PBS Forum

Hello @Jeron,

Congratulations! You have a very nice result and a healthy looking plant. Shriveled leaf tips are normal for most Crinum. Your plant looks unaffected by virus which unfortunately is not always the case with Crinum.
I cannot comment on the winter protection, maybe someone from a similar climate can help?

Bye for now 

Uli 

Hello @Edwin,

Did you get pollen from another clone of Cyrtanthus montanus? Can you see seed set?
If not, why not try the microwave method. I managed to get seed set after 20 unsuccessful years in Hippeastrum evansiae and in Albuca clanwilliamigloria.
The instructions are here: https://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/Microwave
I hope this reply does not come too late, could not do it earlier.

Uli 

Hello Robert,

The shape, the metallic sheen, the colour contrast with the yellow base together with the scent make a very remarkable plant.

Thank you for sharing,

Uli 

Dear All,

Here are some pictures of Albuca pulchra, flowering now in my garden. It was raised from seed which I was very kindly given by Monica Swartz in 2018. The huge bulbs took their time to reach flowering size. They are pot grown because they need a strictly dry winter dormancy. I particularly like the long bracts which want to be gently stoked. As my garden is very windy the leaves and the whole tall plant is leaning sideways. Thank you, Monica for this magnificent plant.

Uli 

Dear Members living in the EU
The donation time window for the autumn seed and bulb exchange is now open until further notice. Please read this notice carefully.

Please send your donation to                              Martin Bohnet,
                                                        Ludwigstr. 1
                                                        73035 Göppingen
                                                        Germany


Please remember that bulbs should be clean and healthy and seed free of chaff and debris.
As in previous exchanges we ask you to pre-pack 5 portions of seed on a voluntary basis, the portions should contain enough seed for a good potful of seedlings, at least 5 seeds with rare plants and less with super rare ones. Seed envelopes are available free of charge from Martin: (garak@code-garak.de) If there is a lot more seed available than 5 packets, you can include a larger packet for Martin to do extra portions if requested. Pre packing seed is a tremendous help for Martin. Bulbs should be sent in one bag per species and not pre-packed.

Please label each species of seed/bulb with the botanical name and your own name.

Every  donor will be refunded the postage for the donation, please send a copy of your receipt to Martin.
We will do two consecutive exchanges this autumn, the time window for donations will remain open for some time. Please do not get stressed with seed which is not ripe by now, or with bulbs still growing, they will be for the next spring exchange.
This notice will appear in the PBS Forum, in the old email list and all EU members will receive it as a private email.

We have received some correspondence concerning this coming BX, it looks as if it will be a very good one. This might be a reason for non members to consider joining the PBS, as only fully paid members with a postal address in the EU will be entitled to order.
Once Martin has compiled the new BX list it will go online through the same channels.

Thank you all very much in advance!
Please do not hesitate to contact me in case of questions or difficulties. (johannes-ulrich-urban@t-online.de)

Uli and Martin

Dear All,

A desiccated Cyrtanthus will be difficult to revive. Excellent drainage is most important, use a substrate like pumice, coarse vermiculite or perlite or gravel which holds some moisture but lets any excess of water drain away. Such a bulb needs a barely moist substrate but will not recover in a totally dry one. I know that it is difficult to get that balance right in a hot climate. Never allow the pot to get exposed to direct sun, this may literally boil the bulb.
On the other hand: bulbs are bulbs, not for nothing. They have reserves for bad times, so let's keep fingers crossed.

Uli 

Dear All,
If you receive summergrowing bulbs at this time of the year, I would not store them dry until next spring. Big mature bulbs may survive but it will deplete a lot of their reserves, smaller bulbs may not survive an entire year of enforced dormancy.
I would plant the bulbs into a well draining substrate to avoid rotting due to excess water. Water once after planting and keep them cool and shady, especially if you live in a hot climate like the Californian Central Valley. Most probably the Cyrtanthus will be of the evergreen type, but leaves cut off for practical reasons. It should make new leaves . But more important is root growth. This will help the bulbs to refill their reserves. If summer growing bulbs would start into growth after planting now, water more and keep them going as long as the plant indicates. Which means as long as the foliage remains green. A  summer growing bulb started late in the season may extend its growing season into early winter and go dormant later than usually or it may even skip its first winter dormancy and remain green. If that happens keep watering it through winter but on the sparing side, not to kill it with an excess of water. Eventually a healthy bulb will return into its normal growing rhythm. It is a matter of observation, the plant will be telling you what it wants. Planting in pots will give you more control than planting in the ground. You can transfer the potted bulb into the opoen garden later once you understood its needs.

If the Nerine bulbs are labelled "From Exbury" they are definetely N. sarnienesis hybrids which behave as winter growers and not as summer growers. N. sarniensis is triggered into growth by cooler temperatures and the onset of autumn rain in mediterranean type climates. So they may start earlier in the San Francisco climate than in the Central Valley. Provided your gardens are frost free they would be best planted now in the open garden, watered in once after planting and then wait for the onset of growth without any more water. Once leaves appear the plants should not be allowed to go dry until the leaves wither naturally which should be about next May. Nerine bulbs need at least one growing season to establish and do not like root disturbance, so be patient with them, they most probably will not flower this autumn.

