A large bulb

Paul Licht plicht@berkeley.edu
Sat, 01 Aug 2009 16:12:54 PDT
The very large Amorphophallus titanum tuber mentioned is indeed large as 
offerings go,but of course, not enormous compared to the blooming ones. 
The last one we had at the Garden weighed in at 59.1lbs before blooming 
this spring. On the other hand, if anyone wants to grow up their own, 
the Garden offers 1-1.5yr old plants for $25-$50 (depending on size). 
Many have 2 or more leaves--not uncommon in their first year. They have 
walnut sized tubers but I assure you that these grow rapidly and are 
also fun to watch grow Just a thought. 

Bill Weaver has just given us some seed from an Amorphophallus 
erythrorrachis X A. gigas (pollen) cross. At the risk of counting  
seedlings before the seeds sprout , these could prove fascinating since 
both parents are spectacular.

Speaking of large bulbs, the Garden is also offering a number of robust 
(5yrold) Brunsvigia josephine.
Paul

Paul Licht, Director
Univ. California Botanical Garden
200 Centennial Drive
Berkeley, CA 94720
(510)-643-8999
http://botanicalgarden.berkeley.edu/



pbs-request@lists.ibiblio.org wrote:
> Send pbs mailing list submissions to
> 	pbs@lists.ibiblio.org
>
> To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
> 	http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php
> or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to
> 	pbs-request@lists.ibiblio.org
>
> You can reach the person managing the list at
> 	pbs-owner@lists.ibiblio.org
>
> When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
> than "Re: Contents of pbs digest..."
>
>
> List-Post:<mailto:pbs@lists.ibiblio.org
> List-Archive:<http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php
>
> Today's Topics:
>
>    1. Re: A large bulb! (Myke Ashley-Cooper)
>    2. Master Gardeners (Leo A. Martin)
>    3. garlicky leek seed? (Diane Whitehead)
>    4. Re: garlicky leek seed? (J. Agoston)
>    5. Re: garlicky leek seed? (Jim McKenney)
>    6. Re: garlicky leek seed? (Theladygardens@aol.com)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Fri, 31 Jul 2009 19:50:45 -0400
> From: "Myke Ashley-Cooper" <ashleycooper@embarqmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [pbs] A large bulb!
> To: "Pacific Bulb Society" <pbs@lists.ibiblio.org>
> Message-ID: <10D4D958C98E44DF94A78B8D9B62E55E@mykenew>
> Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> Checking out eBay today, I came across this amazing offer for an 
> Amorphophallus titanum:
>
> "THIS IS A BIG ONE - PROBABLY THE BIGGEST AMORPHOPHALLUS TUBER EVER OFFERED 
> ON EBAY!!!!
> PLEASE REVIEW THE PICTURES.
> THE CORM WEIGHS  38 lbs.  10 oz.  IT HAS A DIAMETER OF 15" AND A 
> CIRCUMFERENCE OF 48"AND IS 10" HIGH."
>
> The current 16th bid is $450!!! Click here to check it out. 
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Fri, 31 Jul 2009 18:53:08 -0700 (PDT)
> From: "Leo A. Martin" <leo@possi.org>
> Subject: [pbs] Master Gardeners
> To: pbs@lists.ibiblio.org
> Message-ID: <86fc85dbfd93d7e61d925761b8b186f3.squirrel@http://www.possi.org/>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
>
> Disclosure: I'm not a master gardener but I know a lot of people who are.
>
> It takes a lot of time to become one and I doubt many people can manage it
> unless retired or supported by a spouse. I'm sure I would learn something
> if I went through the program but not enough to make it worth all that
> time. I'd rather spend the time tending the plants I know how to grow.
> And, having friends in the landscaping business keeps me up on current
> trends in irrigation systems, and other technology.
>
> Output of any system is no better than the input. MG program quality seems
> to vary around the USA. I have observed most MGs around the USA know basic
> flower, shrub and vegetable gardening pretty well, as well as knowing
> something about major themes in current gardening practice (drip
> irrigation, composting, mulch, pest management.) And they learn about
> their specific local gardening issues.
>
> Our local Maricopa County, Arizona MG program turns out people who know
> quite a bit about xerophytic plants and drip systems. They are evangelists
> for low-water-use gardening, which is exactly what our region needs. (Our
> five biggest-selling perennial landscape plants are bermuda grass, yellow
