PBS Forum

Quote from: David Pilling on December 09, 2022, 06:46:19 PMThe thing I like is that the earliest sunset is (here) the 17th December. After that the nights start to get lighter - although sunrise continues to get later until some days after the solstice. No argument that the shortest difference in sunrise and sunset is the 21st.

That's some weird, and I understand it for about 30 minutes after I look it up each year.

Hello again-

We have some seed shares that may be of interest to you.  Thanks again to
all who harvested the seed and brought it to the post office!

Please email me privately at trolleypup@gmail.com by Sunday night/Monday morning,
I will portion seed, invoice and probably ship Monday/Tuesday.
$2 per packet, $4.50 shipping (Canada will calculate once packaged)

Remember that winter conditions may affect live seed shipping. Shipping is at your risk.

*Mary Sue Ittner:*
Scadoxus membranaceus (few)
Nerine sarniensis (winter rainfall)
Nerine masoniorum (evergreen)
Nerine humilis (winter rainfall)
Nerine 'Wombe' X 'Carmenita' - from the Zinkowski rescue, not N. sarniensis, but unlike my pots of those, flowers reliably
Nerine augustifolia (summer rainfall)


*Robert Parks*
Nerine filifolia (OP, but no other Nerine set seed)

Best regards, Robert

The Andean tubers are not fans of hot and dry, don't like dry in any case.

Tropaeolum tuberosum  (Mashua) has stopped growing, and some of the vines are senescing, but generally still leafy, tubers are showing, both my varieties flowered in Oct/Nov...I should check if the seed pods have viable seeds inside.

Oxalis tuberosa (Oca) still two varieties out in the rain that haven't gone down. One went down a couple weeks before Thanksgiving (along with the Ulloco), the others bit by bit. Yields in the range of 1-3 pounds per large pot/planter. Taste varies between varieties...sweet/starchy and bland/tangy. Lovely in a salad or stirfry.

Smallanthus sonchifolius has stopped growing, and leaves are starting to yellow and fall, the soil has bulged up across the pot. No flowers.

Ullucus tuberosus (Ulloco), I still have two pots (of 3) to harvest, got a pound plus of tubers fuchsia colors, that have faded to green/purple. Yummy sauteed, softer than potato, with a nore turnipy flavor. Remarkable harvest based on the diminutive plants.

Solanum tuberosum (Potato) from seed, moderate growth on top, moderate yield (<1 pound), despite the seed parentage, but produced round purple tubers. Quite different plants forms though. Turns out the rats love potato fruits, so no seed for me. Both with distinct potato flavor, one starchy, one less so.

Ulloco and Oca at least are strongly day length controlled for tuber growth...all my Oca stopped growing vegetatively at the fall equinox. The other probably make most of their tuber growth late in the year. Of course, my summer temperatures are like the Andes at 12,000 feet...

I find that Oca really likes free root and tuber/stolon growth...stolons ending in tubers are often more than a foot long. Maybe big grow bags would be the way to go vs. big heavy planters. Argh. the rats are digging the tubers, even with added soil in the planters...the last planter has mesh over it now!

You could browse around the sites and sellers of Andean tubers...perhaps Canna edulis would tolerate warmth better.

In any case, for those who are interested, I will have plenty of smaller tubers for sharing once they all go dormant and get lifted. Have a few more pounds of oca to clean tonight.

Cool and moist summers resulting in proliferation and no flowering is the reason that all of mine are getting redistributed.

unless you are the 1% in the private boxes, where beer wine and hard liquor are readily available

Money Talks!

My Zephyranthes were planted in a bed next to the sidewalk, with winter rain (San Francisco, temps to near freezing), and intermittent tree rain from the fog the rest of the seasons. No big bursts of flowering, but frequent flowers, and in leaf most of the time.

Were.

Last week the gophers cleared the bed entirely, all the Zephyranthes and the summer Ixias, just bits of gnawed leaves mixed with the soil...all without breaking the soil surface. I'll have to think about I want to do with the sidewalk strip. More pots set in the ground, or custom hardware cloth.

Robert
in cool, pleasant SF...geophyte aroids going down slowly...fall seed is starting to come up

Quote from: David Pilling on October 15, 2022, 04:13:24 AMYou have a word for everything. I looked it up "Area compaction" or "Area densification".

Table top bulb growing could be a popular thing.

Indeed, until you think about providing the needed conditions. How many miniature geophytes are there that will thrive in shade with moderate temperatures year 'round? Compared the number of miniatures that demand near full sun and seasonal temps?

Ah, city living. The lot is 36' x 118' (11m x 36m), the house is 28' x 55' (8.5m x 17m). So a fairly large lot for San Francisco, with a generous front setback (30'/9m), narrow shaded alleys between houses, and a backyard enclosed by 8'/2.5 fences. In the older parts of the city the houses adjoin, and there is little or no front garden, and may not be significant back yards either. In more suburban areas, lots get larger, sometimes much larger.

I manage to fit a broad collection into the space, although things get crowded spring and fall when both the summer and winter plants need garden space. Inside, there are a handful of miniature (geophyte) aroids under lights.

Robert
in San Francisco, where the summer is progressing from No Sky July and Fogust, to Septembrrrr and Fogtober. No Indian Summer this year to give a late burst of growth to the summer bulbs.