If Nerine bulbs arrive with leaves at this time of the year, they are summer growing N. bowdenii or their hybrids. Plant immediately, water well and keep them watered well into autumn. N. bowdenii is a summer grower and will lose the leaves in autum and resprout in spring. The dormant bulbs are tolerant of winter rain so these can be planted in the open garden. They may lose their leaves now due to the stress of being uprooted and have spent time in the mail, if that happens, plant them immediately, do not damage the roots provided they have not been snipped off and keep watering them but not as much as if they had leaves.

Hope that helps

Uli

Hello @Ottoline,

Can you tell which summer growers you are referring to?
Most Cyrtanthus are evergreen, here, too it would help to know the species name. Same for Nerine, there are winter growing plants, summer growers and a few almost evergreen ones.
Happy to help but I need more information. Do the bulbs come from the same hemisphere, or from the Southern Hemisphere?

Bye for now 

Uli 

Hello Jim,

You can contact Jan, she is in charge of the US seed exchange.
You cannot delay germination of this kind of seed.
If Jan cannot accept your seed right now, you can sow it and donate the seedling bulbs next year.

Jan's email address seedyjan1@gmail.com

She has just opened the donation for the next BX, but it might be a good idea to let her know that your seed cannot be stored.

Hope that helps 

Uli 

Hello Rimmer,

Thank you for sharing your pictures, nice plants. I have always liked Milla.
Does anybody in Europe grow Milla biflora? I would love to grow it and would be more than happy to do a swap with bulbs or seed of Milla magnifica 

Bye for now 

Uli 

Quote from: Wylie on July 30, 2022, 07:35:18 AMThanks @Uli for the info. I hope the summer isn't being too bad for you. It finally hit here mid-July and I was worried a lot of the bulbs wouldn't get a dry summer rest. But now it is around 26° and very little wind. I have a strong orange xHedychium that is starting to open.  I crossed H. rubrum x H. gardneranum.
Wylie

Hello @Wylie,
The Azores must really be very different. I wish we could share and split in half our worries....... You seem to have too much rain, we in the Algarve and in the whole mainland of Portugal have too little. The water reserve is almost depleted. There were some wildfires in our area but the fire brigades got on top of them fairly quickly. They seem to have changed their strategy and arrive with maximum presence both on the ground and by air if the latter is possible. We are prepared for evacuation but so far we have not been directly affected.

Your Hedychium Hybrid sounds amazing. Do you have a picture? The parents are excellent plants. The trouble with Hedychium here is that the plant itself needs a lot of water and in hot and dry weather the flowers wither very quickly, unfortunately.

P.S. there is no minimum number for bulbs, whatever you can spare is welcome.

Hello @Wylie,

Thank you very much for thinking of the BX.
We do not ask to pre-pack bulbs, so if you label each species clearly with your name and the plant name it will be fine.
For seed we ask (on a voluntary basis) to pre-pack 5 individual portions each sufficient for a good potful of seedlings, provided there is enough seed. If seed is scarce, the minimum number of seeds per packet should not be less than five seeds except for the super rarities.
If there is plenty of seed you can add a larger portion to the five pre-packed ones so that Martin can use this to fill more envelopes if demand requires. But five pre packed portions are already a great help. Martin will supply free seed envelopes on request. (garak@code-garak.de)Your postage will be refunded in form of a bonus for your own order.
If possible, please wait with sending material to Martin until the donation time window will be open, all fully paid EU members are in a mailing list and will receive an email in due course apart from the announcement in this forum. We plan to run the next BX in September, so the donation should open about the end of August.

Please feel free to ask if there are more questions.

Bye for now 

Uli 

Hello @Jane,
I think it is very true, unfortunately. But it may depend on the race or variety of tulips. For sure the Rembrandt strain with its "pretty" flame like colour breaks is a virus carrier. Similar, long gone varieties were fuel for the infamous Tulip Fever. The problem was that the ridiculously expensive bulbs had a very short lifespan. This turned out to be a very bad investment and made the fever cool down quickly, simply because they were all virused....... I would assume that this also applies to other varieties with colour breaks. Why do the parrot tulips have deformed petals?
If you consider that all named tulip hybrids are vegetatively propagated and grown in very large fields (admittedly a breathtaking sight) the risk of contamination over the years is very high. This said, the toughest (and commercially  most successful) varieties will probably still be virused but can cope more or less under optimum growing conditions. But still are carriers.
Sorry about this pessimistic reply.....
Uli 

Hello Colin,
Did I get it right that gnarled flowers have occurred repeatedly? If yes, have you considered a virus infection? How does the  foliage look like? Yellow streaks? Also deformed? It is also strange that your plants went into premature dormancy. Have they become accidentally too dry before that happened? If that would be the case it would be a natural reaction but if not it sounds like a disease.
Maybe it would be a good idea to discard a possibility diseased plant before it spreads and start again with healthy material?
But I must add that I have never grown this bulb myself.
Uli 
Portugal, mediterranen climate with moderate Atlantic influence