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Doing what a number of California native geophytes do, putting out a fragile leaf every year or few in the deep shade to maintain the bulb, then burst into a frenzy of growth and flowering after a fire...logging a plantation would have much the same effect, especially if the slash piles are burned on site.

Babiana is one of a number of winter growers that are sold by commercial bulb suppliers for spring growth, presumably not sold for winter growth because they aren't hardy. If you're lucky, they are sold in the fall for spring planting and you can plant them for winter growth, more often they show up in the winter/spring with dessicating attempted growth, often they will grow if planted immediately and go dormant late and produce adequate bulbs...picking up the normal cycle in the fall. Babiana, Ixia, California native bulbs, Ornithogalum, Oxalis, and Sparaxis. 

If you can get them through the off cycle season, you should get decent results the next winter, and they should really take off the winter after that. Sadly, outside of specialty nurseries, there is very little attentiveness to mild Mediterranean gardens, often one of them most critical pieces of information is omitted "winter grower, summer dormant" leaving the coastal Mediterranean gardener trying to figure that out.

Robert,
in San Francisco, at the intersection of cold tropical and coastal Mediterranean...with the emphasis on COLD and CLOUD forest at the moment.

Another geophyte aroid with an inflorescence out of scale from the plant. Helicodiceros muscivorus "Pig Butt Arum". I wasn't able to get the full effect of the scent due to the wind...supposedly rotting fish, for this coastal plant.

Wrapping up a move half a block up the street...the front yard still needs to be cleared of pots, but everything else is out, and the landlord is at least paying something for the in ground plants (enough to rebuy the species).

Quote from: Martin Bohnet on May 20, 2025, 09:25:54 AMNot all Irids are the same - Ferrarias CAN pause a year. But yes, Winter growers are more difficult-I ordered Eriospermum paradoxum

in fall 23, and it has currently its first leaf.

No kidding, I had Ferraria crispa the failed to break dormancy for several years (summer not warm enough probably), and when I finally gave up and passed them on to the BX they were unaltered in appearance and number. Several of the vining winter geophytes regularly skip seasons, my pots of Tropaeolum never send up as many stems as there are tubers.

I certainly have had irids skip seasons, but only if they never started growing (see above cold summers with unsatisfied dormancy), if they initiate growth, they have to finish it, even if it is to produce a new bulb directly from the old one without leaf production.

The order is received and planted, most starting growth...we'll see if a cold SF summer can stand in for a cool SA winter. I suspect it will for the Ixias at least.

Robert

Quote from: CG100 on May 16, 2025, 12:14:05 AMYou have a PAR meter?
The only one that I could find that anyone thought was accurate was a Hortipower PG200N, something like $4000. To pay significantly less should shout that whatever it is isn't actually useful/accurate.

That said again, growing room levels are aimed at around 400 - 1100 micro-mols/second/square metre, depending upon distance from the source.

20230124-gridlighting-photosynthetic-flux-density.pdf

Typically, LEDs used for supplemental lighting in commercial set-ups are very narrow strips (low shadow/shading) and also very directional.

Case browser | Philips lighting

What are you trying to achieve with extra lighting? 

Hydrofarm Photobio. Is it accurate? Who knows, and I don't care a great deal. Mostly it is used to check relative lighting levels for plant placement or light height adjustment. I've learned what particular plants want, particularly how little light certain ones want. Could I use an app or gotten a cheaper meter, Sure, but this meter is a convenient package, within my price zone...the small cord attached sensor is nice.

Given that I have poor natural light inside, my only option is to use artificial lighting for plants that won't survive outside. The ones I grow are tolerant of cool tropical temperatures as I am unwilling to run supplemental heat, beyond the heat from the lighting fixtures. Also some seedling starts, the lighting chamber also serves as part of the warm summer storage area.

Miniature geophyte aroids. Some Typhonium, Amorphophallus ongsakulii, myosuroides, and X Majda. A. ongsakulii pays for the setup...I'm looking forward to the extent of the miniature forest this year...late, because the move has delayed planting.

