PBS Forum

A bit late due to unusually (getting to be usual) hot weather in autumn and early winter.

Narcissus × bastitanus (blancoi × cantabricus). Two individuals.

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And Uli's early strain of bulbocodium, which is not just bulbocodium, but I still don't know how to name (NOT obesus).

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Carlos

FFF...First February Flower!
Moraea Elegans.

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Amazing!!

Moraea elegans

Gethyllis villosa leaf detail

That's Gethyllis villosa. Gethyllis ciliaris has glabrous leaves with ciliate margins as well as ornately spotted cataphylls.

Quote from: Arnold on February 04, 2024, 12:03:41 PMMoraea elegans

Nice Arnold! You can really see the difference between your greenhouse plant and my out-in-the-open-in-ground plant. I tried to pull pollen off of it today to apply to the few straggler Polystachya still hanging around with all the rain we've been getting. But there was no pollen to come off on my paintbrush!
I will try on the next dry day we have...

Robin

Right.  label mix-up.

First Ferraria divaricata and Dietes grandiflora starting to bloom again.

A fantastic Arum hybrid has opened its first flower.
Arum creticum x palaestinum 

Quote from: Wylie on February 06, 2024, 01:27:22 AMFirst Ferraria divaricata and Dietes grandiflora starting to bloom again.

Very nice Ferraria, Wylie!

Uli, that's a very beautiful color. considering the parents, is this another dark Arum that doesn't smell bad?

Meanwhile I enjoy a few warm days with my Sternbergia candida

Height:	0-20 cm (0-7.9 inch)
Flower Colors:	white
Flower Season:	late winter to early spring

growing outside in Germany - I was really concerned, but the buds tolerated more than a week with sub zero average and night temperatures down to -7°C unharmed. They may need some more warmth to fully open up as wide as Carlos' specimen.... Second pic is galanthus 'green fingers', slowly clumping up.

Last one is Måns criticizing my tree cutting skills. he may have a point here...

Resorting to cute cat photos...

The first daffodils opened here in the North of England on Monday (6th Feb), quite early, in the teeth of yet another storm. There is also a good crop of crocus by now. The daffodils are "Rijnvelds Eary Sensation"

Uli

Does the Arum have scent.

I've read that there are two A. palaestinum.

One pleasantly scented and the other not.

I have not detected any scent, neither good nor bad in this hybrid Arum.

The warm weather has awakened the Hyacinthellas.

Rimmer, our favorite typing-challenged correspondent, has posted a Hyacinthella. Most species in this genus seem to be among the earliest "spring" bulbs in flower. First one here is H. glabrescens; two more showing color.

Updated pics of my M. Elegans after days and days of So Cal rain, and my first attempts at Moraea hybridizing. Following (trying to) Michael Mace instructions (Thank you Michael!) applying Elegans pollen on PolyStachya flowers. Polystachya are vigorous for me and flower from July through February. So I figure it's the choice parent to use for more flowers over a much longer period of the year. Wish me Luck!

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@David Pilling Well Cat pictures never fail...

@Uli No scent is definitely a plus in an arum. Personally I've tried to get Arum palaestinum

to flower for several years, no succes yet. Yes, I did fertilize it, which is definitely atypical for me..

First 2 pics are a comparison of Amana edulis

(left) and Amana anhuiensis (right), which actually seem almost identical to me besides intensity and definition of the outside pattern and (invisible in the picture) the growth of up to 3 buds from one bulb in the edulis. Edulis is new for me, anhuiensis slowly does clump up.

Third pic is Crocus fleischeri

which seems to have a slug problem in this very wet spring.

Fourth pic is my still most expensive Galanthus: The Wizard. But I'm already surfing around the common sites and I'm batteling the urge of getting one of the apricots, which again would double the invest... Of course I could blame Galanthus Viridapice (pic 5) for this, as cheap as it was, started the slippery slope. I'm actually thinking about donating it to the EX to infect others...

