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| Our local Rhodendron Dell | |
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| Topic Started: Oct 31 2015, 05:42 PM (179 Views) | |
| Kahu | Oct 31 2015, 05:42 PM Post #1 |
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Flowers are out now and are really beautiful ... a mixture of natives, ferns, orchids and rhodos ...
Edited by Kahu, Oct 31 2015, 05:44 PM.
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| sooty | Oct 31 2015, 07:49 PM Post #2 |
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Blue Star Member
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Loved the cream and white ones. Did you ever visit Nancy Astors home in the UK. There were groves and groves of Rhodies and Azaleas. It really blew me away . Adelaide is too hot but they do grow in the Adelaide Hills. What was the red lipped flower? |
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| FuzzyO | Nov 1 2015, 12:03 AM Post #3 |
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Thanks for the pictures. It will be several months before we can see the rhodos here! |
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| Kahu | Nov 1 2015, 12:07 AM Post #4 |
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I don't think my photography did them justice. It was a bit late in the afternoon when I took them facing westwards and I had all sorts of shadows, and really couldn't see the screen on my camera too clearly. So they were all a bit pot luck. No we didn't go to Lady Astor's Gardens, but we did hear from our Scot's rellies that rhodos are a bit of a problem in the highlands. They cut out so much light, and the leaf litter kills the heather and other native scottish heritage plants. Scottish Rhododendrons Mind you scottish heather is causing us a bit of a problem too ... In conclusion, Calluna Vulgaris is an invader in New Zealand - a plant that is considered a noxious weed in that country, although it is thought of very differently in its native Scotland. Areas where it flourishes can be assigned the status of Site Of Special Scientific Interest. It out-competes the native plants of New Zealand by crowding and overshadowing. It needs to be driven out of the ecosystem, and the best way to do it is with the heather beetle. The beetle is the best hope for the resuscitation of the native flora and fauna of the Tongariro Volcanic Centre. Heather on the Volcanic Plateau The red lipped flower is a kakabeak (Ngutu kaka). The Kaka is a native bush parrot and plant's flowers look like a Kaka's beak ... Ngutu kaka There's a white flowered variety and a pink one too. They are related to the Kowhai which is our national flower ... flowers appear before the new seasons leaves open.. Edited by Kahu, Nov 1 2015, 12:11 AM.
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| Trotsky | Nov 1 2015, 01:54 AM Post #5 |
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Big City Boy
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Rhodos are among my very favorite flowers. Persnickety though. |
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| Darcie | Nov 1 2015, 02:49 AM Post #6 |
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Skeptic
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All are absolutely beautiful. We need more pictures like that. I can close my eyes and pretend I am lying in a lounge and just resting. You don't have mosquitoes do you? |
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| Trotsky | Nov 1 2015, 05:46 AM Post #7 |
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Big City Boy
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Why pretend? |
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| Darcie | Nov 1 2015, 05:48 AM Post #8 |
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Skeptic
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If I do that outside here either the mosquitoes or the black flies will get me. Don't you have stuff like that over in NY? |
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| Kahu | Nov 1 2015, 09:36 AM Post #9 |
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Sandflies ,sometimes in humid weather later in the summer, but certainly not at the moment. Although in the deep south in Fiordland where there is very high rainfall (8+ metres rainfall annually) the sandflies wear hob-nailed boots at any time of the year! |
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| Trotsky | Nov 2 2015, 01:54 AM Post #10 |
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Big City Boy
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There are no mosquitoes or black flies in New York City. Why, I am not sure. MAybe the real estate prices scare them away? I am a magnet for them and it is a good reason I live where I live and never accept offers from anyone to visit them in "the country, the mountains, or their beach house." (Rats and roaches, yes...but they don't bite.) Edited by Trotsky, Nov 2 2015, 02:14 AM.
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| blizzard | Nov 2 2015, 04:59 AM Post #11 |
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Gold Star Member
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Must be rather mild mannered rats. (I am fully aware that my memory of rats is rather skewed by the recollections of my mother and my being a child). Kanu, how old are your rhododendron bushes? There are some very old ones in some parts of Victoria - private gardens mainly. I could never completely deadhead the ones I had at one house. |
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| Kahu | Nov 2 2015, 10:43 AM Post #12 |
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I don't know exactly, but I reckon they must be nearly 25 yrs old at least. A SIL's father was the local city councillor who was instrumental in setting the garden's up in the first place. The area where the garden has been developed is on the side of a hill above the river ... there was once a railway line along there and also was part of a school playground where I once taught and it's near part of the flattish land where earliest settlement in the valley began. Most housing areas now are on hillsides and the roads follow the ridge lines. As for deheading them ... when the flowerheads die off the winds we get here make short work of that task! The same happens with tree ferns as the fronds die and droop and forms a thick layer of litter. |
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