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Because why do the leaf and flower stalk thing when you be weird. Expanded netting plus surplus chopsticks to support the extra weird geophytes.

Schizobasis intricata (two forms)
Igidia volubis
Bowiea volubis (two forms)

And, THAT corner of the greenhouse

On the "winter year 'round" side of San Francisco, I'll be turfing out all my Crinums[1] this season, they seem to want some real summer warmth...along with the Rhodophiala and Lycoris.  And I should dig up the label and figure out what that thing that grows leaves like a low Agapanthus, only without any sort of flowering.

Robert
who is about to go on a little seed finding excursion that just happens to be on a county road where the temps will be HOT.

[1] Nothing special, just random things I picked up to see if they would make it in the summer water bed. There are some Dieramas waiting to go into those spots.

Quote from: Diane Whitehead on August 24, 2022, 01:10:05 PMThat reminds me of a scented one I admired in South Africa.  I don't know which species it is - there are about 120 species growing there.

When you consider how many have spines, it is surprising that we discovered how good one of them is to eat.

When you are hungry enough, you'll try anything! It appears that the young shoots of all of them are edible!

Wow! That's amazing, I wonder if it could handle my cool foggy summers?

Presumably it has fleshy roots to support this show? But even plants that lack apparent storage organs will put on a show in mediterranean summers...I'm thinking on our local deerweed (Acmispon glaber) that flowers all summer
supported by wiry anchor roots!

Amaryllis belladonna is still blooming intermittently here, in more clement locations in the city, they are mostly done, although a sunny protected cliffside population hasn't started yet.
Robert
firmly in the grip of Fogust, which followed No Sky July, where some of the South African bulbs have decided winter is coming on (mostly Oxalis), the first Colchicum is showing color, and the Andean tuber crops are all growing wildly.

Out of the greenhouse now so it can be appreciated by the flies. 

I wouldn't say it is an attractive color, but the iridescence across the spathe is impressive. The other aroids in bloom now are all pale green and much less impressive (Pinellia and Remusatia)

Quote from: Sylvia on August 07, 2022, 08:40:27 AMMy query matches Ottoline: no species known for Cyrtanthus and Nerine bulbs just received from the BX.  Mine show no green foliage or root growth and I wonder whether to plant now or wait for cooler weather.  The Cyrtanthus is "ex Logee" and the Nerine "ex Exbury."  When species is not known what's the safest approach?

Many thanks,
Sylvia Sykora in the cool, slightly dampish SF Bay Area

According to Duncan's "Grow Nerines" (2002), the parentage of the Exbury hybrids was principally sarniensis with some bowdenii...no details though on other admixtures.

Winter growers: humilis, pudica, ridleyi, sarniensis
Summer growers: bowdenii, huttoniae, krigei, laticoma, marincowitzii
Evergreen (winter dormant in cold conditions): the rest, mostly with threadlike leaves: angustifolia, appendiculata, filamentosa, filifolia, frithii, gaberonensis, gibsonii, gracilis, hesseoides, masoniorum, pancratioides, platypetala, pusilla, rehmanii, transvaaalensis, undulata (broader leaves).

There appears to be quite a bit of Nerine information on the web, in addition to the PBS wiki.

Robert

Quote from: Arnold on August 02, 2022, 01:01:09 PMMy understanding is that the exothermic process of the flower  further imitates the environment of rotting flesh.

This provides more than one attractant for pollinators.

Plus the rising column of air distributes the scent more widely.

Robert
with a couple Amophophallus flowers coming along (allowing me to identify a mis labeled plant from a commercial source)...the other aroids blooming are tiny minatures

Quote from: Martin Bohnet on July 17, 2022, 04:54:35 AM

Quote from: Diane Whitehead on July 16, 2022, 05:37:58 PMThere are only a few dead Roscoea flowers,  so each flower must stay in bloom for a long time.

They don't, usually. I interpret Robert's sentence as: Roscoea at the beginning of the flowering period, will go on for 2 months. Of course I might be wrong and they only wither so fast for me in my continental climate. They're definitely not fond of my regular 30°C+ these days...

Each flower lasts several days, blooming in succession, with usually a day or so of overlap between flowers in each inflorescence. When the flowers wither fully, I clean them off before they go moldy in the fog...the first blooms were around the end of May. Daytime highs of 15-20C/60-70F definitely keep the clock running slow for these flowers.

Quote from: Martin Bohnet on July 16, 2022, 10:11:02 AMVERY interesting collection - I've added your Ullucus tuberosus

image to the wiki - turns out we only had tuber pictures before.

Not pictured are the Amaryllis belladonna

planted in the devil strip/median. This is most of the current geophyte blooming, lacking similar plants, and a scattering of Oxalis...and indoor Typhoniums.

