PBS Forum

Carlos, you may like this web page:

https://wildflowerfinder.org.uk/Flowers/S/Squill(Autumn)/Squill(Autumn).htm

There really is a "right to roam" in England - terms and conditions apply.

UK law has not diverged much from EU law - and we should leave it at that.

Quote from: CG100 on January 26, 2024, 02:53:22 AMIn the UK, we are free to collect seed of anything.

Combined with my "right to roam" (England), I'll be the strange bloke wandering around your garden this afternoon.

There's satisfaction collecting your own seed from the urban environment and getting it to grow. A lot of people don't understand what you're up to or indeed why. I've also had a lot of pleasure from finding plants growing in the garden, seed having been spread by birds etc.

Another technique I have perfected is bumping into plants growing over people's walls, "oops I have bumped into that plant and a piece has fallen on the ground, in the interest of tidiness I will public spiritedly pick up the piece and take it home" - once home it becomes a cutting, and then a garden landmark "which I got from XXX".

More flagrant practitioners of the art arrive with loppers and claim to be 'hikers' keeping public footpaths clear.
 

People left 'mind blown' after learning what paprika is actually made of

"Learning that paprika is just dried and crushed red bell peppers was really shocking. Like I dunno why I thought there was a Paprika tree somewhere."

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/opinion/lifestyle/people-left-mind-blown-after-31967460

OK, I've done a new version of the software with a bit more blank space at the bottom of both scrolling areas.

The next question, how do you force a page load on devices where Ctrl+F5 is not an option. You need to do that to get the new software.

One answer is wait until tomorrow, after 24 hours the browser will download a new copy. The only other technique I have found is to use incognito mode, which is probably a Chrome speciality, at any rate every page view in that mode downloads a new copy of everything.

I have an idea - I'll do a new version and let you know.

Until then, as a work around, you can get to the last message for the month on display by using the button for that (right arrow going into a bar). Or by infinite scroll on the message on display, keep scrolling the current message text up and it will step to the next message. Or by stepping to the next message with the single arrow buttons.

Phones and so on are in a state of sin, they implement "over scroll", by design you can scroll beyond the contents, and its all a bit of a mess as regards standards.

Hi Ron - thanks for noticing the new interface to the list archive - try scrolling the entire screen contents. Find a bit of page that is not an active component and drag it upwards.

The page is designed so that it is the right size with the URL bar off screen which is what all the phones/tablets I tried do. Maybe this is something you can configure.

Hardware beyond me was always going to be a problem.

Arnold - interesting plant details.

The first 19 volumes of "The Bulb Garden", newsletter of the Pacific Bulb Society are available online for free download.

New is a page giving the contents of all issues, this makes it easier to discover things of interest. You can find the contents here:

https://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/pbsforum/index.php?page=Newsletter


Downloads are linked to the contents. A table showing all the downloads is here:

https://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/TheBulbGarden


Volumes 18 and 19 have been added recently. In addition volume 2 issue 4 was missing, thanks to Bob Rutemoeller for scanning it for me.

If you know of any other missing issues, let me know.

Love the original site (flowingdata) and the plant program.

Going to be a cold few days in the UK - but it will probably stay above 0C here on the coast. Talk is of snow. By the end of the week the weather should start to come from the South-West again and temperatures are predicted to rise to 10C.

Kew Gardens reveals its top 10 plants and fungi discovered in 2023

Last year, the Botanic Garden's researchers named 74 new plants and 15 fungi, but these 10 discoveries are the strangest by far.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-12950627/Kew-Gardens-reveals-10-plants-fungi-discovered-2023-orchid-dormant-volcano-carnivorous-flower-devours-insects.html

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-67930823

https://phys.org/news/2024-01-ten-fungal-species-science.html

CG100 - good to see actual calculations. In the old days I used to put buckets of hot water in the greenhouse at night. Now I see I was probably wasting my time.

My problem is slightly different, I am only trying to keep temperatures above freezing. I like to kid myself that what matters is the latent heat of fusion not the specific heat capacity (SHC). In other words a lot of energy changes hands when water freezes. Latent hear 333.2 kJ/kg against SHC 4.2 kJ/kg.

So by packing my greenhouse with plants (soil, water) I can postpone freezing, I only have to do that for a few hours.

We've all heard of the 'greenhouse effect' - radiation goes in, but can't at a different wavelength get out. That's why it is so hot.

Similar placebo effect, I run an oil lamp, I read that there is 10kWh of energy per litre of paraffin/kerosene (CG100 you said 12 for diesel). However I burn a lot less than 1 litre per night - a quarter maybe.

I always wanted to set up a fan to move air between the top and the bottom of the greenhouse. In the day time the top is hot and the bottom cold. At night the situation reverses. Damage from cold will start at the top and work its way down - put the tenderest plants on the lowest shelves.

Possibly not all in my imagination, since I monitor the temperatures in heated and unheated greenhouses and the lamp does make a difference.

Diane - nice narcissus. Rather a long time to wait.

This far North one has to be grateful for what there is. Spring bulbs are making progress, perhaps because it has not been very cold.

Photo 1, a spring flowering crocus.
Photo 2,3, kniphofia Christmas Cheer
Photo 4, Ipheon
Photo 5, daffodils coming through

I liked (but never tried) the idea of putting seeds, that need chemicals washing out to germinate, in a muslin bag in a toilet cistern - thus being exposed to random wetting and drying.

I germinated all my seeds in zip lock bags, I'm not denying that exposure to the elements in general might help, it just never applied to me - when I say real Winter is better than a fridge, that's a zip lock bag left in the garage, which would never get below zero.

Temperatures in fridges are not always what you might expect (warmer in the door). It was always the sort of dream spun by seed vendors "four weeks in a fridge to germinate".

My favourite guide to seed germination is on the Ontario Rock garden society web site, it says for Carlina acaulis:

"Sow @ 20°C. Seed germinates within 3 months Requires light or the seed is very fine. Surface sow and expose to light."

https://onrockgarden.com/index.php/germination-guide/germination-guide


The PBS wiki has a list of sources on how to germinate seeds:

https://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/HowToGrowBulbsFromSeed


I used to spend a lot of time germinating seed, my conclusion sticking things in the fridge was never as effective as real Winter (putting them outside).