PBS Forum

Lets start off-classic, with Phlomoides tuberosa - glorious detail, far less impressive as whole plant - I may need more of them for an effect, but they are actually quite popular with the slugs...

Third is Luzuriaga radicans from the Altroemeriaceae,as the twisted leaves hint at. Smallish plant, evergreen and so maybe not too tuberous...

On the orchid front it's Dactylorhiza time, with the pale Dactylorhiza incarnata subsp. ochroleuca and a purple one I can't really put a label on since most species are hellish difficult to tell apart. On the sphagnum I seem to start to get seedlings of Dactylorhiza, guess there are worse things than a weedy orchid...

On the classical iris front we have Iris sibirica "Butter and Sugar" and Iris fulva

. Staying within Iridoideae, last one is Moraea huttonii

, which flowered 1.5 years after planting - last spring, half-grown stalks were aborted. I hope that's just a temporal effect during establishing, they are too nice to be erratic. Hardy to at least -11°C

Dear members living in the EU,
Having received several orders after sending out the reminder, I will close the ordering time window today at 24:00h Central European Time. No more orders will be accepted after that.
Bye for now
Uli

Quote from: David Pilling on Yesterday at 05:41:56 PMRHS warning after hungry caterpillars 'taking over South East' and decimating Guildford hedges


The Royal Horticultural Society has issued a warning after invasive, hungry caterpillars are reportedly taking over parts of Surrey and the South East. South Bucks.


https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/rhs-warning-after-hungry-caterpillars-29182894

I have noticed bald patches (a few square feet) and cobwebs on a couple of field hedges locally. Not box I would have thought.?

It's complicated...

Of course it is  

The foliage on many has dried up and I have them in 4" pots in a shaded dry place on the floor under the benches.

These are all in their second year so I will pop them open and see how they look.

The seedlings from this years exchange are still green so they are being watched closely and watered lightly occasionally.

Rather than flooding the BX with unwanted bulbs, I will divide and ask if there is interest, since a lot of them came to me as unwanted seed in the SX.

Hi

Amaryllis euryphylla has been finally formally transferred to Hippeastrum, so now we can use the name Hippeastrum euryphyllum.

The paper is called 'Hippeastrum euryphyllum (Amaryllidaceae), a microendemic species from
northeastern Argentina: new combination, description, taxonomic identity and
distribution'.

Hippeastrum euryphyllum (Ravena) W.A. Medina & Roitman, comb. nov.

Basionym: Amaryllis euryphylla Ravena (2003: 11). Type:—ARGENTINA. Corrientes, Dpto. San Martín, Tres Cerros, Cerro Capará, 29 January 1976 (fl.), A. Krapovickas & C.L. Cristóbal 29005 (holotype: CTES [CTES0000200!]).

Behind a paywall as well, but I could make a couple of screenshots.

In my hot and dry Portuguese summers I move the pots with dormant bulbs to a shady place, otherwise the black plastic pots become too hot. At some stage I empty all the pots and put the bulbs into paper bags.
But I try to keep the storage of the dormant bulbs in paper bags as short as possible. Some bulbs do not at all like to be stored out of the substrate, dry in a paper bag. These are replanting immediately and only the surplus is stored in a bag. I very rarely use plastic bags to store bulbs because they ,,breathe" and produce a surprising amount of moisture which may lead to rot.
Young seedling bulbs can be lost in their first dormancy if kept brutally dry so they get a light hand watering with a fine rose every 4 weeks or so. If kept too wet during dormancy they may also rot. Pot size matters: the bigger the pot the more stable the conditions are in the substrate. Clumps of mature bulbs are grown in 6, 8 or 10 liter pots depending on number of bulbs and size of the plants. My standard seedling pots are square 8 X 8 X 8,5cm. Anything smaller has proved unsuccessful.
Especially species winter growing gladiolus are prone to loss in their first dormancy.

Quote from: petershaw on May 17, 2024, 06:16:35 AMI have a lot of pots with lots of young bulbs, most winter growers. They have just recently gone dormant (some are still "growing").

I had hoped to share many of them via the Bulb Ex but I am wondering if this is the right time to divide them? I thought I understood they should be kept undisturbed until mid summer, but I am open to clarification.

I second that. The ones that have dropped leaves generally have mature bulbs, rooty things go to a warm shelf for a time. Generally if the tops are totally dry and done they are OK with lifting. It's a little frustrating with the Lachenalias I am attempting to turf out of the collection, as they skip leaves and flowers but still grow roots (in the absence of a hot summer).

Robert
hoping for a sunny day so I can see the rose colored Tritonia squalida.

Regular gardening could help you sleep, study says

A Chinese study of American gardeners found that their chances of a poor night's sleep were almost half that of non-gardeners.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/regular-gardening-could-help-you-sleep-study-says-8rqfrh72z

(behind a paywall)