Ba-Ba-Ba..Babiana

Jamie Jamievande@freenet.de
Tue, 17 Feb 2004 09:04:57 PST
Jamie Vande    Cologne    Germany    Zone 8

There were there, in a basket, just staring up at me with a silly grin on their tunics, saying "Hallo,!  Take us home!"  I'm a sucker for cutsie corms, so I brough home 15!  Babiana stricta, well, we will see about that part, I'm always suspect, especially from Holland! (do you know how badly they pay their packers?)

Seriously, though, I was wondering if anyone has experience with these packaged goodies.  They are certainly nice and firm, although offered out of season, and I plan to just pop them into one of my large terrace pots, maybe at the base of a wisteria standard.  What think we, those more experienced than I?  Am I better off trying them in their own terra-cotta?  Any chance of them surviving a frost in Zone 8?

Spring is raising it's lovely head and I have finally noted for sure, that one of my G. nivalis is definitely and consitently much larger than the wild form (cultivated clone is better).  I collected this one bulb some three years ago in a cemetary, probably the best place to find interesting plants seeding about.  It has subsequently increased and I currently have some 6-8 bulbs in a small clump and they are almost twice as large as the normal Galanthus nivalis.  Same blooming period and do not look to be a hybrid, as the leaves, flowers and habit are in proportion to G. nivalis, just twice the size.  Any comments from the peanut gallery?  I am not a Galanthophile, just avid gardener, so I have little idea of what to note, other than the obvious.  Input appreciated.

Ciao....  


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