I really should look at the wiki, I know I have a lots of pictures that might fill in holes.

A few things from the San Francisco cloud forest (the ground under trees stays moist from fog catching). Everything but the A. ongsakulii is outside (the greenhouse is only wind/fog protection, and things move in and out). The aroids tend to run slow getting their leaves up in the cool tropical conditions (temps this week 65/50F 20/10C). Lost a daisy tree to the wind (Sonchus palmensis), 3 giant flower heads (30"/75cm across) were enough of a sail even though it was staked. Oca (Oxalis tuberosus) is growing like it wants to take over the entire back yard before the equinox.

1 - NOT Arisaema consanguineum! Maybe a Remusatia?
2 - Ulluco (Ullucus tuberosus), one of the Andean tubers
3 - Begonia boliviensis Santa Cruz Sunset, with a small wild clone behind
4 - Roscoea auriculata Early Blooming...going on 2 months of blooming
5 - Bomarea ?hirsuta?...sending up a flowering stem every month, after the winter rush...still waiting on the seed pods to mature
6 - Tritileia hyacintha; laxa, Zephyrantes, Brodiea pallida...B. pallida actually bloomed this year, we had a gap in the fog so the scape didn't turn into mush
7 - Rhodohypoxis baurii hybrids...dragging it out, months of blooming
8 - Bomarea sp. Small Red...when you put a batch of seedling pots on the ground and fail to get around to repotting and distribution...and they just don't go dormant for me...some day there will be a shovel and crying.
9 - Pinellia?...I don't have my list with me, as annoying as it may be elsewhere, it is a handsome leaf and a sleek flower
10 - Amorphophallus ongsakulii...the cutest of the cute!
11 - Amorphophallus NOT bulbifer...3 years from a dessicated tuber (2-3 years dry storage), with me, 1 year roots only to rehydrate, 1 year of vigorous leaf, and now a bud...I guess I get to find out what is it!
12 - Amorphophallus konjac Shattered Glass...with a particularly well mixed variegation this year, another one is behind, that one seems to have minimal variegation this year

Yes, lessee what to order for the weather: light overcast so bright without direct sun, low wind since autofocus can only do so much, and no other foul weather unless you want that effect in the photography.

Be attentive to your background, that affects both the final image, and (assuming you are using auto metering) the exposure of the subject. 

Your camera makes a difference, nowadays the programming probably more than the actual lens...besides my real cameras (Nikon DSLR and fancy point and shoot), my cell phones have varied in flower picture quality over the years, the current one does pretty well, and being able to go to manual is important, if still more cumbersome than on an actual camera. 

In digital, film is cheap, and sometimes you can get away with taking lots of shots to get a clear one...although it took a LOT of shots to get the Ixias.

Probably the best thing is having a "camera" with some level of manual control.

Robert
in San Francisco with bright diffuse light under the fog, but a gusty breeze to keep everything but the short Pelargoniums hard to focus on

Something, I presume a opossum, has bitten Arisaema shoots...only ones that are reddish in color...one chomp and no more...malformed leaves and flowers result...presumably they are fairly unpleasant because no plant tissue is removed.

Mark Twain didn't actually say "The coldest winter I spent was a summer in San Francisco." Oxalis tenuifolius doesn't care who said it...

Oxalis massoniana agrees, the container of bulbs partly intended for the BX are all in pots out front now...we'll see if they decide to go down for Indian Summer.

With a 10m tall tree, you've got some work to do if you can't use a systemic insecticide.

At the appropriate season for pruning a laurel, do a very heavy pruning to start restoration of a healthy shape, incinerate or landfill the trimmings through this whole process...try to protect new growth from infection. Control the (mostly) ants that transport the insects from place to place.

got three tiny tubers last fall, so I put all three in a 4"/10 cm square pot and set it out in the garden (as I do with most of my bulbs). Next thing I know it is sprawled a meter across with flower stalks everywhere, dozens of little white flowers lasting  a day...for months. It finally went dormant after setting seeds weakly, so I went to lift it and check/divide it. I had no idea you could expand one of these pots that much! 

Looks like every root has a growth bud or two on top, and they are weakly connected to the parent growth. Presumably an adaptation to survive being dug up and eaten. Of course,  packed in like this I could only loosen up a couple dozen root/tubers...after it dries out a bit, I think I'll got at it with a box cutter and separate the main tubers. 

We'll see in the fall if the seeds that dropped while I was distracted volunteer.  It certainly has the potential to be an annoying invasive...maybe next year I'll try steaming the flower stalks like asparagus,  edible, hmm.

Thank you for your work!