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Here are some infos concerning my donation

Comments:
Albuca spec. Grahamstown: a very good pot plant, evergreen, spring flowering. Bright yellow upright flowers about 50cm tall, very floriferous. One of my adult bulbs produces 5 scapes this year, none with less than 3. Give midday shade  In frost free climates good garden plant, nedds some summer water. Beware of slug damage. Slowly clumps up.
 
Cobaea pringlei: has a fleshy perennial rootstock. Hardy in southern Germany in wine growing areas. Vigorous climber, needs space. Mature plants flower abundantly late in the season with pale chartreuse green flowers. A very good plant for warm climate gardens with a long warm autumn. My plant came from Frank's Salvia Garden where it spilled spectacularly over a fence.
Dahlia excelsa: tree Dahlia flowers around Christmas. Not really suitable for frost prone gardens but may still be a focal foliage plant. Very big tuber system may be hardy in mild winters with a very thick mulch. Differs from Dahlia imperialis. Seed germinates best at cool temperature, Seed is very fresh from this year.
Datura wrightii: very large upright white flowers on a big sprawling perennial herbaceous plant. Produces a big tuber. Very easy from seed, self seeds gently with me. Toxic. Flowers open in the early evening and close late morning. Place it where it can spread over pavement or gravel and where you can see the glowing flowers in darkness. Can be grown as an annual in frosty climates.
Tropical Nymphaea Hybrids: Panama Pacific is day blooming purplish pink and Texas Shell Pink is night flowering pale pink and white. Both are treated the same way. In warm countries tropical waterlilies by far outperform the hardy hybrids.
In cold countries: plant the tubers into a small pot with sand and place them in an aquarium heated to 20-25°C. 5cm water above pot. Give maximum light, perhaps with added artificial light. After sprouting give osmocote fertilizer repeatedly.  Once outdoor water in a large container is warm at the end of May, place outdoors in full sun, pot up into big pot, fertilize. Water above pot needs not be more that 15-20cm, shallow water warms up better.
In warm countries: plant into big pot straightaway and submerge shallowly into a pond or large container in full sun. Once the water is warm enough they will sprout. Fertilize repeatedly.
WARNING: Especially Panama Pacific must never be allowed into natural water habitats. Must not be planted into ponds which are prone to flooding. It is viviparous which means that every leaf is able to produce a new plant. This way they can become invasive. Very adaptable even for a relatively small aquatic garden in a container.  Texas Shell Pink is not viviparous.
Night blooming waterlilies open their flowers before dusk and close them late morning. A happy plant will cover a large surface of a pond with beautiful large leaves.
 

Hello Michael,
The best person in the US I can think of is Derek Pitman in California, I have met him personally. He figured under Mr. Impatiens and had a magnificent website and picture gallery. But it is very many years ago and I lost touch. an internet search always ends with "website suspended" I do not know more, sorry.

This is another, different announcement from the one you might have read a few days ago, concerning the USA

As many of you might have heard, the publisher of the Book Amaryllidaceae of Southern Africa by Graham Duncan and Barbara Jeppe is closing. There are books available at half price which are being sold by the South African Bulb Company. The Pacific Bulb Society has negotiated a bulk order for this book at half price. Postage of the bulk to Europe will be divided between those who order and postage to each individual will be added. The PBS does not gain any profit out of this, it is a service at cost for the membership but non-members are also welcome to order..
However, as this book is not new, we would like to asses interest in a bulk order to Europe before we proceed. The book is about 3kg heavy so that the postage will be expensive even if shared. The book is very good, though.
Please come back to me (Uli, my email is  johannes-ulrich-urban@t-online.de) if you are interested. We need a minimum number of orders to make it worthwhile and we would ask you to state a binding interest before we order. We do not expect a pre-payment as this would mean to start a second payment procedure for the postage. You would receive a payment slip together with the book, same as we do for the BX.

If you live outside the EU it might be worthwhile checking with the South African Bulb company directly as postage outside the EU might eat up the good price. There will be a bulk order in the USA, but postage from the US to other countries is expensive, too.
UK members should contact the Southern African Bulb Group https://www.sabg.tk/  who will also do a bulk order.

We cannot exactly state the final price because the postage of the bulk order depends on the number of books ordered and on the individual postage to you.

Please do not hesitate to contact me in case of questions
Uli  (and Martin)

This is another, different announcement from the one you might have read a few days ago, concerning the USA

As many of you might have heard, the publisher of the Book Amaryllidaceae of Southern Africa by Graham Duncan and Barbara Jeppe is closing. There are books available at half price which are being sold by the South African Bulb Company. The Pacific Bulb Society has negotiated a bulk order for this book at half price. Postage of the bulk to Europe will be divided between those who order and postage to each individual will be added. The PBS does not gain any profit out of this, it is a service at cost for the membership but non-members are also welcome to order..
However, as this book is not new, we would like to asses interest in a bulk order to Europe before we proceed. The book is about 3kg heavy so that the postage will be expensive even if shared. The book is very good, though.
Please come back to me (Uli, my email is  johannes-ulrich-urban@t-online.de) if you are interested. We need a minimum number of orders to make it worthwhile and we would ask you to state a binding interest before we order. We do not expect a pre-payment as this would mean to start a second payment procedure for the postage. You would receive a payment slip together with the book, same as we do for the BX.

If you live outside the EU it might be worthwhile checking with the South African Bulb company directly as postage outside the EU might eat up the good price. There will be a bulk order in the USA, but postage from the US to other countries is expensive, too.
UK members should contact the Southern African Bulb Group https://www.sabg.tk/  who will also do a bulk order.

We cannot exactly state the final price because the postage of the bulk order depends on the number of books ordered and on the individual postage to you.

