Corrected Buchus; Corrected 'Place-of-Posting'

Glenn: Many thanks for the fascinating info. on this bunch. 

Sheilanthera: My info. came from a Scots friend who also has a
property in S.A. She sent me a photocopy of what I'm pretty sure is an
article in a S.A. magazine - describing Buchus as part of 'our' flora,
for instance -, which included the material on Sheilanthera. There was
no name or date for the mag. and no author's name on the article but a
drawing illustrating it was by Catherine Handforth. Perhaps she was
the author, too? Mag. page-size: A5. Illustration: simple line
drawing. Ie, not a big glossy mag but something from a society, I'd
guess - Kirstenbosch? or a Soc. for S.A. Plants (is there one?)? 

So I'd suspect the name is real and the plant(s) really S. African -
but I'd guess, too, that Moira was right when she suggested that
perhaps the less 'well-known' (bit of a misnomer for most of us...)
names might be less well-known simply because they were less worth
growing. Ie, not to put too fine a point upon it, weeds. (Even the
flora of S.A. must have SOME...?!)

Re use of Zones in signatures. I agree that SOMEthing is useful but
the problem of the limited applicability of the US zonal system to
non-US areas has, I think, been raised here before. 

For example, my own UK west coast climate is, in terms of winter lows,
Zone 8b or 9 (over the last 3 winters, nudging towards Z10, indeed) -
but of course my summer temps. are nothing like those of the US so
plants don't always, alas, behave in a Zone 10, 9 or even 8 way! 

I won't even START on the complicating factor of soil....!

Something like the signing-off which follows would (I hope...) be
comprehensive enough to be helpful - but who'd have the whatever to
send or read it time after time? Life's too short and full, I suspect
- and I suspect that most of the more or less regular contributors
have got to know more or less what conditions the other regulars live
and garden in? (Not aiming to be snooty to new or intermittent
contributors. Just aiming to be realistic about available amounts of
energy/time.)

Tim
Solway Coast, Cumbria, UK
Temps: min circa -3C, max circa 28C
Soil: acid, moisture-retentive
Year-round rain
Year-round wind, with frequent spring and autumn salt-laden gales



Tim Longville
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