would not be expected to be hardy, coming from Malawi, and it is hard to differentiate from some forms of autumnalis, though the latter species is generally green, but can be white in flower too.  E. vandermerwi is a miniature species that is a real treasure, it does well in pots and has both beautiful spotted foliage and long lasting dark maroon flowers.   E. montanus should be hardy as it comes from the Drakensberg but I  keep mine in pots for now, although I have been harvesting seeds to grow more so  I can try some in the garden. 
Eucomis are trouble free as pot plants, they can sit out winter in their pots without water in my cool garage, and will sprout anew in spring.  Some try to retain foliage, especially one I got as E pole evansii but it is way too small to be that species.  Interestingly, eucomis can be propagated by leaf cuttings, I haven't tried it yet but it would be a good way to rapidly increase stock.  Simply slice across the leaves, plant basal direction down with some rooting hormone, and with luck small bulblets should form. 
The species often show a good deal of variation in both flower forms and spotting of the leaves, and selections have been made from them as well as hybrids.  I had "Peace Candles" but I think all I have now is seedlings of the same.   Haven't tried the other selections/hybrids, there is plenty of fun to be had with what I already grow.

Lobelia siphilitica "Mistassinica"

Lobelia siphilitica "Mistassinica"

Typical L. siphilitica

Lobelia siphilitica "alba"

Lobelias have lots of good qualities to recommend them for garden use.  They grow easily from seed, the flowers are usually quite pretty, they often come in deep blue (a hard color to find) or bright red, and are toxic, so they tend to be critter proof.  The perennial sorts are not always long lived, however, so it pays to save seed or to divide them every so often as this seems to increase their vigor.  Lobelia siphilitica is a common wildflower in fields and the edges of woods in the northeast.  I remember seeing quite a bit of it near the Cornell campus during my years there.  The typical deep blue form is somewhere under a meter in height when happy and is easy to grow in dampish areas.  It grows in sun or part shade, and will self sow if happy.  The flowers come in late August through early September in most years.   The alba form is scarcer, but has a beauty of its own, and in order to maintain the alba form it is best to plant it away from the blue form so seeds can come true to the white parent. 
An oddity is the little Lobelia siphilitica "Mistassinica".  I got this from a plant sale at Stonecrop Gardens, it was (and still is) carried by Wrightman Alpines.  I believe that it was supposedly found in Michigan somewhere.  It is a true miniature, reaching maybe 6 to 8 inches in height.  It offsets  readily and appears to come true from seed in my experience so far.  It is the kind of plant rock gardeners like, small, easy to care for, and a high flower to foliage ratio when it is in bloom.  Plus it blooms at a time when most rock gardens are not at their best, as most rock garden plants tend to be spring to early summer bloomers (though one can change that with careful planning and a broad definition of what can grow in the rock garden). 