Please do not hesitate to contact me in case of questions
Uli  (and Martin)

During a trip to central Portugal, I came across this field of tulips. My attention was raised because I saw people with bunches of cut flowers and when I saw the place it looked like red poppies at first glance. Unfortunately a lot of the plants were trampled on, the whole site looked like cultivated land. Most of the flowers were spent but I managed to photograph a fairly good one. They were about 60 to 70 cm tall and the leaves looked like garden tulips. I thought of Tulipa sprengeri but it does not have a blotch. Flora-on which covers practically every plant in Portugal only lists T. sylvestris as native. An old hybrid gone wild?
Thank you for your help 

Is it really four-petalled?

Moraea sisyrinchium is a common and beautiful wild flower in the Algarve and can flower en masse. Interestingly the flowers only open in the afternoon and are invisible before.

The spiraling of Albuca spiralis leaves very much depends on the growing conditions, the harder, dryer and sunnier it grows the more the leaves curl up. But it may in fact be something else.
A question: how does Oncostemma peruviana ifnensis differ from other forms? Which color is the flower?

To All who are interested in the future Oxalis book by 
Professor Léanne Dreyer,

With a potential joint order in mind, I contacted Léanne to find out how far this project has advanced. Writing a field guide on this complex genus is a giant task.
She replied that a publication is not yet in sight, but the work on this book is advancing.
So far we can do nothing but wait. I will keep you posted.

I am working to get more information and will go public once I know more about it.

Had a little walk today during cool and rainy weather in the Barrocal. Which is the low land between the coast or littoral and the serra, the mountain range in the hinterland of the Algarve. Barrocal soil in general is terra rossa, the bedrock is limestone. Rich native flora. I was searching for Peonia broteroi and found it, but still in bud. It is a rare plant. On the way I came across many Orchis italica. 

Sorry, Jane, I have none of those. I would have loved to help out, I know the feeling of lost rarieties....

Principally the Pacific Bulb Society encourages members getting in touch with each other, that is one of the purposes of the membership directory. And why should this not include swapping seed or bulbs.....
It certainly is a good idea to actively ask for specific plants if you are looking for something not easily available. This might motivate the grower of a particular plant to share some material which he or she might not consider worthwhile for the BX. Personally I was treated extremely generously when I asked for seed of Amaryllis belladonna hybrids a few years ago when I started my new garden in Portugal.
But...... as Martin pointed out, this private swapping should not undermine the public BX and SX. We receive many questions if this or that item is good or plentiful enough to be sent to the exchange and we always do encourage to send. As we have adopted the random distribution after the closure of donations, everyone has the same chance to get the rarities in short supply. I very strongly recommend to send in even a single bulb of a rare plant. For ordering these rare items I would appeal to the potential grower to consider "can I grow it successfully?" rather than being guided by the "must have" impulse. Not every bulb is suitable for every growing condition. Bridget, Lisa and Martin do a hell of a good job to distribute the rare items in short supply as equally as possible amongst the hoard of orders......

This very interesting contribution appeared in the email list, see a copy below.

I would be interested in a potential joint order of the new field guide to Oxalis and sent an email to Stellenbosch University asking when it would be published.

Here is the contribution 

Message: 11
Date: Fri, 1 Mar 2024 19:00:44 -0800
From: Comcast <jerlynne@comcast.net>
To: Pacific Bulb Society <pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net>
Subject: [pbs] Oxalis Book-Leanne Dreyer
Message-ID: <27B68EC7-8350-4048-BB05-48CDCDBE3796@comcast.net>
Content-Type: text/plain;    charset=utf-8

Apparently Professor Dreyer is writing a field guide for oxalis.

https://www0.sun.ac.za/researchforimpact/2023/08/29/oxalis-a-genus-in-a-hurry/

Hopefully the link to the article works.

I don?t know if this is something where there might be a group book order sponsored by the PBS.

Jeron

Dear members living in the EU,
The EU Seed and Bulb Exchange is now open for donations. As usual we will do two rounds, the first one is mainly for seed which is less prone to cold damage in the mail. But depending on where you live and depending how urgently some bulbs must be planted...., you can also send bulbs. The second round will be distributed about 4 weeks after the first one. That is for the more fragile items.  Donations can be sent to Martin from now on until further notice. You will be updated through the same channels. All EU members should receive a personal email, if not, please come back to Uli.

Please send only clean, healthy and pest free material, labelled with the scientific name and your name so that each item can be  assigned to the donor.

To reduce Martin's  workload, we would appreciate if you could pre-pack your seed donation. Bulbs do not need to be pre-packed and should come in one single bag for each species. For seed 5 portions of the same seed which are enough to produce a reasonable potful of seedlings, with very rare seed a portion can go down to 3-5 seeds. As usual, this is entirely voluntary and free seed envelopes can be requested from Martin. If the seed is plentiful, you can add an extra, larger portion for Martin to pack in case of more than 5 people ordering it.
As a donor you will get a bonus which covers the cost of postage. This bonus can be used for your own orders or for membership payments.
The full instructions for the EU Seed and Bulb Exchange of the Pacific Bulb Society can be found on the website under Bulb Exchanges. The most important points to participate: You must have a postal address in one of the EU countries and you must be a fully paid member. You do not need to be a donor to be entitled to order from the exchanges
Please send you donations to:                Martin Bohnet
                                                            Ludwigstr. 1
                                                            73035 Goeppingen
                                                            Germany
                                                            <garak@code-garak.de>

Please do not hesitate to get in touch with me (Uli) in case of questions: johannes-ulrich-urban@t-online.de     

You have been very generous in the past with your donations, thank you very much for this! We are looking forward to a new and rich exchange


Uli and Martin