Quote from: CG100 on May 15, 2025, 08:28:42 AM150W of what? If it was simple incandescent lamps, that would be 1500 lumens, but over what area? Depending on the CCT and power of LEDs, 150W can produce in excess of ten times that number of lumens, but, again, over what area do they fall?

Without a luxmeter it really is totally impossible to say much at all about light levels.

150W of consumer plant light LEDs that are reasonably well focused towards the plants without reflectors. Par meter says 300-400 at 6"/15cm, which is way less than what is recommended for sun plants, but is too much for some of the shade growing aroids (they are nearly a foot/25-30cm from the lights).

Quote from: CG100 on May 15, 2025, 01:07:34 AMBefore you buy lighting, buy a cheap luxmeter - you should be able to get one for $25 or so. Because we humans have irises, using eye-sight to judge anything is beyond pointless - most people can read a book at around 100 lux whereas very bright sunlight can be 200,000+ lux.

Most LED grow lights aimed at the amateur are actually a con, although extending photo-period is simple enough.

Have a search around the Philips Lighting horticultural web-pages to get an idea of what is science from a company that has been heavily involved in horticultural lighting for approaching 100 years. They cover growing room lighting - where there is no natural light at all, and also lighting to augment daylight, particularly for greenhouse crops such as tomatoes. They also cover ornamental crops too, but there are no massive differences in producing lettuces or orchids (for instance).

I have experimented in augmenting daylight, but found it impossible to achieve without resorting to very expensive professional kit simply because the shadow from the installation cut more natural light than the lamps added.

To give some idea - growing rooms require around 600W of LED lighting per square metre.

If you buy a luxmeter you will also discover that lighting has to be very close to the plants, simply because you want the light from each lamp concentrated in an area, not allow it to cover large areas.

It is difficult and expensive to support plants that really want full sun, but it is much easier to support plants that tolerate some shade, since the illumination is much less than half...judging by my back yard, most "light shade" plants do fine with about 10-20% direct sun and no direct sun the rest of the day. My lights are about 150W per square meter, and shade plants are kept about a foot/30cm away, bright loving plants are much closer (there is a Pachypodium that is placed about 2"/5cm from the LED chips).

Quote from: lreed on May 14, 2025, 01:01:50 PMDoes anyone have a suggestion on grow lights up to 20" in length?  I'm new to this and am trying to set up my growing station.  :-)  Where do I obtain?  What should I be looking for?  I was looking on Amazon but don't really know what to get and if there are other better sources.

Over the past few years I have purchased an assortment of smaller grow lights, ranging from 6x12, 12x12, 12 x 24 inches/15x30,30x30,30x60cm; linear lights 12-48"/30-1.2m. Currently, they are installed in rectangular arrays on two shelves where I have been successful growing near tropical miniature aroids. All are from China via Amazon, labeled as plant lights with favorable reviews.

Same. Also mild coastal. I typically lift almost all the winter growers with deciduous roots (some amaryllids stay potted, stashed in a corner dry).

Depending on the species, the roots may be early or late deciduous, if I unpot something with lots of roots, I just put it back in the pot and set it aside for a month or so. Right now most of the Oxalis are down, but a lot of irids are still active or flowering.

As I am in the midst of a move, I'll be potting summer growers at the new place, and lifting winter growers from the old place, to minimize how much of the collection doesn't have to be moved in pots.

Robert
beautiful pleasant day on the normally foggy windy west side of the San Francisco high peaks

Quote from: Zxct56y on May 06, 2025, 12:57:36 PMHere's a picture of it

Looks like it may have been grown shady, so be careful of sunburn when you put it out. Move it to the large pot and with any luck, it will start growing some roots into the medium before going dormant. If you can protect it from blazing heat and keep it in light moisture, it may put off dormancy. When the leaves start going down, stop watering and let it be, keep the pot in shady, warm, dry til you decide it is time for the autumn rains, then give it full sun and cool temps.