> lantana, Barbara Karst bougainvillea, hibiscus bybrids, and the queen palm
> Syagrus romanzoffiana. None of these are low-water-use plants in our
> climate, and the palm rarely lives more than 5-7 years here.)
>
> But not everybody can learn everything, especially in a two-year program!
> I don't know much about peonies other than they smell good, they attract
> ants, they looked great in my grandma's garden in Milwaukee, and don't
> bother with them in Phoenix.
>
> Leo Martin
> Phoenix Arizona USA
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 3
> Date: Fri, 31 Jul 2009 21:29:54 -0700
> From: Diane Whitehead <voltaire@islandnet.com>
> Subject: [pbs] garlicky leek seed?
> To: Pacific Bulb Society <pbs@lists.ibiblio.org>
> Message-ID: <652AE603-845E-4E4E-A4A1-3A60076CA734@islandnet.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed; delsp=yes
>
> I grow two kinds of garlic, or I should say, of all the kinds of  
> garlic I have bought to plant over the years, two persist.
>
> One is a genuine garlic, with snaky stems and heads of bulbils.
>
> The other, I think, is a type of leek.  It has sharp-edged hard  
> bulbils attached to the big bulb by white "threads".  Some of these  
> break off and remain in the soil, so I have it growing forever  
> wherever I have planted it.  I have begun digging it as I normally do  
> at this time, as the leaves are dry.  It is also in flower - a ball of  
> pale pink flowers - and it suddenly occurred to me that perhaps it  
> would produce seeds.  I don't know how long would be needed for this.   
> I wouldn't want to leave the bulbs in the ground until the rains  
> start, as they might not keep till next summer if they don't dry off  
> properly.
>
> Does anyone else leave theirs to go to seed, and does it take very  
> long for it to ripen?
>
> Diane Whitehead
> Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
> maritime zone 8, cool Mediterranean climate
> mild rainy winters, mild dry summers
>
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 4
> Date: Sat, 1 Aug 2009 09:13:07 +0200
> From: "J. Agoston" <agoston.janos123@gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [pbs] garlicky leek seed?
> To: Pacific Bulb Society <pbs@lists.ibiblio.org>
> Message-ID:
> 	<3b9284cd0908010013k1e2d20e9x2abceddc1d9e25b6@mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
>
> Dear Diane,
>
> We are also growing garlic. In Z5a they can stay all year long in the
> ground, they survive, severe winters too. I personally find that if they
> grow 2 years in the ground we have bigger heads of bulbs. The technology
> says garlic shuld be planted in september or october, but when we leave them
> in the ground (~25-30 cm deep) they start to regrow roots in august. Our
> soil is clay and we irrigate the garden weekly. So there is no chance for
> the bulbs to dry out. Unfortunately we harvested the bulbs so I have
> experience from only 2 seasons for staying in soil.
>
> Growers say we have 2 kinds of garlic, the autumn planting type and the
> spring planting type. I do not agree, I've heared both is hardy here, the
> spring planted ones grow less and the smaller bulbs are more marketable,
> people don't like it becouse of its smell (I would say fragrance).
>
> Could you please send pictures from both of your garlics, or make a page on
> the wiki. Seed bearing garlic is new for me, and I think it is quite of an
> interest for every Allium fan.
>
> Bye,
> Jan
> Hungary
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 5
> Date: Sat, 1 Aug 2009 10:19:06 -0400
> From: "Jim McKenney" <jimmckenney@jimmckenney.com>
> Subject: Re: [pbs] garlicky leek seed?
> To: "'Pacific Bulb Society'" <pbs@lists.ibiblio.org>
> Message-ID: <000f01ca12b3$07ec19c0$2f01a8c0@Library>
> Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="ISO-8859-1"
>
> Diane?s seeding garlic is probably what local grocery stores sell as
> elephant garlic, and most references say it is a form of leek (Allium
> porrum). In other words, strictly speaking it is not a garlic. Or just as
> likely it might be a survivor of an old planting of culinary leeks. Culinary
> leeks and elephant garlic are both very ornamental in the garden. Elephant
> garlic gets to be over six feet high and the developing inflorescence is
> contained in a spathe with the shape of a Russian cathedral onion dome. It?s
