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I have a couple forms, but the nurseries I got them from didn't seem to have them the last time I looked.

Robert
in SF, where they are blooming heavily and keeping ahead of the slugs leafwise.

In cool foggy San Francisco, I've had decent success with Babiana, Sparaxis, and Ixia when purchased/delivered in late spring. Mind you I am heat zone 2 and hardiness zone 10a. Berkeley can, of course, be quite a bit warmer.

Anyway, I plant them fairly deep in larger pots, and set the pots in the ground...this keeps the soil relatively cooler, while the tops can enjoy bright sunlight...a light colored top dressing might help. I plant them immediately on arrival. In my conditions they sprout quickly, flower, and eventually go dormant. I lift them and store them warm and then plant them with the rest of the winter bulbs in the fall. The grow on a normal winter cycle thereafter.

Sparaxis tends to run quickly through the cycle, Babiana grows more or less normally well into the summer before going dormant (Mark Twain's quote about the coldest winter was a summer in SF). Ixia, at least the commercial varieties will grow entirely out of season, blooming and growing leaves ignoring the date! For me, I get good bulb increase and copious bulblets from cool summer growing of Ixias. Your results will likely vary if you don't have summer nights averaging 60F or below.

Very few of the big USA bulb importers/sellers ship winter growing bulbs appropriately, shipping late in the fall, or even in the spring. Heck, they mostly don't even ship fall blooming crocus or colchicum appropriately. The few specialist mediterranean bulb sellers ship appropriately, but they generally don't carry the cheap commonly available garden hybrids. One of the better ways of getting them is haunting the local garden centers/nurseries and snatching up the mediterranean bulbs early (usually well before retail mail order ships). And, of course, as a member of PBS, the summer Bulb Exchanges lean heavily towards winter growers.

Robert
in cool San Francisco, where the great dormancy race is beginning

Quote from: Robin Jangle on April 12, 2024, 08:07:01 AM@Robert_Parks please check the filaments - in dubia they are free, maculata is united for a bit (under a third) and what was known as maculata var fuscocitrina is united up to halfway - it is now known as arctotioides. Your plant looks like arctotioides!

Thanks for the advice, it is always a struggle to get cultivated plants properly labeled. Of course, not one of the pictures on my phone helps, so I'll have to take a look when I get home. It happens to be the earliest Ixia this year, but that could be dependent on many factors.

Robert
Brisk (for San Francisco) with a moderate breeze, a last storm is due this evening. 

Quote from: Too Many Plants! on April 11, 2024, 08:57:54 AMFantastic Robert! I have B Odorata about to bloom, and I once upon a time had Ixia Viridiflora, but unlike most Ixia I have planted it did not stick around!

Ixias are mostly very happy with me, other than I have to plant them in gopher baskets...and if they aren't in clumps the wind sometime pushes them over. I. viridiflora has strong intermittent seed dormancy, so I still get volunteers from one pot of recycled soil...I guess I could do a lot worse than having more greenish blue flowers 18 months from germination.

A few recents:

Ixia dubia better than any of the commercial yellow Ixias, foliage fairly broad.

Hesperantha bachmannii, delicate and perfect.

Bulbine mesembryanthemoides, tiny flowers, but insanely complicated.

Babiana odorata or similar.

Ixia viridiflora, I'm sorry if it shows up as a vivid sea blue (maybe just this monitor)...it is a delicate greenish blue in person.

Coelogyne cristata, OK, not a geophyte, but it hangs out with them and requires chilling to bloom well.

Elsewhere in the garden, Bomarea are blooming variously, and there are still a few Arums pushing up flowers.

Robert
Actual springlike conditions in San Francisco at the moment

Notes on my contribution. If you want further information on sources, contact me directly (trolleypup@gmail.com)
52. Adenium obesum - seedlings
Amorphophallus, Arisaema are mostly small divisions, although there are a few medium sized items
83. Begonia sutherlandii - stem bulbils
84. Colocasia X Pharaoh's Mask - not happy with my conditions, offsets seasily
85. Furcrea foetida variegata (Agave?)    inflorescence bulbils, raining on the sidewalk from the huge inflorescence.
86. Gloxinia nematanthodes 'Evita'- if I had year round rain, I think it could get annoying
87. Gorgonidium intermedium - happy with cooler conditions
88. Igidia volubilis RP1 - summer grower
89. Igidia volubilis RP2 - summer grower
90. Impatiens flanaganae - winter storage best in soil (slight moisture)                                                       
Ixias are from a huge excess of my bulbs, if they are planted now, they will grow into the summer with irrigation, reverting to normal winter growth next winter.
Lachenalias don't satisfy their summer dormancy for me, so these have been dormant for 1-2 years
100. Maranta ruiziana - supposedly edible, wants warmer conditions
Oca/Oxalis tuberosa, one of the Andean tuber crops, prefers cooler, moist conditions in the summer, tubers develop after the fall equinox, harvest around Thanksgiving (USA), large scrambling plant
111. Sauromatum horsfieldii Lancelot - tiny tuber divisions
115. Sinningia tubiflora - wants warmer summers
Mashua/Tropaeolum tuberosum, one of the Andean tuber crops, prefers cooler conditions in the summer, tubers develop in the fall, harvest around Thanksgiving (USA), very vigorous vine to 15 feet on trellis
120. Typhonium rhizomatosum - thin rhizomes, will develop typical tubers over the summer
Ulluco/Ullucus tuberosus, one of the Andean tuber crops, prefers cooler conditions in the summer, tubers develop in the fall, plants are smaller and floppy, brittle stems.
123. Ullucus tuberosus wild form Ulluco - probably not truly a wild form, vigorous, with larger leaves, and impressively long droppers (3+ feet).