First flower from new bulbs from last BX, planted in November. 

Romulea Tortuosa

Once again, thank you to those generous PBS folks that share the bulb and seed Love!!

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20240212_175314.jpgAnother strain of Sternbergia candida, with bigger flowers. I think this is a clone, unlike the first one to flower, which has four ripening pods (in three plants). There was still some pollen but it was spoiled by a rain last Saturday.

I've slowly spread this Lachenalia around to different spots in my garden, and it's interesting how different it flowers in different spots.

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I spied these today...they're supposed to be baby blue and usually are...not sure why they look white this year. I've long forgot/lost-tag and can't remember the genus/sp.. My clumps are definitely getting fuller and bigger.

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Hi, that's Ipheion, probably 'Alberto Castillo'

Carlos

Hi, that's Ipheion, probably 'Alberto Castillo'

Hi Carlos, thanks. These are normally a light blue. I googled Ipheion and looks like they may be Wisley blue.

You can see a hint of blue in the petals. Alberto Castillo is pure white without a hint of blue. Also the leaves of Alberto Castillo are slightly-bluish green. This doesn't look like Alberto Castillo to me.

As Ipheion uniflorum

seeds around like mad AND changes colors depending on the temperatures it doesn't have to be a special cultivar.

I've grown 'Alberto Castillo' along with a number of other cultivars of Ipheion uniflorum

for years, including a white flowered one I got from England many years ago. And 'Alberto Castillo' is noticeably different than all of the others. It's the most vigorous. It has those distinctly more bluish green leaves. And it almost looks like it's a hybrid with some other species, or at least a different subspecies. I agree that the seeding around produces lots of interesting color variations. But at least in this area (inland southern California), the various cultivars never change that drastically in coloration from year to year.

After looking at the PBS Ipheion (https://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/Ipheion#uniflorum) page, my guess is it's that lighter blue Uniflorum.

Newer pic of flower showing more color.

Lachenalia quadricolor

Very nice Arnold!

Hi all, let's start today with where we actually are in this crazy spring in Germany - OK, the kaufmannianas are very early tulips, but I've never seen them in flower at the beginning of 3rd decade of February. Next one shows Crocus heuffelianus

and Colchicum szovitsii

side by side. Colchicum luteum

would flower as well but has been attacked by slugs.

Meanwhile, Asphodelus acaulis

has opened up on the front door stairs, always ready to be protected - but we actually had frost ONCE in February, and even thought Temperatures are announced to drop, it may still stay frost free for several days ahead.

Last two show a "long term project" - I actually bought Corybas incurvus before Brexit in fall 2019, and now almost lost that very first flower to a slug - in the greenhouse! Anyway, I really think this tops the Pterostylis with which it shares growing conditions both in tininess and bizarrity, close to a miniature Nintendo Piranha plant. By the way that's not Orchid Seramis, that's the normal thing...

Quote from: Martin Bohnet on February 21, 2024, 10:41:14 PMLast two show a "long term project" - I actually bought Corybas incurvus before Brexit in fall 2019, and now almost lost that very first flower to a slug - in the greenhouse! Anyway, I really think this tops the Pterostylis with which it shares growing conditions both in tininess and bizarrity, close to a miniature Nintendo Piranha plant. By the way that's not Orchid Seramis, that's the normal thing...

I'm creating a festoon of little hanging baskets for the most heavily and persistently slug attacked miniature geophytes.

What the..???

I had never heard of that orchid, it is from another world (so many things in Australia are).

Had I known you had A. acaulis, I would have sent some pollen to you. But I was told that it realy is self fertile and it is true. Pedicels coil somewhat like in Cyclamen but not so dramatically, seemingly to get the fruit buried or as close to the ground as possible. 

Where is your plant from?

Carlos

Lachenalia pallida pink form

Lachenalia this afternoon from a different area of my garden. We've gotten a LOT of rain this winter for So Cal!