Lapeirousia saundersonii

Lapeirousia saundersonii  closeup

Lapeirousia schimperi

Long tubed flowers of L. schimperi

Oxalis melanosticta w/ O. pocockiae nearby

Oxalis stenorrhynca

Brunsvigia radulosa

Asparagus sp from Plant Delights

Sparaxis elegans

Diospyros lyciodes

These photos were taken earlier in late December when we already had had some quite cold nights and some snowfall.  All of the species depicted are in protected spots near the southeast facing wall of the house, and the Oxalis spp have been there since before last winter.  The O. melanosticta bloomed earlier this fall, as did the stenorrhynca, although the stenorrhynca foliage is more sensitive to very low temperatures than melansticta, it does come up earlier, in August so it can get a lot of growing out of the way before its frosted back.  By the way, I often see O. melanosticta misidentified as a yellow form of O purpurea under the name Ken Aslet, but it is most definitely not O purpurea.  The latter itself is a very variable species but does not resemble O. melanosticta in the least.  Nearby a species of Asparagus from Plant Delights nursery has kept its foliage through several frosts but before we got down to single digits it was covered with dry grass/straw along with most of the others, and when I peaked during a milder spell it seems to have lost most of its foliage except near the base.  I don't expect the top to make it through winter but hope it will resprout when warmer weather comes in spring.  On the other side of the stairs by the front door I set up a small mostly South African garden, there small seedlings of Diospyros lyciodes are planted, it should make it through as a dieback shrub based on past experience with this species.  I have numerous seedlings of Brugmansia radula so I am testing a handful outside, although it comes from summer growing areas it tends to leaf out for winter.  It comes from some pretty high altitudes and the leaves appeared fine when I last checked them, though I do worry as it has a shallow rooted bulb so it will have to stand prolonged freezing before it can be judged how much cold it can take.  Sparaxis elegans is from the Niewoudtville area and would be expected to tolerate some frost, but probably does not experience as much as it will get here.  As some compensation it is placed right by the wall of the house where it doesn't freeze so deeply. 
We will experience some harsh cold next week, but before it arrives we expect a "historic" blizzard commencing tonight.  School is already closed and some light snowfall is occurring right now well before the big event.  Leaves and straw cover many of the zone pushing plants along the sunny front walls of the house from before the last dip to low single digits F, so with the added snow insulation that we have largely lacked till recently I expect many species will come through.  Among other zone testing plants out in the gardens this winter is one big Erythrina zeyheri, Erythrina x bidwellii, another SA Asparagus spp, two of the so called Drakensberg gerbera hybrids, Tulbagia violacea, 2 different Hedychium spp and the hybrid that made it through last winter, Acanthus sennii, Amorphophallus sp (probably konjac), and no doubt some others that are escaping my mind at the moment.  In one of the back gardens Euryops evansii is taking a bit of a beating, it is alive but I hope it regenerates well in spring, it is not protected as it does grow at very high elevations in the Drakensberg.  Most evergreen kniphofias look good as we go into the blizzard with minimal if any dieback, the snow should prevent further dieback since by the time it melts it will probably be mid February at least and we should be past the single digit night lows.   Or at least I hope so.

Sutera breviflora

Sutera breviflora

Sutera cf halimifolia

Sutera cf halimifolia

 

Sutera sp Silverhill

Sutera sp Silverhill

Felicia mossambadensis

Felicia mossambadensis

Felicia mossambadensis

 Sutera and the closely related if not synonymous Jamesbrittonia are nice little bushy scrophs from South Africa and nearby that tend to bloom for long periods of time.  Some hybrids or selections have been introduced into the US trade under the grossly incorrect name of Bacopa, which is an entirely different, mostly aquatic genus of tropical plants.  Sutera breviflora grows high in the Drakensberg and my plants come from seeds collected long ago by Panayoti Kelaidis and resurrected from the fridge to give me a few plants this year.  One thing that is important to keep in mind with Sutera and Jamesbrittonia is that if you want seed, you need genetically different clones, they are usually self incompatable or nearly so.  I got about three or so plants and got them to set plenty of tiny seeds, it is a tedious task picking the minute ripe pods from the delicate and somewhat sticky stems.  I set the two plants that remained by summers end into pockets in a pile of rock that I made while breaking up mostly mica type scheist underneath one of my raised beds in the backyard with a small jackhammer.  I will see how they fare the winter, though admittedly they were planted late and are quite exposed to the elements.  Nonetheless I got more than enough seeds to start another generation if need be, and the little pinkish flowers are a delight in a container or crevice.  Sutera cf halmifolia came either from PK or myself, cant recall correctly, but it produces plenty of seeds and is not as hardy as breviflora but might self sow if I am lucky.  It is not quite as showy, being a rather delicate plant in appearance, but it blooms all summer long.   The third species, a white flowered one, came from Silverhill and as luck would have it only one germinated so I cut the plant back and am overwintering it.  I collected what could be seed but I see no germination thus far, and have started the remainders of other packets of Sutera sp from SH so in case I didn't plant all of them the first time maybe I will find a partner for this floriferous little thing.  It looked very nice in a container on the patio all summer long.  
Felicia mossambadensis is my own introduction, I was first intrigued by it when I found it growing wild in Gaborone, Botswana on my first trip to Africa in 1984.  I brought back some seed and had it for a little while then lost it.  Later on during another trip in the early 90s I collected more seed in the then Transvaal and have kept it ever since, growing it out every now and then to add to my stores of seed.  Like Sutera, most Felicias are self infertile so again grow a few clones to get seed to store and thus keep it around.  In southern Africa it is found as a small weed in ruderal areas and sunny roadsides, but it never gets overwhelming because of its small stature.  It is the only yellow Felicia that I know of, nearly all are blue, and a few are white.  It is also one of the relatively few found in the summer growing regions so it adapts to garden life well in the eastern US, so long as it is provided ample sun, good drainage, and competition from larger plants is kept away.  It seeds readily and next year I will know if it can self sow here, but in the meantime I have filled a plump packet with what I collected from this years plants.  It is not winter hardy but blooms so quickly from seed and goes through straight to frost.  It would look best in a rock garden or in containers or in the very front of any other sunny garden.

