PBS Forum

Dear All Current US Members:

PBS has an opportunity to order bulbs directly from The South African Bulb Company. This is the company from whom we ordered the wonderful amaryllid book and it went very well.

It is incumbent upon each member ordering to follow the below instructions precisely.

Member Bob Lauf has agreed to use his import permit to place a group order for US members at this time, keeping the matter above-board.  Bob has made orders previously and received his items speedily and in good condition.   We have a short window to make our orders directly through him.  We are exploring if we may be able to work something out for our EU membership at a later date.

We have decided this works best for everyone involved if we approach the order as outlined below. There will be no deviation from this protocol  

Please:

1.  Peruse the list attached (if you are reading this from the List, kindly go to the Forum post under the Bulb Exchange section to see the list)

2. Email Bob directly with your order. Include your full name and list of desired bulbs. Be very specific in listing your items.  Bob's email address is boblauf@att.net.  Any orders not sent to Bob directly will not be honored.  Continuity in the ordering is imperative.

3. Bob will send you the total you owe and you must prepay Arnold via Paypal prior to the order being made with South African Bulb Company.  The amount due will include the following: a prorated amount of the phyto certification (which is generally around $25 no matter how big the order will be, so it should be a few dollars for each ordering member), the prorated shipping costs for Bob to receive the bulbs (a group order will help offset these costs as well), the total price of the bulbs you order, the shipping to Atlanta, and the shipping from Atlanta to Bob.  Bob advises the shipping from South Africa usually runs a little less than the price of the bulbs ordered.  So, generally, you can expect your cost to run about double the total amount of the bulbs you are ordering.  As we all know, this is a good deal in that most of these bulbs are not available commercially and if you can find them online, they are very expensive.  

The prices of the items are on the offer list.  Upon Bob's receipt of the bulbs, they will be shipped to me for a normal BX distribution to members. I will include a slip indicating the additional postage you owe for the shipping from me to you. All BX recipients know those charges are inexpensive. Our Stamps account offers very competitive pricing: again, usually just a few dollars. 

You agree when you order and pay that you acknowledge that there is a risk that the bulbs may not be received. It is well-known that all customers take said risk when ordering anything from other countries.  PBS and Bob Lauf assume no liability should the items not make it to the US.  An additional risk is that the plants could be delayed in shipping or may be less than ideal when received.  Neither PBS nor Bob Lauf will make any refunds. We are all assuming this risk together. Bob has had very good experiences with receiving healthy plants quickly.  We are hopeful to have the same with our group order.  

You must be a current member to participate.   
 
THE SA BULB COMPANY SOUTH AFRICA BULB EXPORT PRICE LIST APRIL 2024.pdf

Thank you,
Bridget
BX Manager and President

Quote from: Randy Linke on Yesterday at 02:31:15 AMTwo forms of Calochortus subperbus blooming on May Day in a pot on my terraza.  I am not sure if they were from the same seed lot as I combined some when I moved to Spain to conserve space.  I like the contrast and will probably leave them together when I do my fall repotting.

SUPER NICE!

Quote from: David Pilling on February 15, 2024, 04:40:18 PMPlants can talk to each other and scientists say it should make us rethink how we treat them

" The Light Eaters chronicles an expansive collection of recent, mind-blowing botanical discoveries. Touching on plants' ability to communicate, be social, sense physical and auditory stimulation (i.e. feel and hear), and even remember, these studies collectively take on the controversial question of whether plants might be intelligent, or even conscious, beings."

https://pioneerworks.org/broadcast/zoe-schlanger-willa-koerner-plant-knowledge

Mark Mazer
Hertford, NC
USA

Two forms of Calochortus subperbus blooming on May Day in a pot on my terraza.  I am not sure if they were from the same seed lot as I combined some when I moved to Spain to conserve space.  I like the contrast and will probably leave them together when I do my fall repotting.

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

Can someone change the title of this topic to "Babiana" so it will be properly searchable? Thanks.

Can any US members point me to a reliable source of Oxalis crassipes bulbs? West coast would be best but they can come from anywhere US. My usual go-to sources are either sold out or no longer offer them

Thank you

Well I stiill saw some wild bulbs yesterday. Dipcadi serotinum. There were also Iris lutescens, Asphodelus cerasiferus, Squilla undulata, Lapiedra martinezii and possibly Gladiolus dubius, Allium moschatum and some Ophrys, but I saw no traces of them.Happy worker's day. 

I've no special knowledge of babiana... but in general bulbs are better in the ground. Often even when there is no top growth they are busy growing roots.

Sometimes we dig up bulbs and store them, but it is when they're non-hardy (dahlias in Winter) or in the way (narcissus in Summer).

My learned colleague mentions Freesia - special case, they're often heat treated so that they will act as Summer flowering bulbs (in the chilly UK).