The first days of Autumn are here. Still the drought goes on. I got to experience some rain fall at a friends place while there for dinner ( it was lovely ), unfortunately no rain for my garden half an hours drive north. One good thing to look forward to is bright autumn foliage which seems to happen in years of drought. It can go too far where leaves simply dry and wilt to brown. I don't think its that dry this time round.




Winter bulbs in the cold house.

  The most exciting thing about Autumn has to be the first watering of the winter bulbs. I have been growing this collection of mostly South African bulbs from seed for a few years now. At this time of year the bulbs get one good soak and left for a week, checking progress each day - like a man obsessed! I don't give them any water from early to mid summer depending on the bulbs natural dormancy.
 It seems that a rat has taken up residence at some stage during the summer. It is long gone but has left behind some fertilizer and a few feathers from meals. But no attempt to dig up any bulbs thank goodness. It did manage to knock over three pots with first year seedlings. I think I have saved some by re-potting, fingers crossed. Half of my labels are missing. I'm not sure if I should blame the rat or not at this stage. There is a cat that has moved onto the property so hopefully that rat will be taken care of otherwise its the dreaded poison.

Dierama pulcherrimum

Tigridia pavonia 

Podophyllum 'Kaleidoscope'

 Autumn is also the time for gathering seeds from spring and summer flowering plants. I have a handfull of plants that I want to seed this year. The Dierama pulcherrimum is a lovely deep pink/chartreuse shade. The Tigridia is a standard red. I am very curious what seeds will come from the Podophyllum hybrid. If any one has experience of sowing Podophyllum please feel free to leave some notes.