This rather imposing beast of a plant is something I grew from a seed that I got off my friend Andrew Block's helianthus that he had collected somewhere in NY I think. At the time we thought it was H giganteus and he also had H longifolius I think growing in his garden so I presumed what I got was a hybrid, but it may not be, it may be that "giganteus" was actually the species grosseserrulatus.  However we are not sure, because Andrew remembers the mother plant has being slightly different in leaf and flower, tending to not flower down so low on the stems, but more at the ends.  I also recall not finding many seeds when I harvested them which would lead one to suspect it is a hybrid, but I have seen it mildly self sow since we moved here, so that would suggest that it is a species.  Whatever it is, it is quite spectacular.  The lower pictures were from 2013, when it was in what was a vegetable plot on this property, where it grew to massive heights, maybe 10 feet or so.   The following spring I divided it, gave a piece to John Mickel, the fern expert who also worked at NYBG and lives within a short walk of me (and together with his wife Carol have some quite lovely gardens of their own), and put the rest behind the rectangular walled koi pond.  Actually the koi are just plain goldfish at this point, and I don't pay them much mind other than having my wife or daughter give them some food when they remember, rather I enjoy growing waterlilies in the pond.  Anyway we had a dry end to summer and early fall in 2014 so by the time they came into bloom in late September or October they were a bit wilted, even though I did water them with a hose a few times.  Still they grew huge and bowed under the sheer weight of the flowers. 
Its funny that when I grew this in my old garden it was much more restrained, it never got over 5 feet or so but it was hemmed in between a Japanese maple and a barberry hedge.  My mom never liked it because it was one of those "tall weeds" of mine to her, but when it found its freedom here at the new house it went wild in all senses of the word.  I imagine this wouldn't be a plant for small gardens nor gardeners more obsessed with formality and neatness than I am, but if you want a real showstopper, this plant is hard to beat.  Just give it sun and some water, and stand back. 

A spuria iris

Iris ensata

Iris pseudocorus

Iris virginica?

Iris hookeri?

Iris sp Tibet

Iris sp Tibet

Iris versicolor?

Iris versicolor? Iris dwarf bearded hybrid from seed Iris fulva I grew a lot of iris seeds out a few years ago, mostly from SIGNA, which has an amazing seed list, and also from NARGS and other sources.  I am bad with labels though, especially in my school garden where animals and weather conspire to move labels or destroy them.  So I have a lovely mélange of iris species and hybrids grown from seeds.  I think most of the unnamed ones above are versicolors, but maybe some are virginica  as well, I just am not that familiar with the differences among some iris species to know. Any ID corrections or suggestions for any of the above are welcome.  I can tell the slightest variation in a pelargonium species but when it comes to a group I am less familiar with, its harder for me to tell them apart.  Nonetheless the irises are an easy group of plants to grow, generally speaking.  Their worst enemies are voles, and they have done in the bearded irises I planted in the garden except for some seed grown smaller varieties near the road.  They also chewed up what I think is sp Tibet this past winter, but amazingly it regrew from the slightest bits of root and rhizomes, but no blooms this year.  The flowers shown are from last year.  It is a rather tall growing one with dense grassy leaves about a foot and a half or two long.  The pseudacorus is in a place where it gets pretty dry and I remove its seedpods so it is well behaved in that spot, whereas it would be a menace if planted anywhere near water.  The ensatas are either straight species collected in Russia or hybrids, I think the former since they all look the same.  Rather pretty, they bloom a bit later than some of the others.  I've collected a couple of bags of seeds of some of the smaller "versicolors" or whatever they are, and will plant them out in corners of my home property as deer aren't going to bother them.  Iris fulva is one of the Louisiana iris species, it is quite impressive with its oddly colored flowers.  I also have yet more iris seeds to plant from past acquisitions and have done so in a plastic windowbox planter that is in the cool garage for now but will go out for stratification sometime after the blizzard passes, or maybe to the unheated part of the attic where they would be safer from critters.   Growing iris from seed is fun, and I have some Pacific Coast iris hybrids under lights right now, they are supposed to be hard to grow here but they do indeed survive and bloom in NY.  Their biggest fault is that they don't like being transplanted, but one vigorous plant made the move to the new house successfully and from the many seedlings I have in pots from the The Society for Pacific Coast Native Iris  and NARGS  I suspect many will survive after I put them out in spring.  Growing them from seed is the best way to see what can take our climate as any that cant will be weeded out by the next winter (or summer).   I am sure that with persistence one could create a race of Pacific Coast iris that would be ideally adapted to the East coast as well.  

