PBS Forum

Here are a few bulbs blooming for US Thanksgiving day
Strumaria prolifera ex hort.
Scilla lingulata ciliolata (Jane's clone)
Crocus ochroleucus
Daubenya stylosa ex hort
Paramongia weberbaurei

Enjoy

I have grown Lapeirousia orogena from seed for over 10 years in small plastic 2" seedling pots. The mix is 3/16" pumice with fines and a pinch of local southern red clay.  I was thinking of combining the small pots into a larger pot to make a better display. My question: should i stick with plastic or use terra cotta pots?

Does anyone grow Lapeirousia orogena
in masse with luck keeping them happy?  How do you grow them?

 https://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/Lapeirousia

I have had this for almost 10 years from Telos and don't ever recall a flower. It is supposed to be summer dry and active Au-W-Sp, unlike many other rainlilies. This past winter i repotted it in pumice and kept it inside under lights on a bed of wet gravel with no direct watering. A week ago i saw some shoots through the pumice so i gave it some fresh rainwater. Blooms at last!

I try to grow a lot of things from seed, some work out some don't and many are misidentified by the source. 

Last year in BX 481 ( actually an SX before they went back to the old numbering scheme) i received seed labelled as Sinningia leopoldii. A species i had wanted for a while. The seed was part of PBS annual allotment from Brazil Plants.  This sinningia grows on rocks and has a rather large tuber

https://www.brazilplants.com/gesneriaceae/sinningia/sinningia-leopoldii.html

I start all my sinningia seed in small trays of fine seed mix covered with plastic domes over a tray to hold some water.

Three seeds germinated and grew on.  They never looked like the sinningia leopoldii i was hoping for, being very hairy with a dense cluster of leaves close to the tuber.

To gow these on they were gradually up potted to larger and larger pots (now in 10cm pots) on a layer of wet chicken grit with a fan on them. 

Finally it was pointed out that  my seedlings were actually Sinningia hirsuta., A humid loving plant that prefers terrariums. And, apparently, not so easy to please.
 
https://www.brazilplants.com/gesneriaceae/sinningia/sinningia-hirsuta.html


I was away recently and the gravel dried out completely, as it dose periodically. So the humidity was controlled by the weather outside a closed attached garage. Probably  close to 80-85°F, 80% relative humidity.  The plants faired much better than the white Sinningia eumorphia plant a few inches away in same conditions that did not like drying out.

So the purpose of this post is to shoew some results from the SX and to give a view of some growing procedures that work unexpectedly.

Rimmer
Southern Kentucky, USA
Zone 6

Several Milla blooming now

Milla potosina sent up some late scapes with all the Recent rain in Kentucky
And Milla oxacana is starting into bloom

M potosina has a raspy flower stem
M oaxacana has a smooth stem

Last pic both side by side
2nd potosina
1st oaxacana

(Loader shuffled the photos)

A late summer bulb from low elevations in Northern Morocco. Have not seen it in years, must have liked the recent rain

Is this Zephyranthes traubii ?

It has the odd tepal orientation of Z jonesii

A kind member from Australia alerted me to this new research on Purple Drops, the purple form of Bessera.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/353558348_Morphological_variation_in_Bessera_Asparagaceae_Brodiaeoideae_allows_for_the_recognition_of_two_new_species

Bessera elegantissima-
Large white eyes, whitish staminal tube, glabrous (smooth) flower scapes, sometimes pruinose (with powdery frosting)

Bessera ramirezii-
Small white eyes, purple staminal tube, scabrous (rough) flower scapes.

These are blooming here and it appears what i have grown from Telos and Hannon stock include both forms and a mixture of both forms, with smooth stems and whitish staminal tube

The first 2 pics seem to be Bessera elegantissima

A d the 3rd pic seems to be Bessera ramirezii. With the small eyes, purple staminal tube and scabrous stem

The last pic seems to be a mixture with a small eyes, white tube and a smooth stem.

It is a dry hot year and most plants are very stressed and stunted in the draught. But a few new blooms are open
All are aurelians

Blooming now

Lilium distichum and Lilium tsingtauense are both orange asiatic lilies in bloom now in southern Kentucky.

I used to be able to distinguish these with L tsingtauense as up facing (sky) and leaf whorels and L distictum having more of a raceme with outfacing flowers and a taller stem with scattered leaves above a lower leaf whorl.

These lilies were planted together with the species somewhat separated. They have not been in the same ground long enough to hybridise but the rules above to distinguish them seem to be blurred.

My L tsingtauense are from Eddie McRae offered through the now defunct Species Lily Preservation Group and have a bilateral flower symmetry with the lower sepal pointing down. The illustrations in books (Fox, Growing Lilies) have the flower tepals evenly spaced in radial symmetry.

The L distichtum came from A friend now at Longwood and are believed to be the correct species.

Both flower symmetry forms are present on my plants now but the flower symmetry does not line up with the leaf patterns. Can the radial or bilateral flower symmetry be used to distinguish between L tsingauense and L distichum.

Or do i have something else growing here? 

Can some of you lily specialists help me out.

These Eucrosia mirabilis seedlings were grown from ebay sourced seed started in 2014. This is the first time blooming. One stem bloomed several months ago at 3 feet tall when it was still "cold" outside, now three are blooming at 24" to 30" tall. 

In the past my Eucrosia mirabilis have always been green to slightly yellow with greenish white to cream colored anthers but in this batch one has yellow tepals like Eucrosia aurantiaca.  My E auratiaca are still sleeping in large pots on my hot driveway and are much larger plants. So i do not think the yellow one is E aurantiaca. 

Can E mirabilis be yellow or are these a hybrid? 

It is well past time to bring the Ledebourias out from under lights into the sun.  

Here is Ledebouria agavoides from Lebona in NE South Africa in a 9" tall clay pot of pure pumice 

Ornithogalum ceresianum. In a small clay pot not much bigger than the bulb 

Grown from BX 363 seed (June 2014) as Hippeastrum stylosum. But looks more like a xHippeastrelia.

Conanthera trimaculata from BX 412 (Nov 2016). 

Pelargonium naviculifoium MST 772. Seed from the International Geraniacea Society 2019.

Sinningia piresiana 

Leucocoryne vittata blooming now

Eucrosia mirabilis starting early, photo from 14 April 2022, weeks ahead of the other pots.