PBS Forum

new month, new flowers...

First flower in the bog is Helonias bullata

Height:	10-30 cm (0.3-1 ft)
Flower Colors:	pink
Flower Season:	mid spring
Life form:	evergreen rhizome

, which shoots its flowers higher day by day. Until recently I'd stated the bog is mostly care free besides the slugs, now I'm suffering from Blackbirds who found out how nice my sphagnum is in their nests. I'm thinking about chaining my cat to the bog....no, I'm not, but it could help with those blackbirds...

I've checked the image in the wiki and I guess I'll add this one for Bongardia chrysogonum

. They may be not spectacular, but they are much nicer hen shown there. Staying in the color scheme, there's Moraea marlothii

- nice closeup plant, in he total you'd see a 1 m long stick with a single and comparably tiny yellow flower on top. For a total, take tree peony Shima Daijin (not a Geophyte, but a wiki-plant) - happy it's not as hot as it has been in May in the last years, so it (yes, single plant) will look nice for more than 3 days - i hope.

Orchids seem to have entered the pink phase: there's my native Orchis mascula

Height:	45-60 cm (1.5-2 ft)
Flower Colors:	pink, purple
Flower Season:	late spring to early summer
Life form:	tuber

and, from the other side of the world (ancestor wise) Thelymitra 'Ron Heberle', which is a German hybrid of T. nuda and T. variegata by Beyrle. OK, Pink-blue-spottet-goldrimmed phase in that case. The fact that it's open should tell you that it was warm and sunny today - still nothing compared to earlier years, where we scraped 30°C  in the beginning of May.

Quote from: Martin Bohnet on May 02, 2023, 02:25:48 PMBlagbirds who found out how nice my sphagnum is in their nests.

blag in British English
(blæɡ ) slang. noun. 1. a robbery, esp with violence.

Ledebouria sp. Huntsdrift

Eucrosia bicolor

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Allium cyrilli

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'Southern Allium ampeloprasum', which is a tetraploid, smaller that was typified as Allium ampeloprasum L., a hexaploid up to 1,8p m tall, and sterile


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Allium commutatum, a coastal species which lacks a 'ball-like' developing inflorescence.

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What I finally identified as Allium polyanthum, possibly a diploid, also from near the sea, with ball-like young inflorescences but only the size of s finger tip.


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Aglione di Valdichiana, an heirloom cultivar from Tuscany which is a leek, but forms big cloves like garlic, and that's the part used. First year to bloom, but it seems a bit intermediate between commutatum and 'southern ampeloprasum'. 


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Carlos

Allium melananthum, Cartagena, Spain

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Allium acutiflorum, Monaco

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NoMowMay... Naturalized Nymph in lawn.... [color=rgb(var(--color-foreground))]Herbertia lahue ssp. lahue?[/color]

Paeonia emodi

Cypella aquatilis took several years to settle and grow from an offset and is flowering abundantly for the first time. Thank you, @Martin Bohnet for this beautiful plant!

Uli 

I was puzzled to find many small Alliums growing on loose calcareous pebbles on the highest peak of Mallorca island. I also ran out of water, lost my cap, ruined my shoes, nearly had a 20 kg loose stone to crush my leg,  got entangled in the local subspecies of Smilax aspera, got mauled by another friendly bush, Calicotome spinosa, and got several blisters and a black toenail for six months. But it was great.

Back to the Allium, they were developing their first leaf after the first rains of September and I took five just to see what they were.

One is in bloom now and though it should be roseum, those unequal, pointed teoals and wide leaves are odd. 

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Paeonia Bertzella

An Itoh intersectional hybrid.

This 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 

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!

Hi, very nice! I have one arundanum about to flower, and fruits in another one I was sent from near Seville.

I begin to think that those who claim that arundanum is a subspecirs of tenuifolium are right.

Carlos

Two pretty lilies flowering for me in the PNW: [i]Lilium apertum[/i] and [i]Lilium mackliniae[/i].  Both are quite hardy and persistent here provided they get good drainage.
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Lilium dauricum

 and Itoh hybrid peony 'Cora Louise'
Dauricum1.jpg Peony Cora Louise.jpg

Hi Steve, Lilium apertum and Lilium mackliniae beautiful flowers of which I am envious having struggled to grow them. They're on the Nomocharis side of Lilium.