Quote from: Zxct56y on May 04, 2025, 04:59:07 PM

Quote from: Robert_Parks on May 04, 2025, 02:35:20 PM

Quote from: Zxct56y on May 04, 2025, 11:46:39 AMI recently ordered Gladiolus Papilio and i previously cultivated Gladiolus Nanus Galaxian and was very successful. I stored the Galaxian bulbs in a dry place i just need to find them tho. Is anyone else was successful at growing South African Gladioluses.

I would expect that summer growing Gladiolus would do fine for you. Winter growing species would have the same problems as Amaryllis.

I didn't have any problems growing Crinums. The difficult part was getting one and buying one since in Quebec Crinums aren't very common unlike South Carolina

That fits with the summer growers generally being more suited for your climate.

Robert

Quote from: Zxct56y on May 04, 2025, 05:00:39 PMSo i basically have to treat Amaryllis Belladonna a bit like a succulent or a cactus

Only in the limited sense of late summer to mid fall water. Late fall through mid spring cool and moist, then dry through the summer (with maybe a monthly watering since they are in pots).

Robert

Quote from: Zxct56y on May 04, 2025, 11:46:39 AMI recently ordered Gladiolus Papilio and i previously cultivated Gladiolus Nanus Galaxian and was very successful. I stored the Galaxian bulbs in a dry place i just need to find them tho. Is anyone else was successful at growing South African Gladioluses.

I would expect that summer growing Gladiolus would do fine for you. Winter growing species would have the same problems as Amaryllis.

Quote from: Zxct56y on May 03, 2025, 02:34:51 PMThank you for the advice i look foward too see if it works maybe i didn't fertilize them enough because Amaryllis Belladonna usually flowers the 3rd or 4th year depending on the bulb's size (with bigger bulbs flowering earlier)

They are awfully tough. I've had neglected bulbs rush into growth after 1.5 growing seasons of cool dry storage. Once they are in the ground, they are forever here in San Francisco. Cool dry but humid summers, and mild non-freezing moist winters. In soft ground, the bulbs are usually just subsurface, but in hard ground next to sidewalks, the bulb clusters can be exposed forming tight mounds of many large bulbs. Each bulb rarely flowers each year, unless there is a disturbance simulating a fire...clearing overgrowing shrubbery, or even removal of late season leaves (weedwhacking). More light gets you more flowers, full sun is best.

As for culture, warmth and wet in the summer probably will cause root damage. As Uli suggests, overpot in a very well draining medium. In dormancy put the pots in a stable shaded dry place, water rarely (a big plastic pot with a dormant bulb in it will take a long time to dry out). If they flower, no need to water, here they usually send up scapes in August, and then don't put up leaves until the rains start in October (or so, sometimes they'll start leaves before the rains). I doubt it would do any harm if you started watering at the end of summer, just not swampy in the heat (cactus culture?) like simulating a few early season storms. In the growing season, you probably want to keep the temperatures below 20C/65F during the day, and above freezing to 10C/50F at night, preferably with a good difference between day and night. They seem to tolerate a touch of frost as well as rare hot temperatures during the growing season.

Once you get things set up for Amaryllis, the same conditions will support vast diversity of other winter growing bulbs...most of them smaller and less demanding of root space!

Robert
in San Francisco where the probable last rain of the season fell on April 30th leaving us just shy of 90% of normal for the season (58cm/23"). Many of the winter growers are going dormant, but Amaryllis is still verdant.

Quote from: Xephre on April 08, 2025, 04:19:41 PMSo I don't need to be uncomfortable when I type these words as if it not even a cultivar or something not really special...!

Type what you need for your use as a grower. The words, regardless of punctuation, are simply additional identifiers. Looking at my plant list, I don't seem to have a consistent format below cultivar name. Assuming I write the label following the list, the possibilities include: "Tassajara Cutoff", (Tassajara Cutoff), or Tassajara Cutoff for location and "pink"/"Pink"/"pink form"/"Pink Form" with the same variation for parentheses or no punctuation.

Robert