The first one looks like Gladiolus trichonemifolius, and the second Glad looks like alatus (or one of the lookalikes). Alatus is quite happy with out coastal climate.

Quote from: Too Many Plants! on April 02, 2024, 02:03:48 PMI believe this is my first flowering for these Albuca Namaquensis.

Just showing the flowers, the plants had lovely storms of fine leaves, but the slugs mowed them down.

Robert
in clement San Francisco, where the weird veggie tubers are pretty much out, and the (mostly) aroids are ready to go.

Pretty much...which can get frustrating in our climate, where many summer growers are already in growth, but it does mean that shipping is safer across the country.

I didn't do a personal winter distribution because I never got a break when I had time.

Robert
still with no time between the summer and winter gardens.

Quote from: MLoos on March 21, 2024, 05:15:28 AMHello All,

I'm looking to purchase or trade for tuberous and/or perennial Impatiens species.  Seeds would be Ok too. 

I. tinctoria is available from time to time in the trade (Annies Annuals for one).

I was distributing some I. insignis last fall, but got busy, and they are still sitting around dug up...should get that going again.

I. flanaganae is sprouting now, probably could still be shipped. Also available intermittently on eBay.

Robert
still filling the planters for Andean tubers, except it is starting to rain...the aroids are getting impatient.

Quote from: Martin Bohnet on February 21, 2024, 10:41:14 PMLast two show a "long term project" - I actually bought Corybas incurvus before Brexit in fall 2019, and now almost lost that very first flower to a slug - in the greenhouse! Anyway, I really think this tops the Pterostylis with which it shares growing conditions both in tininess and bizarrity, close to a miniature Nintendo Piranha plant. By the way that's not Orchid Seramis, that's the normal thing...

I'm creating a festoon of little hanging baskets for the most heavily and persistently slug attacked miniature geophytes.

Quote from: Jeff Harter on February 19, 2024, 04:54:37 PMHi, Robert! We both live in the micro-climate created by Mt. Davidson. I'm nestled in the eastern-most portion of West Portal that's surrounded by Forest Hill, Edgehill, and Mt. Davidson, at an elevation of about 417'. Watching the fog blow in on summer afternoons is my favorite pastime.   

Cool, very nearly neighbors!

If you'd like, there are always extras of whatever is dormant.

Robert

Quote from: Selvam on February 18, 2024, 08:35:21 AMHello folks, I'm a noob to geophytes, my interest in bulbs started when I started gardening with California natives. When browsing for bulbs online, Telos rare bulbs come in to picture, however there aren't much in stock. Has anyone had success purchasing bulbs there? When do they have bulbs in stock?.

Mediterranean climate bulbs are in full growth now, so the nurseries don't even know what the stock will be when they go dormant (actually like the commercial bulb industry[1]), orders usually made in the spring for summer/fall delivery. The only exception are (mostly Amaryllids) bulbs with perennial roots that are shipped year 'round.

Just check back regularly for changes in stock.

And, once your desired bulbs can be ordered, you'll be happy with the eventual result. Stuff you can't get anywhere else without the gamble of eBay or the PBS bulb exchange!

Robert
in rainy soggy San Francisco

Welcome to PBS!

I'm up on the NW side of Mt Davidson, so I get to add bitter gales to your climate challenges.

The winter garden mostly avoids irrigation (if the rains come), but I can't resist the summer garden of non-mediterranean geophytes.

I continue to find plants that aren't happy with the high elevation summer-dry cloud forest up here, but plants from the foothills of the Himalaya and 10K feet in the Andes thrive as long as you add water.

Robert
soggy, but at least the crows aren't destroying the potted plants

Quote from: illahe on December 30, 2023, 05:34:15 PMRobert,
It looks like they have a range of temperatures available, so maybe a lower temp pcm than the 72 degree they offer is available. I come up with around $19.44 for a 24" tile. I would love to see other brands/options, but it looks to be a pretty novel new concept being marketed for greenhouses.

Mark

That's actually pretty reasonable pricewise, but even their 62F/17C is way too high...I mean, when I would want supplemental heat transfer, the greenhouse is unlikely to spend much time warmer than that. I suspect demand would be much lower for 40F/5C or 50F/10C tiles.