PBS Forum

I am not sure why it did not work. When did you do that? Lachenalia aloides flowers in late winter. 
I would think it does not matter which tool you use to transfer pollen. As long as you did transfer. Did you see the pollen on the paintbrush? I noticed that in some Lachenalia flowers the stigma is visible, in others not. It might be worthwhile dissecting a flower to see where exactly is what. I agree that there may be some degeneration especially due to virus infection in plants that have been propagated vegetavely over a long time. Even more important to raise new stock from seed, the difference in vigor and flower quality is amazing. I do not think Lachenalia is self sterile: there must be another reason for your failure. 
Uli 

Hello Mike,

Thank you very much for your message. 
The Cyrtanthus from John Lavranos was never identified. There were no field data either. I am writing in the past tense because I lost it in the meantime, probably to Narcissus fly. But I must say that I did not really cry after it because it never flowered during the time I had it, maybe 8 years or so. It produced enormous amounts of bulbils which I shared on several occasions. Has yours ever flowered?
I know that Rimmer de Vries also has it. He sent me pictures of the flower but it turned out that the flower was from a Habranthus spec. which had self sown into the pot of the Cyrtanthus.
It is nearly impossible to identify a non flowering specimen of Cyrtanthus. From its looks it probably belongs to the montanus or sanguineus group.
It is indeed a good idea to enter it into mystery bulbs, maybe it has flowered with somebody else.
Sorry I cannot give you more details,

Uli 

Hello Carlos,

Is Squilla (not Scilla with a ,c') now the new correct name for Drimia maritima?

Yet a new set of labels to be written.....

Uli 

Dear All,
Here are some informations concerning my donation to the current EU-BX

The Lachenalia bulbs were grown from seed, hand pollinated in this case. Seed grown plants are much more vigorous and healthy than the ones propagated by bulbils.
Some info concerning the seed:
Many packets will have the abbreviation o.p. which stands for open pollinated, some are marked h.p., hand pollinated. Some genera are notorious hybridizers, like Iris and Sparaxis, the offspring can be variable.
Albuca spec. Grahamstown, 50cm tall, upright bright yellow flowers, evergreen. This is the first plant I managed to propagate with microwaved pollen. The offspring is uniform and looks like the mother plant, setting seed with hand pollination. Spring flowering, similar to but different from Albuca aurea. Seed can be sown any time, with poor light conditions in winter better sow in spring.
Cyclamen persicum open pollinated colour forms. I do not know how true they will be from seed. The white one is particularly elegant.
Freesia Hybrid ex 'Red Passion' Hybrid seed does not come true. Sown early it may flower in spring, otherwise a year later. Seed grown Freesia are healthy and vigorous and it is fun to select your own favourite colours.
Hippeastrum seed germinates best with the water flotation method:https://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/Hippeastrum
Zantedeschia aethiopica ex 'Flamingo', a good pink. I do not know if the seed will produce pink offspring, the plant is new to my collection. I found many empty seeds and only a few good ones. Seed size is much smaller than ordinary Z. aethiopica seed. The seed you get is hand selected. No guarantee for successful germination can be given, I will sow some of the remaining seed myself.
happy growing!
Uli

Dear All,

From a new member in Spain I got the following question due to illegible faded labels.....

QuoteOut of interest what do you use to label your plants?

Here is my reply:

For garden pens I stopped using the so called permanent markers altogether as none of them, whatever the brand was could withstand the southern sun. I find a soft grade classic lead pencil unbeatable, there are special garden pencils available, get one of these. The next problem will be brittle plastic. This year I am starting to put one label in the very bottom of the pot and another one sticking to the side as usual. It serves two purposes, the buried plastic will not become brittle and in case of loss or misplacement of the visible label there is a reference in the bottom of the pot.

Uli 

This particularly elegant form of Amaryllis belladonna is flowering for the very first time in my garden. The bulbs were given to me some years ago and were originally raised from wild collected seed. I like the faint touch of pink in the white flowers.

Thank you, @Marc,

I looked at the Michael Vassar accession list but the number 76013 does not exist, neither a number 760B.

I have not yet contacted the supplier of this particular Oxalis, maybe he knows.

Uli 

Dear Members living in the EU
The EU Seed and Bulb Exchange will go online next weekend. There will again be some interesting and rare material on offer. It will be announced again through the same channels so you will not miss the ordering time window. This is just another reminder.
If you still have some items to be included in this first round, there is still time to send it to Martin. Otherwise there will be a second round in October and the donation period remains open until further notice.
Please send your donations to
Martin Bohnet
Ludwig str. 1
73035 Göppingen
Germany
And please send Martin an email or a private message through the Forum so that he will know about your donation. His email:  garak@code-garak.de
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to come back to me (Uli) johannes-ulrich-urban@t-online.de
 
Martin and Uli

Hello David and Eugene,

Thank you very much for trying to help. But unfortunately I did not get any further. I grow MV 4960B which differs from the odd 96013. however, I will check more closely once the two are in flower. Your explanation, @Eugene, sounds very plausible. 
@David, the number 6018 on Michael Vassar's accession list does not give any information on the plant.

Thank you again 

Uli 

Dear All,

Right now I am sorting my bulbs and try to update labels and lists.

I have a problem identifying an Oxalis. The label says O. luteola MV 96013. I checked the Michael Vassar accession list on the Wiki and such a number does not exist. His numbers stop with 7693. It is listed as MV 96013 in the bulb list of ELDA, that is where I got it from. My label says: golden yellow winter flowering.
I know that Michael Vassar sometimes added a capital ,B' to his field numbers, maybe someone has taken a capital B for the number 13? But even with this in mind I cannot find it. The first figure 9 does not exist in the MV field notes.

Can someone help?

Thank you very much 

Uli 

See my dormant Oxalis collection below...... smile....

This is the set of tubers from Dracunculus canariensis. Interesting to see that it produces stolons. Some are still attached to the mother tubers, whereas with others the attachment point had withered and the stolon is detached. These are seed grown plants but I remember having seen wild plants in habitat in Tenerife always growing in colonies. The ball pen serves as a comparison for scale.

Here is another link to another reputable nursery in Austria, I checked Jelitto and Chiltern seeds, they do not list it.

https://www.sarastro-stauden.com/shop/winterharte-stauden/erodium-reiherschnabel/erodium-chrysanthum/

The owner of the Sarastro nursery often travels to the US, I do not know him personally but he might be able to help.

Uli 

Hello Bern,

Here is a link to a reputable German nursery specializing in perennial plants, often rare ones. No idea if they would be sending to the US. They do not state that the plant is dioecious.

Maybe this helps?

Uli 

https://www.gaissmayer.de/web/shop/themenwelten/mit-stauden-gestalten/kiesgarten-gravel-garden/14/erodium-chrysanthum/3204/

Thank you, David for this explanation 

Uli 

What do you mean by horses for courses?
Please don't forget that not everybody in this world is a native English speaker.....
Uli