PBS Forum

I finalized our list and transmitted it to Antoine, awaiting response. A little bit of statistics:

16 participants
620 Items ordered
82 species ordered
5 of those we're above the offered number - Antoine is checking reserves for that
55 additional species did not reach the limit and had no permission for fillup

All we can do now is wait - both for Antoines confirmation and of course for the shipping which will commence in 3 waves from August to October. Depending on Antoine's timing I may offer to join shipping with the then ongoing EX11/11b, but we'll see how that will turn out.

still 10 1/2 hours to go - as evaluating the List takes some googleing now is a good time to give it a go.

One thing we learned over the process: A good  way to formulate your order is desired minimum amount + fillup allowed or not -> this means that you usually don't have to invest the 12 € minimum order per spec.

current stats are: 62 species have reached 12 € limit, 157 have not. of those, about 60 have requests which are not enough for the limit - so be brave and maybe make someone else also happy by enabling their desired species ;-)

Small update: we've already reached the minimum volume for the complete order, so this will not be cancelled due to low demand. Of course, more participants will make things cheaper for all of us especially due to the per species minimum order, so please join in!

Quote from: Carlos on January 07, 2025, 01:02:51 PMGreat!

And the catalogue?

came per mail ~ 11 am CET

Happy new year, everyone. @Uli  how  do I say "I hate you" with flowers? Well, after the coldest December in my 7 years of monitoring, I only can do it with Heleborus niger, it's the only thing in flower. What a fitting name: Heleborus - the boring hell of middle European winter. Yes, I know, they get better once the H. orientalis-heavy hybrids and selections come in flower, but for now...

for now, not even the warm intermezzo forecast for here today is in effect, as we're once again drowned in a lake of cold air here in the valley. Frost has still not reached 5 cm into ground, but we're still 4 weeks away from the inertia-based coldest time of the year air-wise, with the ground being likely delayed by even longer times....

@Too Many Plants! : could be helpful to post ID requests over in the mystery bulb section(edit: as you did. sorry!). other than that: no idea, but I also would expect wider leaves from anything remotely Daubenya-ish.

All I can give at this time of the year and after a bright, sunny but painfully cold week  is a cybister Hippeastrum called 'Chico' (I use it that way around since I can't be sure it is a pure Hippeastrum cybister

) I obviously planted one week too late for Xmas flowering - it was "by-catch" with something more close to my core interests (I really have to learn to restrict myself and not just add this, that, and that, too, to my core orders...), and if one is only used to the huge tetraploid hybrids flowers may look small, but it certainly has charm.

I can't help you with the USA-part of the question, just a general hint: you have to be quick. Janis is on a small business taxation system, it's not unusual for him to close down the offering after days (even feels just like hours) as he reaches his annual business volume limit. Best might be to have a look on new year morning, no matter how slow the server is then as everybody will be browsing....

As you might notice, here are a few posts missing. We as Moderators /admins rarely intervene in discussions, but this was quickly escalating to a point where we don't want to go. Please keep discussions factual.

Ah, bomareas - actually edulis can deal with the German summers which also can be quite hot. As they seed around quite a bit i'm experimenting with some in open ground at a protected spot - and as I'm generating data on freezing depth now (of course the light frosts until now didn't even reach 5 cm into the ground) I may find the right spot and depth for them. I always find it interesting that Anton Hofreiter, a well known German Green Party politician actually did his PhD on Bomareas. I'd love to talk to him about them, maybe he had some ideas what species could deal with our conditions. Too bad his day job circles around weapons for the Ukraine these days...

but of course no Bomarea pictures in December - so what do I have... well the Exbury Nerine shown at the end of November has changed quite a bit, but I like the "candy stripes" alot. I actually tried to cross-polinate with Strumaria prolifera

, as they are from the same sub-tribe, but I'm not sure if there's any effect - you never know with the fleshy seed amaryllis. It's a bit strange to see the prolifera pot so empty, but I hope they all flower at their new homes after EX09.

