PBS Forum

To me it's really my gardener's passion what defines my feelings about the seasons - while I feel the pressure from summer heat and do lose plants to it (Tropaeolum speciosum

died away the first summer and the Pleiones are suffering), as long as we're not getting irrigation bans (for now a hypothetical threat), frost will always be the more traumatic event. Colleagues at work dread cold times because my mood will drop with every Kelvin below -5°C at night and every day with an average below 0°C.

And it is about time... too bad the minimum of the insolation is only the turning point of the temperature gradient, meaning the speed of things getting colder is slowing down. Thanks to the thermal inertia of the athmosphere it will take about another 6 weeks until we're past the coldest point.. Winter. Not a fan.

Quote from: Bern on December 17, 2023, 06:17:36 AMQ: How do you fit 4 elephants in a Volkwagen Beetle?
A: Put two in the front and 2 in the back.

A bit of efficiency that Germany if renowned for perhaps?

Don't. I love my car.

Besides, living here I guess putting "Germany" and "efficiency" in the same sentence is the true joke here...

Well, you can still have fun with the British - maybe just not comedy-wise. I've been to a concert of "the Prodigy" a week ago and had the time of my life. Even without Keith they just wrecked the hall (can you say that in English? meaning the crowd was so heated up and jumping around you wonder how the static of the building dealt with it?)

Actually, the topic started to fill in a function every living forum needs - something like a pub or bar talk area, with jumping topics and a sort of camaraderie  between the more frequent participants - i mean it was never really meant to be about greenhouses as it started out as a political comment on the mess Europe has found itself in by getting to dependent of the resources of an autocratic system.

I'd recommend to leave the pub as it is and start a new technical oriented topic about Greenhouses if you want that kind of discussion. - and do so in the off topic general plants and gardening, not in the really off topic off topic Area.

Quote from: TIANFengqi on December 08, 2023, 08:26:22 PMIs it convenient for you to share a copy of David Pilling's MV number list?

They are talking about the list David shared up here in this topic

Ah, December in Germany, the time when you - either silently or openly - curse the "friends of the winter weather" someone at the better weather sites seems to know and care for. Luckily, last night did not turn out as cold as predicted (-8°C), but -5° is bad enough and I don't think 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

enjoyed that too much.

In the cold house the rare natural light shone on Strumaria prolifera

, and as much as I like the "The Amaryllidaceae of Southern Africa"-book, it is wrong here. I've started with a single bulb in 2020 and never saw seeds. They DO spread vegetatively.

OK, Tropaeolum tuberosum

Flower Colors:	orange, yellow, red
Flower Season:	late summer
Special:	climber, edible flowers, edible storage organ

had a far better year this time around - the summer wasn't as hot in peak, so it did not go as dormant, and was massively invigorated in September. it flowered mid November, and I harvested it now after first true frost, and this time the crop exploded - enough to now try it fried. It's actually quite different than I expected, it loses all of the "edge" of the raw taste. It's OK, but nothing special. I'll stay raw.

The pink Oxalis tuberosa

just kept the same level - didn't really profit from the different summer. I also tried an orange variety which performed even worse - and surprised me by getting the corms above ground. Not sure if I should continue those, even though I like the taste. raw, again. But I started to eat leaves this year. Nice, too.

Oh, and Yacon didn't make it through winter in the first place - just shriveled up under normal Dahlia basement storage conditions.

I don't think I've mentioned Chinese yam (Dioscorea polystachia) here before, but what I've learned about them this year is: they need LIGHT. Those in the dappled shade which was so fine for Tropaeolum barely kept their size from last year, but the one in sun snaked around the pot's floor and got HUGE. The huge one is the variegated clone, so I'll surely not cook it. But I think I know what to do next year.

Seems to be an interesting method - now could you add a photo of the "potmaker"? would help a lot to understand the process.

Winter is coming .... Have you ever reached the limit of your capacity to lie to yourself about the limit of your capacity?

@Arnold You can use either "Quick edit" or "More..."->"Modify" to change the text of your post. With  the latter you also could re-upload the photos with a new filename. Changing the filename is, strangely enough, not possible - even though it is actually NOT used on our server, where uploaded files are renamed to a hexadecimal number code.

We have now the 18th of November and still there wasn't a single day without rain this month - everything beyond my rain shelter capacities is drenched, and I fear for a lot of rot when the weather finally forces me to put things into the unheated greenhouse with limited air movement. There's an arctic outbreak forecast about a week ahead, but I'm still hopeful things will slip a few hundred  kilometers west or east, which often means the complete opposite in meridonal weather...

As threatened in the October topic, the weather was stable enough to allow Tropaeolum tuberosum

Flower Colors:	orange, yellow, red
Flower Season:	late summer
Special:	climber, edible flowers, edible storage organ

to flower. By chance it mingled with my Bomarea not quite edulis (could be a hybrid as it behaves a lot different than my other clone, as in being later, smaller but more intense in color). Hmm, two Andeans with similar color scheme and overall flower shape and nodding angle. Something screams common pollinator here.

A few days older is this picture of an Oxalis donated by Uli in the EX05. As it is typical for winter growing Oxalis in my climate, I had to trick it into opening up by taking it inside für half an hour. then again, the flower's just a bonus to the cute speckled foliage.

@Judy Glattstein, you were right on point - what now flowers seem to be a pale form of Lachenalia bulbifera

, with only slightly hinted spots on the leaves - I usually have troubles with Lachenalias, so this flower seems to tell me I need to keep them warmer - I'm also happy that they feel comfortable staying wet-ish all summer as they share their pot with some Huernia zebrina I got from Uli.

Sidenote: Strange how completely they change once they approach flowering age - seems an interesting strategy: throwing around Bulbils until one has a good place to develop - that's when they abandon ace life and go for the sexual part...

absolutely possible - I've never had seeds on the wide crosses like xAmarine and xAmacrinum. To be fair I don't have any other related amaryllids in flower when the Amacrinum is.

Quote from: Too Many Plants! on November 05, 2023, 07:22:34 PMAnd this Amaryllis was sold to us by an old-timer plant collector as an Amaryllis X Crinum hybrid.

It is. The leaves are obviously from the crinum side. likely behaves evergreen under most conditions.