> an exciting sight in the late spring garden. Culinary leeks are worth
> growing for their flowers, too: although they tend to be a dirty gray-white,
> some have clearer, cleaner colors and are a ornamental as any of the Allium
> sold as ornamental onions. 
>
> The question of what garlic itself is is a puzzle. Although it is given a
> botanical name (Allium sativum ? that literally means cultivated garlic or
> cultivated onion) there is no naturally occurring sexually reproducing
> population which corresponds to what we know as garlic. It appears to exist
> only in cultivation. Cultivated garlic does not produce viable seeds as far
> as I know (and that is why Jan wrote ?Seed bearing garlic is new for me, and
> I think it is quite of an interest for every Allium fan? ) and that makes it
> hard to explain the diversity of cultivars now grown. Have they arisen by
> somatic mutation of one original plant? The fact that garlics divide into
> two general groups, the hard neck or rocambolle types and the soft neck
> types, only complicates the picture and suggests that garlic originated at
> least twice ? whatever its source. 
>
> The hard neck/rocambolle types are the ones which are typically grown in
> harsh climates and are autumn planted. In mild climates, the soft neck sorts
> are also autumn planted, but in harsh climates some do not perform well when
> autumn planted and so they are sometimes planted in the spring. As Jan
> points out, spring planted soft neck garlics do not produce large bulbs ?
> one reason many gardeners in cold climate areas prefer the hard
> neck/rocombolle types. 
>
> In our local grocery stores, the garlics usually sold are soft neck types.
> These are the ones which are seen braided into decorative swags. Hard neck
> garlics on the other hand seem only to be grown in home gardens locally. 
>
> Hard neck garlics are worth growing in the ornamental garden for their very
> decorative, sinuously coiled scapes (which give them the name ophioscordum,
> from the words for snake and garlic in Greek). These garlic scapes are
> delicious chopped up and saut?ed in olive oil.  
>
> Jim McKenney
> jimmckenney@jimmckenney.com
> Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, 39.03871? North, 77.09829? West, USDA zone
> 7, where various unidentified clumping Allium are blooming prettily. 
> My Virtual Maryland Garden http://www.jimmckenney.com/
> BLOG! http://mcwort.blogspot.com/
>  
> Webmaster Potomac Valley Chapter, NARGS 
> Editor PVC Bulletin http://www.pvcnargs.org/ 
>  
> Webmaster Potomac Lily Society http://www.potomaclilysociety.org/
>  
>  
>  
>  
>  
>  
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 6
> Date: Sat, 1 Aug 2009 11:55:37 EDT
> From: Theladygardens@aol.com
> Subject: Re: [pbs] garlicky leek seed?
> To: pbs@lists.ibiblio.org
> Message-ID: <c21.533f74a8.37a5bf79@aol.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
>
> I ordered and grew several types of garlic this year.  Much to my  
> surprise, most of them put out beautiful seed pods and after I pulled the garlic  
> out of the ground I laid them to dry with the seed bulbs suspended over   
> containers so I could gather any that fell.
> I now have lots of wonderful plump seeds that I'd like to plant and see  
> what happens.  I have kept the seeds for each variety separate and labeled.  
> Each variety of seeds looks different.  The varieties I grew that produced  
> seeds are:
> Kilarney Red - 
> Persian Star- 
> Nootka Rose
> Romanian Red
> Inchelian Red, not all of this variety produced seed heads, just a  couple
> My husband does keep 10 beehives in the garden so everything gets  
> pollinated..  All of this garlic was planted about 1 foot apart in a square  with 
> each variety in a separate row.  Has anyone planted garlic from seed  before?  
> Carolyn Craft in Los Gatos CA, zone 9
> **************A Good Credit Score is 700 or Above. See yours in just 2 easy 
> steps! 
> (http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/…
> =JulystepsfooterNO115)
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> _______________________________________________
> pbs mailing list
> pbs@lists.ibiblio.org
> http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php
>
>
> End of pbs Digest, Vol 79, Issue 1
> **********************************
>
>   


More information about the pbs mailing list