More flowers at one time on my Moraea Elegans than I've EVER seen before! 
Loving it!! Sadly, with ALL the rain we've got, none of my PolyStachya are around now to cross pollinate. 😔

Quote from: Carlos on February 23, 2024, 04:51:47 AMWhere is your plant from?

My Asphodelus acaulis

is from Bert Zaalberg, the Corybas was from Paul Christian. Strange that he removed it from his product archive, as I can still see the offer in Wayback Machine...

Mine is from him, as well, but he has two clones. First came from Antoine Hoog, he told me himself.

I think we have the same one.

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Visited Anza Borrego Desert State Park 2-24-24. While the overall wild flower display was average to below average for the amount of rain. The H. Undulata were abundant.  In speaking to a ranger to discuss my observations, he shared it's one of the best seasons for desert lily in the past  several years. 

Very nice pictures of Anza Borrego, brings back happy memories....

Thanks Uli,

Hopefully the low desert areas begin to warm and get a couple more opportunities for moisture this season :) .   Poppy Season should be great in Southern California this year, already seeing patches show up here and there. 

Has anyone figured out a way to grow Hesperocallis undulata in captivity? The seeds germinate very easily and grow just fine the first year. But almost never seem to come out of dormancy the second year except for a very few. And then that's it after they go dormant again. The following year, no sprouts and no bulblets either. I've tried to mimic the kind of soil/sand they grow in. (Maybe I should have stolen some of the sand itself last time I was out there. :) ) And one time many years ago, during the IBS era, mature bulbs were offered for sale once when a road construction project dug through a large patch of them and an IBS member was allowed to rescue them and offered them to the membership. I got one, put it in a very well draining medium with coarse sand and pumice and only a little organic matter, planted deeply in the largest tree pot I could obtain (about 20 inches/50 cm tall with a 6 in. × 6 in./15 cm × 15 cm square top), kept it warm and dry all summer and watered it sparingly during the winter. It never sprouted, so I dried the pot out, repotted it and found the bulb was still there and healthy looking. And tried again the next winter. Still no leaves. And later after I dried it out again, I found that the bulb had rotted.

I think I read somewhere a while back that the Theodore Payne Foundation has been trying to grow it in captivity and were getting close to figuring out how to do it. I haven't heard anything since then. Maybe they've figured it out? Maybe Telos could figure it out since they figured out how to grow another different desert bulb, Calochortus kennedyi, in captivity.

Tristagma violaceum, ex Nothoscordum sp. Flores & Watson 8485, Santiago, seed from BX 476 in 2021 is blooming for the first time. About 5-6" tall  

My first thought was it looked like Nothoscordum gracile which makes numerous tiny offsets can invade a collection or lawn if you ever had one or got one in a mislabel and reuse any soil. I hope this is better behaved. 

Let's have a look what is in flower right now...... on a sunny and windy cool day.

The second picture shows a plant which I have raised from seed from the Alpine Garden Society and which was labeled Sparaxis roxburghii. Comparing it with the pictures in the Wiki I think it is not this rare species. What do you think? It grows to about 30cm tall, I did not notice any scent.

Lee,

When I visited ABDSP last year, I saw very few H. Undulata, not the  profusion I find in similar locations this year. ( 2022/23 was a record rainfall year)  If you look at the photo I took of the clustered group.  It's in one of the highest traffic areas in Borrego Springs. Literally next to the serpent sculpture. I observed more in very dry areas than the more traditional spots adjacent to stream beds or close to water sources. In addition there are a several on high ground rises where all water would trend away from them. So they are puzzling in all respects.  Yes we have had good rains this year, not like last winter though. A ranger I spoke with flat out shared the general bloom is behind schedule, but not H. Undulata.  I saw a healthy population of blooming size and juvenile plants. Everything I've read echoes your frustration growing them. 

More rain this coming weekend.

 

A Gladiolus huttoni  with some other things thrown in.

Gladiolus equitans

Lachenalia sp.