Pelargonium incrassatum, pink form

Oxalis cf obtusa

Oxalis obtusa

Oxalis purpurea

Oxalis purpurea

Oxalis sp

Hesperantha hantamensis

Hesperantha hantamensis

Lapeirousia oreogena

Babiana sp.

Massonia cf pygmaea

Freesia fucata

Oxalis purpurea

Oxalis purpurea

Oxalis purpurea

Oxalis simplex

Oxalis cathara

Oxalis sp.

Oxalis fragrans

Lachenalia viridiflora

Oxalis nortieri

Romulea sp

Walleria gracilis

Oxalis gracilis

     At this point in January as we near the end of what started as a not too bad winter and are in a rather nasty cold and snowy phase that wont let up for at least another week, I, and no doubt many other gardeners, are really beginning to tire of winter.  So aside from seed starting, there are some things to look forward to each winter season, and that is the flowering of the many winter growing South African geophytes in my cool garage.  Under florescent lights and with the occasional help of some scarce winter sun, many species are grown in an environment that suits them well.   The best thing would be a cool greenhouse, but short of that, my setup works pretty well.  Adding some new t5 light setups has also made it even easier for some high light demanding items to be grown even better, though most of the plants are still under t12 setups.  My indoor light gardens may be costly in terms of our electric bill but it allows me to stay sane in the darkest depths of winter. 
     The stars of early winter are the Cape oxalis spp, there are so many of them.  Their nomenclature is a mess, since the last taxonomic treatment of this speciose genus (especially so in the Cape) was done a long time ago, well before DNA information became available for determining the true evolutionary relationships among the various species.  But nature, of course, does not care how perplexed we can become in trying to make order of her handiwork so the proliferation of oxalis in the winter rainfall regions of South Africa is both maddening and fascinating.   About the only thing they have in common are five petals, a complex fertilization system involving three tiers of stamens/pistils (sort of like the thrum and pin thing in primula, but worse), and bulbs. This latter feature is most unusual for dicots (or eudicots or wherever they are placed in the new classification system).  It enables them to pass the dry summers totally dormant, and makes it easy to deal with in my garage too.  When they finish growing and die back in mid to late spring, I just let the pots dry, clean off the dead foliage, and water again in September or October when temperatures drop and they show signs of stirring to life again.  It is important to repot them every other year or so, because most make copious new bulbs, and the small pots I have them in get crowded quite fast.  They generally grow fine in a mix of perlite and miracle grow container mix, but I am experimenting with pumice in place of perlite.  The only way to get pumice at a reasonable cost in the east is to order Dry Stall (meant for horse barns but can be used as a soil amendment according to the website) from Agway.  They have to order it in for you from their distributer and sometimes--like today--they get confused about the status of the company that makes dry stall--today they told me the company was going out of business, but a quick google search and phone call to the Dry Stall company proved otherwise, so I am on a mission to get it cleared up so I can get more pumice.  This is not the same as Stall Dry, that is another product, you want the stuff that is made of "volcanic aggregate" as per the Dry Stall website.   Its doesn't float like perlite, and is great for certain plants that don't like too much organic material in their mix, Worsleya being an excellent example.  But most of the Cape oxalis are flexible when it comes to mixes, so long as they are kept cool (runs around 50F in my garage during the coldest parts of winter) and get good light.  Most will survive and even bloom at higher temperatures, but not as well as at colder temps based on my experience growing them under lights in the old house at higher temps.  Certain species such as O. obtusa in particular do so much better at lower temperatures.  Some species can stand quite a bit of frost and I am testing some outside against the wall of the house, so far O. melanosticta has done the best, it flowers soon after it starts growing in fall so the flowers are not ruined by cold, then the leaves endure quite a bit of freezing.  It survived last winter, which was quite a bad one.  I am trying O. palmifrons outside too, this will be its first winter.  