While the discussion is going on in the email list...

Here is a picture of developing seed (with accompanying flowers). The first flowers opened a few weeks ago, the first seeds will be mature in a couple weeks (not much bigger than they are now). Immediate germination if sowed, 2-4 weeks if not sowed and stored dry, dessication starting in weeks depending on temperature and humidity.

Nerine filifolia (miniature, infl. to 8"/20cm, year 'round water, evergreen without a frosty dry winter)

Granted, these are small seeds (2-3mm), without the resources of some of the other recalcitrant seeds (up to marble sized!)

Quote from: Bern on September 10, 2022, 05:52:00 PMI wonder if the same is true for earthquakes with people living in California?

Not much earthquake denialism here...mostly people will recite where they were/what they were doing for every major EQ they've experienced.

As to the exchange rate, buying geophyte books from NHBS in the UK is a bit less painful than usual.

There are pluses and minuses in every place to garden...the cold foggy gale here is a challenge, but if I put fog catchers on the roof I could come close to water independence.

Robert
cool and humid today, thanks to remnants of Kay plus high wildfire smoke

Quote from: Robin Hansen on September 10, 2022, 10:14:25 AMInteresting that these storms on the west coast are now being called "hurricanes". I forget the previous name which never made sense to me as even when we had the Columbus Day storm in the early 60s here on the Pacific Northwest coast it was, simply, a hurricane. It will be forever imprinted on my conscious brain.

Interesting also that the maps to Bern's link show no hurricane activity at all further north than southern California. I would suspect that we are somewhat more likely to have an occasional hurricane these days because of climate change.

Robin Hansen
Southwestern Oregon, smoky, hot, humid

From National Geographic...

QuoteThe storms that rage across the western Pacific Ocean (in the Eastern Hemisphere) are called typhoons, while the ones spawned in the Atlantic and eastern Pacific (the Western Hemisphere) are called hurricanes. Those born in the South Pacific and Indian Ocean are known as cyclones.

Robert
in mild, humid San Francisco...where there is a slight possibility of precipitation from the remnants of a hurricane.

Some tiny flowers...

Albuca osmynella flowering through Pelargonium bowkeri
Igidia volubis with little pendant flowers on a vining unbranded inflorescence 
Bulbine spongiosa with an apparently indeterminate inflorescence...3 months so far. Also, I'm not losing the War on slugs and snails in the greenhouse since this plant doesn't look like Swiss cheese
Ledebouria socialis Miner
Solanum tuberosum seedling of traditional Andean clone...not tiny, but actually being some kind of decorative!
Oxalis pedunculatum each inflorescence blooms for an extended time with three series of thankfully not fertile flowers...this o e stuck in the dirt is the only one that didn't fry in the heat 
Nerine filifolia going into the haze of pink but very nice up close. There will be copious seed and no other Nerines blooming now.
Thymus praecox Elfin not a geophyte but tiny 
Barnardia japonica this one apparently doesn't attract slugs

Robert
where it is even hot in San Francisco 

Quote from: Martin Bohnet on August 28, 2022, 10:10:35 AMOne question on the Bowiea: I got mine in flower for the first time (after loosing stalks to bad timing, slugs etc) - will that stalk ever stop? it's now growing since mid june, and goes for I guess 4 m or more around the handrail of my entrance stairs, and it grows and grows and  has hundreds of little green starry flowers. Will it ever stop? I mean I know I can cut it off when  need to take it inside (as it survived the "desaster arborts" before), but is there a "correct" way to induce dormancy if needed?

I've never gotten a strong seasonal dormancy with Bowiea...they put up an inflorescence and it goes for a while, and eventually senesces, and then sits bare for a while...maybe a few weeks, maybe a few months, doesn't seem to care much whether it is SF summer or winter. I have two seedling siblings and they are on opposite but overlapping growth schedules. They will happily grow indoors, if you can deal with the skein of tendrils...I'd let it grow outside until threat of frost and then chop it off. Park the bulb in a cool bright windowsill and decrease watering and maybe it will be satisfied to do bulb photosynthesis for a while.

For what its worth, Schizobasis also has irregular dormancy...my herd of seedlings flower randomly, sometimes one plant will send up a second inflorescence before the first has withered.

Igidia appears to go dormant late summer/fall, sprouting in mid/late winter...this is the first flowering for me, but the inflorescences started in July.

Robert
some sort of watery humid light outside

Quote from: Ron on August 27, 2022, 10:43:33 PMI love your small pot "mini-trellis" design - very cheap, very light, & very simple.  What an elegant solution!

Thanks...and if need be they can ladder up to the ceiling netting.

Dierama reynoldsii holding down the delicate end of summer flowers
Amaryllis belladonna...or more likely A. belladonna with some Brunsvigia
Oxalis tuberosa (Oca), one of the rare handsome flowers from a plant that specializes in vegetative propagation
Amorphophallus henryi with amazing iridescence...and the scent of fresh horse poop
Bomarea sp., none of the local birds understand what is going on here.

Robert in grey grey San Francisco

Because why do the leaf and flower stalk thing when you be weird. Expanded netting plus surplus chopsticks to support the extra weird geophytes.

Schizobasis intricata (two forms)
Igidia volubis
Bowiea volubis (two forms)

And, THAT corner of the greenhouse