Some Autumn pics

14 May '06 6:06 pm

Some young trees showing there potential.
Knipfolias are also quite colourful at the moment.

17 May '06 2:30 am

Thanks for the pics! The best thing about young autumn trees is that they grow larger exponentially, and each year are substantially bigger than before! It is only about 4 years that I have considered my garden mature and just look at all the colour!

Nice pics of tree dahlias. I love them, but find them difficult to photograph - it is such a delicate mauve, and one is always looking up at them against the light. I thought of planting some in a ditch where I could see them at eye level from the dam wall, but that would put them right in the coldest part, ready to be frosted as they came into their prime...

Do you know which kniphofia you have? Or should I say, are they recent pics? I have long wondered about autumn coloured flowers to go with the trees, but most of my russets and oranges are over a few weeks before the autumn leaves - including the two endemic kniphofias I grow. Question

18 May '06 9:15 am

The pictures were all taken on 14 May 2006. No, sorry Jack I dont know which knipfolia they are. When a past neighbour sold her place she let me help myself to cuttings and plants from her garden. I got a few knipfolia plants then and have multipied them since. I have read a good article about them in the NZ Gardener magazine I will see if I can find it, it might help identify them. My Tree Dahlia is growing on a steepish bank near the creek so this enables me to photograph from below. The frost doesnt appear to affect it where it is so it must be protected by the surrounding shrubs.
Goose

18 May '06 10:50 am

Have found the article (June 93 How time flys) and discovered I have been spelling their name wrong. Sad

Have scanned this part for you hope it helps.
I think they are 'Winter Cheer' Very Happy

Goose

18 May '06 7:22 pm

Thanks Goose - you're a star! K.praecox is the most common, and so I am pretty certain that i will be able to obtain something similar here. I know they flower at different times, usually summer, but there are winter flowering ones too. Those I've seen locally were badly frosted June/July flowerers though. I'll search out some May flowerers! Thanks for your help!

Jack

18 May '06 8:29 pm

Thank you ,Goose for the reference -I can`t bear to throw away any NZ Gardeners ,so I will look for that one .I find bright orange a bit much for my pastel tones ,however the way you have naturalised them in a tree setting is very attractive .
I have a variety I love ,so am hoping to find out what it is .It is dwarf-growing and flower heads are white -cream- pale yellow .It is delightful in the garden with other plants such as roses , cottage flowers and foliage shrubs.
Dixie.

19 May '06 8:59 pm

Dixie, your kniphofia sounds like 'Little Maid' which I have and really like. But the other large orange ones I have left out of my new garden as I found they self-seeded too prolifically. They do put on a lovely show and if I had a road frontage like many farms around here I would grow them there as many do. I found that once they started spreading, they were very hard to remove as spray didn't have much effect and if I didn't get all the root, they just grew again.

19 May '06 9:17 pm

I have had this type growing for at least ten years now and have never seen a self seeded plant. All my plants have been from division, I have never had a problem with this Autumn flowering Kniphofia. It brightens up the garden at a time of year when not much else is flowering, if planted in the right
place it can give a warmth to a cool Autumn garden.
Goose Very Happy

19 May '06 9:32 pm

Interesting comments about self-seeding kniphofias. I don't think of them as self-seeding, although we have an endemic variant on the farm which obviously self-seeds, but hardly prolifically. Sometime recently in the forums I read of parts (of Australia?) where Agapanthus are banned for being invasive. Several species are indigenous to SA, and we have A. inapertus growing wild on the farm. Agapanthus is seen as a toughy, but definitely not as invasive. Much the same can be said of kniphofia. It is interesting to think that there is some local factor - a pest, a feeder, a weather condition Question

which prevents strong plants from getting out of hand in their native habitat, but can lead to problems elsewhere. The more I learn, the more the balance of nature fascinates me!

21 May '06 2:34 am

I knew I had some pics somewhere of our indigenous kniphofias. These were collected from the wild on the farm and planted in the aloe bed in front of my parents' house. Every winter this garden is lovely, but only twice in 15 years has there been no frost damage at all - and last year, when these pictures were taken in early July, was one of them. The sunbirds - long beaked, iridiscent little creatures that hover, much like hummingbirds, flit in and out from a nearby bottlebrush all day. The aloes are also endemic to our area, but were not collected from the farm. In a somewhat warmer spot ten km away they stand in their thousands like soldiers in a battle, sometimes over 3m tall, among the rocks and scrubby shrubs. They are referred to as impis, the Zulu word for squadrons. Very beautiful, very Africa...

Some Autumn pics

Some Autumn pics

Thanks Goose

Knipfolia

Kniphofia

autumn & winter

magazine reference

In defence of the "orange & yellow kniphofia"

Indigenous Kniphofias

Kniphofias and aloes for winter drama