It is not particularly renowned for its flowers, but it has most attractive foliage.  It does survive outside at Plant Delights nursery in Raleigh NC.   It also is one of the species I did not have success with at the old house, it really wants it bright and cool.  Oxalis simplex (aka dregei) is an easy species that did well in both the old and new house.  It grows in seasonally wet areas in habitat so no worries about overwatering this species.  It proliferates quickly, even sending shoots out the drainage holes of its pot.  Incidentally, unlike most bulbous plants, stems of oxalis can root and form bulblets, many form bulbets along the underground portion of their stem anyway. It is one of three unifoliate species I grow, the others being nortieri with thick leaves and the thinner textured O. monophylla.  The foliar variation in Oxalis is as remarkably diverse as the surprising lack of diversity in the basic flower form, fortunately all Cape species have attractively colored flowers but many would be worth growing for foliage alone.
     For variation within a species, look no further than O. obtusa, O. purpurea, and O. flava.  All three species have a diverse array of flower colors and forms, and interesting crosses can be made among the different varieties, so long as they differ in placement of stamen and pistils--if they are arranged in the same way (there are three "levels", two for stamens and one for the five lobed pistil) then they will not cross.   There are some oxalis I have that have species names that probably should be lumped with O. obtusa, it is a very polymorphic species with flowers in just about every color but blue or purple, and often has two toned blooms.  It is easily the most diverse species of them all, and the different forms can hybridize to make a messy situation even more complex. The numerous small bulbs have characteristic raised ridges on them.   O. purpurea in its typical form, with a pink/purple flower, is a common lawn weed in the Cape, but it also has numerous other color forms.  O. flava in the broad sense always has succulent blue or grey green foliage with peculiar finger like blades that may be flattened or somewhat cylindrical in cross section.  Unlike the other two diverse species, it tends to have bulbs that are fairly large, smooth skinned, and they dive deeply in pots and presumably in the ground as well.   One could amass quite a collection of oxalis with just these three species, but there are many more, some of which trail, others make compact rosettes, and all are beautiful. O. fragrans lives up to its name, it smells like violets or pansies to me, a pleasant surprise since most oxalis don't have an appreciable fragrance.  Telos Rare Bulbs is the best source of Cape oxalis in the USA, the owner Diana Chapman has made so many of them available at very reasonable prices, and she even ran a half price sale on them this past year.  I brought in several species, mostly from South Africanbotanical gardens and some from wild collections (O. obtusa is everywhere in the western Cape) during my days as curator of the Desert Collections at NYBG.   The real pioneer, however, in first bringing the Cape species into cultivation in the US would be the late Mike Vassar, I acquired many species from him, and over the years as people have learned of these wonderful and easily grown plants, species have traded hands back and forth.  I reacquired some species I lost from Bill Baird, a podiatrist who is a self taught expert on the genus like no other person I have met.  He grows only oxalis, and not just Cape oxalis species, and has a profound knowledge of them and has networked with just about anyone who grows or studies oxalis.  He has also given me numerous other species both summer growing ones from the Americas and Cape species.  He gave me my first bulbs of O. cathara, a rare species with beautiful thin fingered foliage and copious fragrant white flowers. In the US, most of the Cape oxalis would grow well in parts of California, but the various rodents there assure that most of them could not become invasive species, except the pervasive O. pes-capre, which must be the only species they don't eat, and it is a problem in parts of California.  Gardeners in that state would do well to protect any oxalis they plant outdoors with wire cages around the bulbs to prevent rodent predation, much as we easterners need to do the same for crocus when squirrels and other rodents go after their corms. 
