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Quote from: Uli on May 23, 2023, 12:35:27 AMThis unusual flower came as a surprise. I had already stopped watering the pots with winter flowering bulbs but suddenly three brown spikes popped up in one of the pots. They soon opened. With late abundant rain the pots got watered again and I observed flies being attracted to the flowers. There is a smell reminding of cow manure but not overwhelmingly bad. I will observe for seed, the flowers are short lived. The two pictures were taken 4 days apart.
Uli

I really enjoy the Arums that do that!

Quote from: Judy Glattstein on May 21, 2023, 09:48:16 AMHaving brought the two large pots of dormant Oxalis regnellii 'Purpurea' up from the basement and repotted them I have a plethora of extra tubers. I have eaten wood sorrel leaves, also oca.

Does anyone know if any portions of the purple leaf oxalis are edible?

Gophers will eat this root, bulb, leaf, and flower...but perhaps you are not a gopher.

I think the only toxicity in Oxalis is the oxalate crystals?

Quote from: Robin Hansen on May 21, 2023, 10:25:22 AMHowever, one remedy for horsetail I do use (anti-chemical users - go hide) a brush killer undiluted in a small squeeze container, nitrile gloves on. I squirt a drop or two into the stem when I cut off the horsetail at ground level which I do immediately after cutting. So far, it's working well, but is incredibly time consuming so I only do it when I'm fed up with the things. Am trying this on cherry tree shoots this year but have doubts about effectiveness. We'll see.

This method of treatment for fresh cut hardwood works variously well. Rosaceae seems to be in the middle of the range of effectiveness...probably won't damage the root the sprout is coming off of. Heaths can be very sensitive. Poison oak/ivy is mildly sensitive. Oaks tend not to be very sensitive. Rhamnaceae...if you treat the new cut main stems it will usually kill the entire plant. Note that this is by practical application maintaining hiking trails, not garden practice.

Quote from: OrchardB on May 18, 2023, 01:39:32 AMI frequently pull off the growing centre of numerous plants, but have not checked if the fleshy roots reqrow. Am I fooling myself by not digging it up? As it grows in cracks and crevices it would be quite a job to remove all the roots.

Of course, it totally depends on the plant. Dandelions are the worst, being near geophytes, sprouting from anywhere on the taproot. My local native bulbs have adapted to incidental browsing by having a weak connection at the top of the bulb (bulb reserves are much larger than the needs of a year's growth).

Persistence can help, keep at it so the plant never gets to photosynthesize. In some situations, targeted use of chemicals (natural or otherwise) may be a better solution than digging up a rocky area.

Quote from: Steve Marak on May 15, 2023, 08:23:03 AMJim,

I'm no expert on California native plants, but as a milkweed enthusiast I'll suggest a nearly spent Asclepias californica.

Steve

I'd agree as A. eriocarpa is absent in this area.

Del Puerto Canyon and the roads that complete the crossing of the hills are an amazing crossing of the ridges there.

Quote from: MarkMazer on May 09, 2023, 08:32:44 AM" If you are interested in the durability of ground contact wood"

If you can get it,  Robinia pseudoacacia, commonly known as black locust, makes the best ground contact wood. It is considered an invasive species in some areas.

Honestly, nowadays, just get plastic lumber, it doesn't cost that much more than treated wood, and vastly less than dimensional black locust (unless you happen to be in the right place).

As for a mesh house, either all mesh, or impermeable roof sections with mesh around the sides. Protection from wind/rain...and critters!

Quote from: Judy Glattstein on May 09, 2023, 09:19:21 AMI'm jealous! You're all done potting / planting summer bulbs - sigh, I can only wish. I'm working my way through crates of cannas: CC. musaefolia, flaccida 'Purpurea', 'Bengal Tiger', 'Tropicana'. I need to harden my heart, next fall, and refuse to dig, clean, pack, and store ALL the canna tubers that multiply over the summer.

At least the potted crinum and xamarcrin are back outdoors, ditto the red spot banannas, and the hardy Musa basjoo are erupting skyward at their usually enthusiastic speed. Hippeastrum are in flower in the greenhouse, to be moved outdoors when I get the time.

My spirit is willing but my aging back has limitations.

