PBS Forum

Ferraria crispa
Gladiolus tristis w/o dark in throat
Gladiolus hybrid

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 

Hello Arnold,

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

No problem, things can be merged easily :P

Martin


Thanks,

I've been having fun with cyclamen. First image--first bloom/bud from C. drydeniae from seeds from BX 476--thanks whomever donated that! Second are 'Tilebarn Nicholas' from seed shared with me from a Cyclamen Society distribution, some showing hints of that famous pink blush. Third image is the cyclamen district of my plant shelf including a bunch of Bowles Apollo also from CS. 

@Uli how strange to find Iris tuberosa / Hermodactylus tuberosus

in flower at the same time growing half a continent apart. Considering the color: could it be you also have the "smokey" clone from Liberto Dario? All the other images I've seen of this are far more greenish...
           
Staying with strange colors, I've pulled a flowering pot of Gethyum atropurpureum

from the cold house today, as it wasn't sunny, but at least it was warm.

Colchicum luteum

and Colchicum szovitsii

'tivi' (The plant I showed in December actually is Colchicum serpentinum

, I seem to have swapped labels) are that kind of plants most common people would pass by as "just another crocus" - but we know better. I actually tried cross-pollination, one can always hope...

Obviously, it's also time for the very first Tulip - "Early Harvest" earns its name, thanks at Sabine Kämpfe for donating it!

To end on something tropical from inside, I have this Neomarica caerulea

- even though authorities have sunken the whole tribe into Trimezia...

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 

Moraea serpentina flowering on March 6, 2023. The container is a foam drinking cup 3" / 7.5cm in diameter and twice as deep. It sprouted many years ago from Silverhill seed, and has flowered every year for some years. Because the single plant produces one flower per year that only opens for a few hours, I haven't seen it often. This year I brought it with me while visiting family so I wouldn't miss it. The flower is sweetly fragrant at close range. Unfortunately I only have one, and it hasn't offset. I tried selfing it.

The background flowers are a purple line-bred Laelia anceps and an orange Kalanchoe hybrid from a Huntington plant sale.

The companion plant is Linaria maroccana. Winter annuals reseed in most of my containers, serving as watering indicators. Gene Joseph and Jane Evans of Plants for the Southwest/Living Stones Nursery in Tucson taught me that trick.

Should I put these on the Wiki? It was a cloudy and windy day so they're not great photos, but a view from the top isn't on the Wiki.

Hi Leo. About the wiki, let me consult... photo #2 is best, but the accompanying cultivation information is interesting and the sort of thing we often put on the wiki. There is nothing about plants in cultivation on the wiki. OTOH Google will find the info here just as well as on the wiki.

I always thought companion plants were an idea, from my point of view to cope with overwatering. Good to know someone has got it worked out.

 

In spite of bad weather, wind, rain and more wind, spring is trying to happen in the Azores. The hedychium are sprouting and I have this Moraea elegans:
Moraea elegans (2).jpg

Quote from: Leo on March 09, 2023, 12:27:29 AMShould I put these on the Wiki? It was a cloudy and windy day so they're not great photos, but a view from the top isn't on the Wiki.

I think the top view is good (is there water on the camera lense of the first one?). Do you have editing access to the wiki?

@Leo, we've had a wiki editors conference and think the photo and information would be a good addition to the wiki. Please add them.

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

Today in the garden and greenhouse... Daffodils are Rijnvelds Early Sensation. primroses, camelia, muscari and last photo is pleione

I think I've asked it before - how warm are your pleiones during winter? because mine are barely stirring, even though there were more warm days in the coldhouse than usual.

Hi Martin, it is an unheated greenhouse, although I don't let things freeze, I put on an oil lamp on cold nights. The Muscari are in the same greenhouse, give you some idea of the timetable.

These are the pleione my friend gave me, she grew them outside in the middle of England - presumably much colder than here.

At this time of year, on a sunny day it gets warm in the greenhouse.

I would like to give you some pseudo-bulbs, but they're on a diminishing path - dunno, 12 years or more on, I still have quite a few. I really must study how to care for them properly.

oh, my own pleiones are fine, thank you - I tend to loose them more to the hot summers these days. So it's the sunlight heatup, which is much less pronounced for me due to the more massive architecture. Pleiones tend to keep an almost mechanical heat sum to calculate their time to start.

Geissorhiza corrugata from the bulb ex. Thanks!

We've had so much rain and cloud cover that I had to bring them into the garage and put then under one of my shop lights to get the flowers to open. I guess more light is needed early to get the twisted leaves.


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Three Asphodelus from Eastern Spain

Asphodelus ayardii, Spanish plants were thought to be a subspecies of fistulosus for a long time, until they were compared with Moroccan plants.

Flowers are bigger, the style is longer than the stamens, leaves are wider and not scabrid (with minute teeth) or only along the edges, and roots are straight, up to 4 mm thick.

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Fistulosus is smaller, with smaller flowers (here already closed as it was sunset time), has narrower leaves, scabrid both on margins and nerves, and twisting roots up to 2 mm thick.

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And ramosus is far taller, with wide leaves with a V section and big flowers. It is being confused with A. aestivus, which is strictly endemic to the Iberian Peninsula. Ramosus has fibrous remnants on the rhizome and pedicels 0.8-1.3
mm in diameter when fruiting (aestivus and serotinus have no fibrous remnants and pedicels 0.5-0.7 mm only).