    Pelargonium is a much larger and more diverse genus than most folks realize, and most of them are either succulent stemmed or completely geophytic plants, dying down to tuberous roots during their dormant season.  The species are harder to locate than most other plants but if one understands their natural cycle, they are not hard to grow.  The winter growing dwarf species, mostly in section Horea, bear rosettes of leaves followed by flowers which range from interesting to very showy.  Most of them can bloom the first year from fall sown seeds.  The stunning Namaqualand Beauty, P. incrassatum is especially fast from seed.  Its one fault is that the dense flower heads tend to run into the light tubes so I sometimes have to force them down by anchoring them under another plant to keep them from growing into the lights if I want to see the flowers and set seeds.  It usually comes in screaming magenta, but I have gown pink and lavender forms sent to me many years ago by the late Charles Craib.  Charles was another self taught expert on South African flora and producer of some fine books on the flora that are now out of print.  He and Mike Vassar knew each other very well, and I had the pleasure of knowing both of them.   Pelargonium nephrophyllum is a rare tiny species that flowers before the tiny leaves grow out, unlike most of the others that flower with the leaves or most often as the foliage is dying down.  I am trying to increase my stock with some seeds from my own long lived plant.  While many tuberous rooted pelargoniums produce extra "tubers" that are like small potatoes, I have not noted this yet with my plant of P. nephrophyllum so I set some seed this year by placing it under a new t5 setup to give it really bright light so it could make more than one or two seeds.  I didn't end up with a lot, but I did get more than usual to try and increase my stock. 
     There is a whole world of small and not so small bulbs or corms to grow from the Cape.  Lapeirousia oreogena is a stunning tiny species with brilliant purple flowers accented with wonderful dark markings.  It, like all Cape bulbs, can be grown from seed sown in fall or winter when temperatures are cool.  Many of these species need to first pass through a warm summer before their seeds will sprout so sometimes fresh seed from South Africa might not sprout right away.  If already sown and nothing grows the first season, just dry the pot out for summer (as one would for the plants anyway) and resume watering in cooler fall weather, very often any recalcitrant seeds will then sprout.  L. montana is an even tinier species with fragrant lavender blue stars, I will take photos of it soon and feature it in a later blog.  Hesperantha is a genus that like Lapeirousia spans both winter and summer rainfall areas but is also more speciose in the winter rainfall areas of South Africa.  The tiny H. hantamensis is far from the showiest species, but it grows on Hantam mountain which is about the coldest spot in the Cape, so when I have increased my stock I shall try some outside.  It should easily be able to handle single digit drops (F) based on where it comes from.  Only by experimenting with it will we know if it can also handle prolonged freezing temperatures, since while it experiences considerable cold at night in habitat, during the day the temperatures usually (but not always) rise above freezing.  There are winter growing bulbs from the Mediterranean that survive fine here in New York, grape hyacinths and crocus come to mind so why wouldn't there be some South African winter growers that have that capability also?  After all only 10,000 years ago the last ice age ended and while South Africa was not glaciated its mountaintops were certainly even colder than now so the ability to survive even colder conditions than experienced today surely lurks in the genetic makeup of some of the higher altitude winter growing Cape geophytes.  I've had more than a few plants native to  Florida or Georgia survive NY winters without complaint so plants often have long genetic memories and often more tolerance for conditions they do not experience in habitat today than we know. 
     Romulea is the (mainly) South African equivalent of crocus, in fact there is little botanical difference between them.  The species depicted was grown from seed as an unidentified species, and without a more thorough knowledge of the different species I am not sure exactly which one it is.  Many Romulea species show considerable variation in flower color which makes identification even more difficult.  There are many different ones in both low altitude and high altitude regions of the Cape.   Some of the high altitude species have stunning red flowers, looking more like species tulips than crocus. 