I have far fewer summer bulbs than winter, but they are mostly much bigger. So the potting is easier, once I remember to use the shovel to mix the soil. Moving them around is near a challenge. And they grow so fast...5" pot to 9-10" pot in one year. So far the biggest ones are maxed out in 20" pots. I foresee some winnowing come next fall,

About half the winter bulbs are lifted or in pot storage...the rest are going dormant at their own speed, probably dragged out by the 1.5"+ of unlikely rain in May.

The summer bulbs are a few randoms, but mostly Amorphophallus (plus other geophyte aroids), and this year's planters of Andean tubers. That was a lot of soil! Most of the aroids are in 1 to 10 gallon pots. The indoor lights are all shining on tropical/near tropical miniature aroids. The storage boxes have been emptied of summer bulbs and are filling with winter bulbs.

The front yard still has lots of spots of color from spring/summer bulbs, and the summer flowering perennials...but it is definitely getting less colorful. Lots of miniature flowers in the greenhouse, and Pelargonium incrassatum is still being improbably pink.

Front yard - Bomarea superba(?), Ixia viridiflora (plus interloper I. polystycha)
Under lights - Typhonium circinnatum with the rolled spathe
Back yard - Gorgonidium intermedium pushing up a bouquet of flowers, Amorphophallus konjac moving towards opening

Quote from: Jim Barton on May 04, 2023, 06:59:29 AMIt is growing in Del Puerto Canyon west of Patterson CA.

Dang! I was just there last week, but I was mostly driving through admiring the geophyte mass blooming and chasing Ceanothus.

I find that several presumably closely related species in the blue range to be happier and more vigorous than the commerical hybrids in more conventional colors. Unfortunately, they started blooming just as this week's unseasonal rain started...I hope the flowers don't all melt.

Very vigorous...I got flowers in 15 months from seed. I'd worry about them becoming weedy, except the gophers eat them first, they don't even carry them to their caches. My only regret is that I don't have the space for a true mass planting...maybe my neighbor will allow me to install a band of gopher basket in his barren yard.

Robert
1.5" so far this month (3 X monthly normal average). Happily indoors lifting winter bulbs from pots.

Quote from: Emil on April 16, 2023, 04:48:56 PM

Quote from: petershaw on April 05, 2023, 07:06:25 AMAs I was thinking about the post about invasive bulbs, this one was top on my mind... Is there anywhere someone would want to grow this plant because it's hard to grow there? Or because it's rare there?

I have seen it offered for sale in a catalog!

So far I have resisted the urge to try the (reputedly less invasive) double form. It really is a spectacular bloomer...often with massed blooms fall and spring.

Quote from: Ake Nordstrom on April 28, 2023, 11:23:06 PMThank you all!

So, now i have some methods to work with. I liked the tips from Tony Avent, even if it feels a bit unpleasent to tear the flowers apart. I also realize that I have mostly male flowers, I guess that some switch over to female till next year if they are well fed?

The snow is disappearing fast, I can see about 10% of bare ground outside now.

/Åke

Most of the aroids require desecrating the flowers to hand pollinate. Amorphophallus mostly has timed receptivity, so you have to have successive flowers or store pollen.

Quote from: petershaw on April 05, 2023, 07:06:25 AMAs I was thinking about the post about invasive bulbs, this one was top on my mind... Is there anywhere someone would want to grow this plant because it's hard to grow there? Or because it's rare there?

I don't think it is rare anywhere it can grow easily. My neighbor, who lets me garden her front yard prefers they not be removed since they are so pretty. It makes a pretty pot plant...think abandoned pots in the corner of a yard bursting into bloom winter and spring!

Quote from: Uli on April 02, 2023, 01:59:33 PMI had to learn the hard way that pulled up Oxalis pes caprae is quite capable of forming small emergency bulbils from its own substance before it dies. So no longer will it go to the compost place. Before I understood that I contaminated an entire compost with this weed....

But such a pretty terrible weed! Which the gophers transport everywhere here. Sorry to hear about your emergency tuber infestation...I found that out when I weeded a back yard that was totally covered...I found those emergency tubers at the bottom of the piles of dessicating plants when I didn't get around to putting them in the city compost (industrial hot composting, kills tubers and most seeds).

That succulent root is under the developing bulb. When the plant goes dormant, the root collapses, drawing the bulb down into the soil. Many geophytic Oxalis do this, pulling bulbs inches down into the soil, leaving a void in the soil! So not actually a storage organ, except as a water reservoir at the dry end of the season.