Perfect Valentine's Day Gift - Rain - and Belladonna lilies in flower!

Over the last 36 h, we have been receiving the perfect Valentine's Day gift - Rain. I think that more than 75 mm have fallen in my garden - and my 5000 L tank is overflowing. I am running a slow hose to put the overflow into a path across the top of the garden that is filled to about spade depth with crushed bricks - this will allow the excess to soak further into the ground which has been bone dry to a great depth for a long time. 

Yesterday I spruiked about planting sweet pea seed on Valentine's Day - I guess this year I will be late as the rain, falling at about 2 mm per hour, is expected to continue all day.

This summer I have Amarylis belladonna - Belladonna lilies, commonly known as Naked Ladies,  flowering on the footpath. They have been in the ground for over 10 years, coming originally from my mother-in-law's garden, and this is the first year they have flowered! They say that Belladonna lilies take a while to settle in, but a compounding factor here in Canberra has been the drought - We had about 60 mm of rain at Christmas time so the ground was wet for a few cm deep for the first time in years - I think this must have sparked some extra life into the lilies and they are rewarding us now - in time for Valentine's Day - Seems somehow appropriate?

Sweetpeas on Valentine's Day, Rain at last, Diplarrena spp.

 

Sweet Peas on the Footpath Spring 2002

Rain. We have been blessed with over 30 mm rain here since midnight - the perfect prelude to the Lunar New year tonight and the coming Year of the Tiger. My 5000 L rainwater tank installed just before Christmas is almost full so I am running a dripper line to ensure the excess goes in to the vegetable garden.

Sweet Peas. In the Southern Hemisphere, it is traditional to recommend planting Sweetpeas on St atrick's Day March 17th. I have found living here where we can have frosts between Anzac Day (April 25 and Melbourne Cup (First Tuesday in November) that March 17 is to late to get good growth before winter. I plant Sweetpeas on Valentine's Day - which seems appropriate. I usually grown them on a circular trellis to one sideof the vegetable garden. I dig out the soil to below spade depth and add a good amount of compost,water holding crystals and dolomite. Pile the soil back on top and water well. After the wateris drained away I plant the Swwetpea seeds at about 2 cm apart up next to te wire nettting of the trellis. A good number of seedlings usually emerge and by late April plants are usually 50 cm high - They make slow growth through winter and by Spring I am usually getting my first flowers.

Last Summer I neglected tocollect seed - it dreid out too early and set was poor so I imagine that there will be quite a few self sown seedlings coming up after this rain. I like to plantold-fshioned types and the Yates Patricia Ann are a good choice - with rippled veins of colour through the petals and good scent. The mai nuisance for sweet peas aresnails - they boldly climb into the foliage and deface leaves with relish.

If you grow sweet peas in the vegetable garden be careful not to eat the foliage or seed or feed them to animals - Lathyrus spp. contain a neurotoxin, and  horses are more susceptible to the toxin in sweet peas than humans.

Diplarrena moraea and D. latifolia, the Butterfly Flag and the Western Flag Iris respectively, are two Australian members of the Iridaceae. Here in Canberra (600 M -5 C to 40 C 35 S 141 E), I am growing D. latifolia  in a large terracotta  pot - in a well drained gravelly mix,standing on a pot saucer so it won't dry out and tucked near shrubs so it is protected from frost and to much direct sun. I bought the plant last autumn, and it has made good growth through the year - rewarding me with the first flower this week - late summer. I have seen this garden gem in mass flowering in Tasmania (Cradle Mountain) in Summer, so it is worth trying to get established! I went out to take a photo of the flower but over night rain had ruined it!

Gardening in February

Golden Weather Grass, Hypoxis hygrometrica Labill., in the Hypoxidaceae, is one of the lesser known and grown Australian bulbous plants. It occurs naturally in open woodlands in Eastern Australia preferring swampy areas or grassy forest clearings. Members of the genus also occur in Africa - the best known being H. hemerocallidea (African star grass, African potato), with reputed medicinal properties, and there are also two species recorded from Brazil.

I purchased my plant at the Open Garden Australia Plant Fair held at Huntly, a property near Canberra, last Autumn so I have had it almost a year. I am growing my plants in a pot along with a dwarf foxglove -. The soil mix includes water-holding crystals to reduce drying out, and over the summer the fox glove foliage has covered the area where the bulb is planted. The Golden Weather grass died down over winter and has been dormant for  most of the summer, and has comeup and flowered in the last few weeks. The plant seems to clump up, but I have not yet attempted to divide it. It seems to have set seed so it will be interesting to see if I can raise a second generation. While Golden Weather Grass might not win any awards for spectacular performance, it is a good addition to the garden - the summer dormancy being a particular asset in dry summers..

Tha National Library of Australia holds a watercolour painting of a group of the plants by Adam Forster, 1924.

Bulbine spp. Here in Canberra,  I have grown two species from seed - (B. bulbosa (Golden Rock Lily) and B. semi-barbata (Leek Lily) (which featured in Curtis's Botanical Magazine in 1832). The seeds of both species, and a third, B. glauca ( Rock Lily), are offered by Wild Seed Tasmania . I also grew B. bulbosa years ago, in Brisbane.

After my inital Canberra planting in 2004 (lots of seedlings emerged), I lost both species in the drought. Then a year or so later, a lone seedling of one species emerged in a pot. I kept it well-watered and it flowered and set seed. I raised more plants and now, I have lots and, it seems to spread around a bit in the garden - a sure sign that  a plant is happy! I also divided up the original plant and transplanted it into the garden where they are doing OK - but I am not sure which of the two species it is, but it's probably B. bulbosa. I have found that the plants like to be kept moist, and even tolerate some waterlogging. At the National Botanic Gardens, they grow at least two species in the rock garden where plants seem to like growing beside and amongst rocks.