     Babiana hybrids are sometimes sold in the trade and will grow in California or perhaps the lower south if the summer rains aren't too much for them.  Yet there is a plethora of wonderful species as well to choose from.  Some stay small, such as the one shown which I collected seed of in the south Cape/Klein Karoo area, others grow a bit larger.  Many have pleated leaves and the corms tend to dive deeply in their pots since they are preyed upon by various critters, including baboons.  Some are wonderfully fragrant as well. 
     Freesia is not quite as speciose as the above genera, but it also has the same basic distribution with most species being winter growers.  Many are fragrant to those who can smell them, apparently this ability is genetically controlled in humans.  Freesia fucata is an early bloomer, most of the other freesia species I grow are yet to bloom. 
     Massonia is a small genus which has its own Facebook group (really, and when one grows them one can see why they would inspire such a group).  The foliage is often the most fascinating thing about them, usually two leaves emerge from each bulb, very often they are flattened against the soil, and they may be smooth, hairy, green, or variously marked.   The paintbrush like flowers emerge from the middle and may be fragrant or may not smell so good.  Usually white, they can be pink or even reddish and close relatives in the genus Daubneya can be quite brilliantly colored.   The black round seeds are easy to harvest but so smooth they often escape when trying to separate them from the chaff on a piece of paper.
     Lachnalias also have smooth round seeds but there are many more species than in Massonia.   Only one species is said to be summer growing, the elusive L. pearsonii (not to be confused with a hybrid of the same name) from Namibia, but there are a few winter growers that maintain the winter growing habit even when they live in summer rainfall regions.  Lachanalia viridiflora is a stunning blue green flower, and is also very rare in habitat, being restricted to the Vredenburg area.  Luckily it grows well in cultivation.   It is self fertile so from one bulb I brought from Rust En Vrede nursery back in the early 80s numerous offsets and seeds were produced over the years such that NYBG has many from what I brought into their collections, and I have grown some from the abundant refrigerated stash of seed I have of this species.  It is among the first lachenalias to bloom, and will often flower its second year from seed.  Its hard to believe it is critically endangered in habitat, as it is so easy to grow and propagate.  I recently acquired a copy of The Genus Lachenalia by Graham Duncan of Kirstenbosch fame.  It was expensive but well worth its cost.  One can see how much effort Graham put into this meticulously researched and well illustrated book.  His personal experiences with the various species are informative in a way that too few horticultural/botanical books have, which makes this book even more appealing. I like when its obvious that an author has a passion and profound knowledge about their subject. 
     I've blogged about Walleria gracilis before, and by now I know more of its weird ways.  It is another species that is quite restricted in where it lives, and is one of a handful of species and in this case the only winter growing one.  I have found that it is self fertile, and also have seen it growing well at Wave Hill in the Bronx.  They also have many seedlings coming along.   Its not hard to grow but it is  a vine.  It forms a fairly large tuber and my plant did not awaken last year so eventually I dried it off and this fall it came up like nothing happened.  So if you grow this species at some point don't be alarmed if it takes a year off, it isn't dead its just sleeping.  It blooms for quite a while and the flowers resemble Solanaceae flowers and also probably are "buzz" pollinated by bees in their natural habitat.
     Besides Telos for bulbs, many more species of Cape flora can be obtained from Silverhill Seeds in South Africa (they ship all over the world), and some are also carried by Lifestyle Seeds.  There are also a couple of other reputable seed suppliers in South Africa, and some of the bulb and cormous species show up in seed exchanges such as NARGS and SRGC. 
     With the coming of spring more pelargoniums, oxalis, and "bulbs" will come into bloom while others set seed with my help in ensuring their pollination.  They provide a source of continual pleasure right through the season most gardeners in temperate climates dread, well until after the outdoor gardens have begun to spring into action. 



