[BULBS-L] [pbs] Bulbs over winter

Jane McGary janemcgary@earthlink.net
Thu, 15 May 2003 10:05:48 PDT
Jim SHields wrote,

>The Eurasian glads do very well here. G. illyricus is up and ready to
>bloom; G. caucasicus is also just about to open.  G. italicus borneti is
>doing very well.  I love G. imbricatus!

Another good one to try is G. antakiensis (seed available from the 
Archibalds). I finally have some blooming and they are a wonderful deep, 
rich purple.
 >
Jane McGary's bulbs by and large survived and bloomed.  Muscari bourgaei
>and Bellevalia pycnantha came up and bloomed.  Her Crocus kotschyanus
>bloomed last autumn!  I've never had C. kotschyanus bloom before.

It isn't "mine"--it's one of two good flowering clones that I obtained from 
Holland and sell through my list. One is called 'Reliant', and the other is 
under a JRJK collector's number (I believe "JR" here is Janis Ruksans). The 
commercial clone of C. kotschyanus multiplies rapidly but rarely flowers, 
so it is beloved by bulb growers but not by gardeners. This is a not 
uncommon tradeoff in the bulb world. Of the two flowering clones, "JRJK" 
multiplies faster.

I think there is something similar going on with Bellevalia pycnantha; the 
bulbs I bought wholesale under that name last fall seem to be something 
different from what I grew from the Archibalds' seed. I'm pretty confident 
that the plant I have distributed as B. pycnantha is correctly identified, 
but the wholesale bulbs have lax foliage and a bicolored inflorescence 
rather than erect leaves and an almost uniformly dark blue inflorescence.

Jane McGary
Northwestern Oregon, USA


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