PBS Forum

Dear members living in the EU,

In the meantime we have received quite a few items for the spring exchange.  The first round for mainly seed is scheduled for the weekend of March 24, 25 and 26. Exact timing will be posted. There is Clivia seed which should not be stored very much longer.
So, if you have items to donate for this first round, please send them as soon as possible to Martin and please let him know so that he can include your donation in the offering.
On the other hand there will be a second round for mainly bulbs in April which means that the donation time window remains open until further notice.
Please do not hesitate to contact Uli (johannes-ulrich-urban@t-online.de) if you have questions.


Martin Bohnet
Ludwigstr. 1
73035 Göppingen
Germany
 Martin's email:  <garak@code-garak.de>
Bye for now
Martin and Uli

Dear members living in the EU,

In the meantime we have received quite a few items for the spring exchange.  The first round for mainly seed is scheduled for the weekend of March 24, 25 and 26. Exact timing will be posted. There is Clivia seed which should not be stored very much longer.
So, if you have items to donate for this first round, please send them as soon as possible to Martin and please let him know so that he can include your donation in the offering.
On the other hand there will be a second round for mainly bulbs in April which means that the donation time window remains open until further notice.
Please do not hesitate to contact Uli (johannes-ulrich-urban@t-online.de) if you have questions.


Martin Bohnet
Ludwigstr. 1
73035 Göppingen
Germany
 Martin's email:  <garak@code-garak.de>
Bye for now
Martin and Uli

It looks like a Freesia to me, maybe of the former Lapeirousia group.
Any fragrance?
Otherwise I would not know 
Uli 

I use Methaldehyd to be sure. These pellets will also become mouldy after some time and in fragile and valuable seed I replace them with fresh ones.
My seed trays and pots are covered with wire mesh to exclude birds so this protects against accidental intoxication at the same time.

Dear All,

Here is a picture I would like to share with you. It shows sprouting seed of three Dahlia species and one hybrid. Not very exciting you might think but the seed was very old, stored in paper envelopes in a domestic refrigerator (not freezer) at typical fridge temperature.
The seed of Dahlia tenuicaulis in the bottom right pot dates from a trip to Mexico in 2006, the seed in the other 3 pots was picked in 2011 in my former garden. I am particularly pleased about this germination because I had lost all three Dahlias after my move to Portugal. With better knowledge of this climate I will give them another try. The blue granules are slug pellets, I do not want that to happen.......

I checked the label of the Hermodactylus tuberosus

today, it is a collection from Crete.

Here is a picture of the seed pod.

Tropaeolum brachyceras

is starting to flower......

Bye for now

Ants can also carry seed to the most unlikely places. And both species you mention have a sugar rich appendix to their seeds which is attractive to ants. They eat the sugar and discard the seed.

Hello @Martin, 
I will check the label of my Hermodactylus tomorrow. Off hand I can say that it is definitely not from Oron Peri. I got it from a friend. It flowers for the very first time with me and I quite like it. Today I noticed green dangling round/oval seed pods.
VERY rainy here right now most flowers smashed.

Talk to you tomorrow,

Uli 

Hello Arnold,

We started this new topic within minutes at the same time.....

Dear All,

Here are some impressions from my garden in March 

Iris cretica. This magnificent plant was given to me in October last year as a small division. I hope it will make it through the summer....

Oxalis obtusa, large Namaqualand form. One of the very best Oxalis. From the collection of the late John Lavranos. The flowers remain open even on dull days.

..... not a geophyte..... but Salvia libanensis is so beautiful. A difficult plant to maintain here, though 

Hermodactylus tuberosa, difficult to catch the complex colour in a picture 

Oxalis, unknown species, I love the foliage. New to my collection. Can anybody identify it?

Gladiolus aureus, grown from Silverhill seed. I do hand pollination to get seed of this endangered species 

Are the leaves pleated? It could be a Babiana. I have had single other seedlings coming up in a batch of seedlings from Silverhill seed. 
But with so many different South African bulbs it is impossible to tell what it is without flowers.

Hello,

Very interesting. Where did you get the Bromelia from in which the Hippeastrum turned up? H. papilio is an epiphytic plant in habitat so maybe the Bromelia had seed in it? Just a guess.

Try the microwave method for self sterile Hippeastrum. It has worked for me in the past with Hippeastrum.
https://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/Microwave

Good luck 

Uli 

Dear Members living in the EU


The donation time window for the EU spring 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 or a minimum of 5 $, please send a copy of your receipt for postage to Martin. And please send Martin an email telling him what you sent so he knows about your donation in case of postal delay.
We will do two consecutive exchanges this spring, the time window for donations will remain open for some time.  As the weather is somewhat unpredictable at this time of the year, we suggest that you send in seed now and bulbs for the second round as they are more prone to frost damage. The second round will be announced through the same channels. Please do not get stressed with seed which is not ripe by now, or with bulbs still growing, they will be for the next autumn exchange.
You are welcome to write comments or instructions for your donated items, this will in general increase demand.

This notice will appear in the PBS Forum, in the old email list and all EU members will receive it as a private email from a mailing list.

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.
Please be aware that the US exchange and the EU exchange are two different ones at different dates.

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

As I quite like Acidanthera, I tried them here in Portugal with the same results as you had, @Leo. So reading your comments, I will try them as winter growers.
Then I looked it up in two books: Bulbs by Roger Phillips and Martyn Rix, Pan Series.
I attach the picture and the text but not sure if the text is readable.
The other book is Gladiolus in tropical Africa by Peter Goldblatt.
This book says that gladiolus murielae has an unusually large but scattered distribution from north east Africa through Ethiopia to Malawi and Mozambique. It says that this plant grows in mountains without giving the elevation. It also says that the exact location of the type specimen is not known.

Hello Mike,

Thank you for sharing the desert pictures with us. Anza Borrego is my favorite desert, I particularly love the spot where the stream flows through a grove of Washingtonia palms. A little further up I have seen the wild sheep...

Uli