Pelargonium nephrophyllum

Oxalis kasvogdensis

Oxalis purpurea

Oxalis melanosticta in fall 2013

Oxalis melanosticta in December 2014

Oxalis spp

Oxalis spp

Oxalis flava

Oxalis spp

Osteospermum Avalanche

Osteospermum hybrid

Osteospermum hybrid

Osteospermum hybrid

Osteospermum hybrid In the front, along a the walkway I put in a slightly raised area with lots of road sand and planted it full of delospermas and five different kinds of osteospermums, among a few other things.  Four of the osteospermums were from Home Depot, who knows what they are, but they all bloomed nicely all season long.  I also brought 3 plants of O. "Avalanche" from High Country Gardens, they grow differently, making a mat of foliage with white daisies rising on single stems above the foliage.  One of the three plants was more vigorous than the other two, but all bloomed off and on all season.  I never got quite the show they get in Denver with them but I was pleased and they are supposed to be winter hardy.  Before the recent snows came, they certainly seemed fine, while of course the Home Depot hybrids were long dead from frost.  I made a point of finding and collecting good seed from all of them, and found plenty of what appears to be good seed on the Home Depot hybrids. Avalanche is supposed to be sterile, but with careful attention I found a few sound looking seeds on it too.  Not many, and now that I planted them most turned out to be empty shells but I am happy to report I have two nice seedlings coming along.  I don't know if they crossed with the HD hybrids or if they are selfed, though I suspect the latter.   It will be interesting to see how they compare to the parent plants later on this year.  Osteospermums produce two kinds of seeds, flattened ones in the middle and triangular, much thicker, ones on the outer ring of the center of the flower.  In the case of Avalanche, the few good seeds were all triangular, in the Home Depot hybrids they tended to be triangular with possibly a few good flattened ones.  I haven't yet started the HD hybrids but it will be interesting to see how well they germinate and what new colors I might get.  It is possible that Avalanche is mostly sterile not because it is an interspecific cross but because many Asteraceae are self incompatible and all stock of this variety is cutting raised.  Sometimes even with self incompatible Asteraceae one gets a good seed or two anyway.  I'm looking forward to growing more of these South African daisies in my gardens this year, they flower all summer long till frost and seem to not attract critters of the four legged kinds.    

In my last post I wrote about getting seeds off of Osteospermum "Avalanche".  Evidently it crossed with one of the purple tender ones as I got this blue eyed offspring.  Only one other seed grew and produced a plant, and it appears to be identical to "Avalanche".  Seed set on any of them has been very sparse this year, since we had too frequent rain in early summer followed by hot and dry weather later on.   Reluctant seed setters such as these tend to prefer optimal conditions, which would be cool and sunny for a few weeks at a time.  Nonetheless should my blue eyed plant prove to be as hardy as "Avalanche" it would be a nice addition to gardens.  It is a good bloomer and held up well to whatever weather it had to endure.
Only the most vigorous of the three plants of "Avalanche" made it through last year's brutal winter, but it has regrown nicely and is quite robust right now, as we have had a very mild fall with about two hard frosts thus far.  I took cuttings of the blue eyed plant to overwinter indoors in case the plant outside fails to get through winter, but with the strong El Nino in place it is likely the winter will be mild and thus its chances of survival are good.   I planted other osteospermums near it and "Avalanche" including "Purple Mountain" and one from Forest Farm called "Lavender Mist".  Alas neither plant has been very robust, but they are alive and will probably get through winter.  In fact "Lavender Mist" looks identical to "Avalanche", I can detect nothing lavender about it.  I think FF has some labeling issues, I also got a Shasta Daisy from them that was supposed to be a very full double variety, it came out single so I trashed it.   Otherwise I have generally had good luck with FF.

Generally I am not a great fan of maples, perhaps because when we were at the old house that my folks owned I had to fight with the roots of Norway maples in some of my gardens.  They were quick to grow, and steal water from herbaceous plants, and sometimes they would even grow up into pots that were set upon the ground for the summer.   I detest Norway Maple (Acer platanoides) anyway, it is an aggressive invader of our forests and is uglier than the native Sugar Maple (A. saccharum) which does have colorful fall foliage.  I also don't really want large trees around my gardens in general, the root competition is too much for most of the plants I want to grow and I'd rather grow a lot of small things in a given space than one big thing.
I did see a plant at Western Hills north of San Francisco years ago that I first thought was one of the South African sumacs but on closer inspection it turned out to be Acer pentaphyllum,  I tried a couple of small seedlings at the old house but they did not survive.  So this year I got a decent sized plant from Forest Farm and it has grown well.  It remains to be seen if it will survive the winter, as I think there is little experience growing it outside of the West Coast.  It is very rare in nature, confined to a small area in one valley in western China.  The leaves do look suspiciously like marijuana but of course the latter is not a woody plant.  It is deciduous from what I can find out, but so far it still has foliage on it but it stopped growing when fall arrived.   I think it will make a nice bush or small tree in our yard should it survive the winter.  If it does well I may let it take the place of the brittle cedars nearby.  I keep them only because they offer some shade for potted plants that sit on a wall and on the ground on landscape fabric at the base of the same wall in summer.   Otherwise the cedars are not in the best of shape, they have been cabled to keep more branches from breaking, which I assume must have been a problem before we got this house.