Re: (Metrosideros) Bloom seasons in northern and southern hemispheres

Dear Moira,
I'm always delighted with the thoroughness of your
replies. Thank you again.
Metrosideros angustifolia plants here look like a very
short, upright, wispy Agonis, with yellow-green leaves
and reddish new growth. Not much to write home about.

Moira wrote:
> None of my books so much as mention it [M.
angustifolia]. Quite
> possibly it is not very
> garden worthy. 
 
> I doubt though temperature differences are seriously
> involved. I don't 
> think California is likely to be any cooler around
> the summer solstice 
> than Wellington is. Its highest temp at this time of
> year would 
> certainly very rarely exceed 24 C (75F) and at this
> temp we get the most 
> glorious concerted show from every tree around,
> lasting about a month, 
> and generally dazzling the eye..As to California
> being drier, this would 
> probably be an advantage. Wellington tends to be
> rather on the moist 
> side around Christmas, while the original habitat
> could already be quite 
> summer dry.

Sounds like we should import seed of Pohutukawas
flourishing around Wellington.

Pardon my generalization about North Island climates.
My thought was that Auckland's summer, if my paper's
weather page is to be believed, is consistently warmer
than San Francisco's, especially in the nighttime
lows. I read that highs are generally in the 70s F and
lows in the low 60s F.
However, your point about Pohutukawa bloom in
Wellington is well taken.
Are there any Southern Californians who can comment
about the Metrosideros excelsa bloom along your coast?
This would provide info from a distinctly warmer and
drier climate than SF's.

> 
> You can't really generalize anyway about the climate
> of the North 
> Island, as its long rather thin shape means there is
> around five hundred 
> miles difference between Wellington at its southern
> tip and the tree's 
> natural southern latitude boundary.
> (a difference between a mid-temperate and a warm
> temperate climate in 
> fact).

Just as here in California we have 20 different major
climates across 10 degrees of latitude and 14,000 feet
of altitude. Just across the seven-mile width of San
Francisco there are microclimates where Jacarandas
bloom profusely and beachside sites where even
Bougainvillea won't bloom for lack of heat. There are
forests of exotic trees on hilltops that sustain
epiphytic ferns with fog drip during our six-month
drought, while most untended grassy hillsides go brown
by May.

Add
> to this a good deal 
> of high ground in both islands, including a range in
> South Island quite 
> high enough to create a considerable rainshadow and
> even a trace of 
> continental-type climate and we  have here a lot of
> opportunity to 
> indulge in a variety of gardening styles and a wide
> range of diverse 
> plants according to where we live.

How low are the rainfall totals in that South Island
rain shadow? What is the range of summer/winter temps
in that continental-type climate? What city(-ies)
would best represent either or both phenomena?

Cheers,
Jason Dewees
San Francisco, California
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