Never had any luck with either Ammocharis or Notholirion, so I'm VERY envious of that first shot @Steve Willson , but may is just such a great month here with so much going on, so let's have a look:

• some things get bigger with time - this is the first year Kniphofia northiae
  

  Height:	120-170 cm (3.9-5.6 ft)
  Flower Colors:	orange, yellow
  Flower Season:	early summer to mid summer
  Life form:	rhizome

  does 2 stalks for me and I still can't even guess how large this plant could end up.
• I remember someone asked about diminishing Scilla peruviana
  
  in the open ground - I can't confirm, mine went olympic this year, at least in this view
• Some plants have a whole fan club - like this Camassia leichtlinii
  
  . I on the other hand start to feel the weed potential - all right as long as they stay in the bulb lawn - but they don't
• I'm slowly warming up to Oxalis - great leaves, somewhat boring flowers, but with these doubles..
• Arnold called "last Ferraria" on March 23rd, mine are flowering now...
• meanwhile in the bog it's Dactylorhiza time - don't even know where that came from - it's so entangled in a Sarracenia I somewhat doubt I have planted it.
• some things fit tight - very tight like this wood bee forcing her way into an Iris...
• Last but not least Triteleia hendersonii
  
  - I adore the blue anthers, such a lovely detail!
  

Hello @Martin,

Yes, the month of May is very beautiful in Germany. Here in Portugal drought has set in and only irrigated parts of the garden remain green.
Very nice pictures! I like the ,,olympic" Scilla peruviana and Triteleia hendersonii most. 
Uli 

Very nice shots!

Last of my Iris and my most preciated plant, more than Oncocyclus, is Iris heracleana. Hoping to increase to send seedlings back to Morocco wherecthey will be planted in a safe place.

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And the Albuca 'clanwillamaegloria' from Château Pérouse are opening. I have no clue with Albucas

Carlos

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Hello Carlos,

Thank you very much for sharing these pictures. The Iris is spectacular.
For the Albuca, some questions. How tall are the flowering scapes? Do the spikes bend over with the tips pointing downward at the bud stage? Only stretching to an upright position shortly before the flowers open? 
Looking at the color of the individual flower and the size compared to your thumbnail the flowers are far too small for the true Albuca clanwilliamigloria. And are not deep yellow.
Your plant matches more a plant which I grow from Silverhill seed under the name of Albuca fragrans which is flowering now, late for a spring flowering bulb. No fragrance, at least not for my nose. A typical feature is the nodding inflorescence at the bud stage. Clianwilliamigloria does not do that. The inflorescence of fragrans is about 1m tall whereas Albuca clanwilliamigloria will reach at least 150 cm up to 2 m. 
I also have seedlings of the Pérouse ,,clanwilliamigloria" but mine have not flowered yet.
The picture attached shows the true clanwilliamigloria, not a good picture, though. And unfortunately no scale.

Hi Uli, yes they are nodding before (and after) the first flowers open. They are about 30 cm tall, but they are very young plants,flowering in their second cycle.

CP states that they got seeds twice from Silverhill, so it may be your "fragrans" plant. I will check about smell this afternoon. I had already discarded true CWMGLR.

Carlos

Hi again, they are not really 'nodding', only a bit bent towards the ground, and the flowers have a faint smell (good).

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Carlos

Lehmannnii, Monte Gallo, Sicily

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Allium lehmannii, Monte Camarata, Sicily

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Allium meteoricum

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Allium sp (litardierei?). Oran, Algeria

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Allium paniculatum (true paniculatum, at last!). Stavropol area, Russian federation
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Allium valdesianum, Sierra Nevada, Spain

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Allium pallens (again, true pallens!!). This is a nodding inflorescence, isn't it?

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Carlos

More Allium

What I consider Allium polyanthum, coast of Alicante, Spain

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Allium caesium

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Allium baeticum, near Granada, Spain

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Now the wild 'ampeloprasum', small and medium size

The small was on a natural site, on clay whuch surely floods with heavy rains, the other one is always found along roadsides, sometimes edges of fields. It is a tetraploid, the type from Steep Holm island near Bristol, UK is a hexaploid.

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Carlos