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And finally, plenty of Lapiedra martinezii.

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Carlos Jiménez

I love it when there are multiple pics of a species, and you can really see what it look like in its entirety.

Quote from: David Pilling on March 09, 2023, 07:44:20 AM@Leo, we've had a wiki editors conference and think the photo and information would be a good addition to the wiki. Please add them.

I'll do so.

Actually, we don't NEED to have an editor's konference - The idea of a wiki is to be changeable by many people...

Talking about change: today a 20°C wave swapped over Germany - at this very moment followed by a wall of water (almost 20 mm/m² in the last hour or so) and thunder, so I have no idea how much things will have suffered..

First is Fritillaria raddeana

, always first frit of the season. Second is Iris aucheri 'Orlof', obviously one of the easier Junos.

As I said it got warm, so I removed a few layers of protection to find these massive sprouts - no that's not Chicorée, that's Cardiocrinum giganteum

. It always gets me nervous with that early sprouting, but since it does survive the Himalayas...

Quote from: Martin Bohnet on March 13, 2023, 02:28:55 PMActually, we don't NEED to have an editor's konference - The idea of a wiki is to be changeable by many people...

An expensive way of reaching a conclusion. Like on wikipedia were teams compete to add and remove the same stuff. We don't have the resources for such messing about. Touch any of my stuff and I will take it badly  :)

Hi, I took better photos of fistulosus at an earlier time.

It is quite weedy here, I wonder if it is invasive outside its native range.

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Then the Medium-season Narcissus bulbocodium from Uli, one of the plants makes amazing trumpets.

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A Tractema ramburi I luckily got as something else. Tractema was splitted off Scilla and the species is usually spelled 'ramburei' or 'ramburii', which is wrong.

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Finally, Gladiolus splendens from last EU Bulb Exchange

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Carlos

Martin, my pleiones are also not really up either.  They're in a barely above freezing greenhouse but we've had a cold, damp winter.  I do see some buds however.  When we visited Utrecht Botanic Garden a few years ago I noticed they grow pleiones outside so they must be reasonably hardy.  I put out some seedlings last year but I haven't checked to see if they're still there.  They weren't blooming size yet. 

A friend in Victoria B.C. grew lots of pleiones on a steep bank.

Crocus sieberi tricolor

Hello All,

Some more pictures from my garden, some bulbs flower for the first time.

Arum creticum

, unfortunately the flowers are short lived 

Geissorhiza splendidissima

, first time flowering from Silverhill seed. 

Gladiolus splendens

Flower Colors:	red
Climate:	winter rain climate

, multiplies very quickly. This is a pot grown specimen, I cannot grow it in the open garden as rodents will feast on the corms.....

An excellent golden yellow Freesia Hybrid 

Gladiolus alatus

Flower Colors:	orange, white, yellow
Life form:	corm
Climate:	winter rain climate

from US BX, first time flowering. In companion planting with Oxalis obtusa and a fragrant yellow Lachenalia which was received as seed of L. aloides from Silverhill but which is something different 

Ornithogalum dubium

, wild form. An excellent form from Silverhill Seeds. It is smaller than the ones on steroids which are sold in garden centers but I never managed to keep the commercial ones alive after flowering. The wild form is very easy and reliable and flowers the third year from seed. Quite amazing as one year old seedlings look hair-like.

One of the last Ferraria's.

Ferraria crispa ssp. nortieri

So spring has moved into that wonderful "something new everyday" phase - Chionodoxa always was seeding around like mad, it seems now that Anemone blanda

Height:	10-20 cm (3.9-7.9 inch)
Flower Colors:	white, pink, purple, blue
Flower Season:	early spring to mid spring

followed that example in the lawn.

Corydalis solida

is always a few days sooner than my native Corydalis cava

Height:	10-20 cm (3.9-7.9 inch)
Flower Colors:	white, purple, pink
Flower Season:	early spring to mid spring
Life form:	deciduous tuber

, but I've seen the more spectacular species also stir already. Talking about seasons: someone should tell Leucojum aestivum

that aestivum means summer - but Leucojum vernum

, "Märzenbecher" (March Cups) in German, were through well before the end of February. Then again, there's once more the threat of frost so I may have to move some mediterraneans like Freesia viridis

back inside... but other odd color scheme plants are planted out and won't move - talking about you, Fritillaria sewerzowii

new entries to the collection, all planted out: the natural hybrid Anemone lipsiensis, a white form of Iris vicaria

from Janis Ruksans' Nursery and Ficaria verna

Height:	0-10 cm (0-3.9 inch)
Flower Colors:	yellow
Flower Season:	early spring to mid spring
Life form:	tuber
Climate:	USDA Zone 5-8

"Blueberries and cream" - for which you'll need perfect lighting and some imagination to have the blueberries- look on closed flowers.

Quote from: petershaw on March 12, 2023, 08:45:54 AMGeissorhiza corrugata from the bulb ex. Thanks!

We've had so much rain and cloud cover that I had to bring them into the garage and put then under one of my shop lights to get the flowers to open. I guess more light is needed early to get the twisted leaves.


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These 2 pots are still blooming. There must be something wrong with them, So what gives? Invasive?  :D