Meanwhile in the open garden, after a phase of cool grey, one sunny and windy day has mobilized the Cardiocrinum giganteum

seeds - I caught more than enough for the next exchange though. In fact I'd be more than just a little bit surprized if they would germinate anywhere in the open garden, but again I'm open for surprizes.

As I mentioned before, there were weeks of cool grey before, so I'm even more happy that a few buds of Crocus laevigatus

were still able to open - that wet mummy on the right wasn't as lucky...

Well, growing things outside their natural range can have many side effects. What I grow as Cardiocrinum giganteum

has more nodding flowers which are in some years more white than yours and "my" leaves seem more glossy, but at least color and glossiness are easily influenced by year to year conditions.

One thing which might give a clue is that the Wiki states a "hosta on a stick" phase with a several weeks long pause in vertical growth for Cardiocrinum cordatum

, which my C. giganteum definitely does not make - did you observe such a seemingly inactive phase?

Can the species hybridize?

moving this over from the General area, it doesn't get more "bulb" than Hippeastrum 

Little update on my cybister: it stayed perfectly dormant in a paper bag at room temperature, and even outside said bag in normal indoor lighting for a few weeks - planting with 2/3rd of the bulb over ground and watering started the flower stalk to emerge within a week.

So last night was the first serious frost - well, -4.6°C on the exposed weather station, -3 at more protected sites, still +3°C at 10 cm underground (yes, I've bought myself ground temperature sensors 2 weeks ago, installed them at -10, -20 and -30 cm as well as in the center of the raised bed at -20cm), let's talk about the updates:

Quote from: Martin Bohnet on November 30, 2023, 01:40:43 PMOK, Tropaeolum tuberosum

Flower Colors:	orange, yellow, red
Flower Season:	late summer
Special:	climber, edible flowers, edible storage organ

had a far better year this time around - the summer wasn't as hot in peak, so it did not go as dormant, and was massively invigorated in September. it flowered mid November, and I harvested it now after first true frost, and this time the crop exploded.

Another summer without peak heat moments, but that didn't seem to be the point - after 20 cm tubers last year I'm back to actually just a few surivers smaller thant the average oxalis, biggest one is a sphere of less than 2 cm diameter - i sincerely hope they'll make it through the winter to recover. I had an extremely dry August and may have failed to water them enough, and the following three months were colder than last year. Surely no flowers this time, the September invigoration fell flat.

Quote from: Martin Bohnet on November 30, 2023, 01:40:43 PMThe pink Oxalis tuberosa

just kept the same level - didn't really profit from the different summer. I also tried an orange variety which performed even worse - and surprised me by getting the corms above ground. Not sure if I should continue those, even though I like the taste.

Completely different situation on the oxalis: the pink ones were much smaller this year, not much to eat, need to keep them for replanting. the orange ones on the other hand liked that version of a summer, more than tripled their size compared to last year, as well as significantly increased in numbers. so strategy may be: plant both, maybe even look for more varieties, and eat the ones that perform well that year...

Quote from: Martin Bohnet on November 30, 2023, 01:40:43 PMI don't think I've mentioned Chinese yam (Dioscorea polystachia) here before, but what I've learned about them this year is: they need LIGHT. Those in the dappled shade which was so fine for Tropaeolum barely kept their size from last year, but the one in sun snaked around the pot's floor and got HUGE. The huge one is the variegated clone, so I'll surely not cook it. But I think I know what to do next year.

Some increase in the Dioscorea, maybe not as much as I had hoped for after changing to a sunny place. Biggest change was the massive production of bulbils, both on the variegated and the plain plant. I actually snacked some of them directly - not much taste to talk about. Seems to have potential for becoming weedy.

Saffron seems to be extra delicious to slugs, of all my crocus that's the one they shredder the most consistently... The only Crocoideae I have in flower now are Hesperantha coccinea

- and like last year , the last set of flowers of this usually pink cultivar end up being bright red - ah, the magic of color-temperature effects. The next three dahlia pics are actually the same plant - the almost completely white picture was taken days before first frost two weeks ago, the other two are from end of August.

Talking about colors, the first Nerine is classified a bowdenii, Cultivar "Pearl of Cherry" - with a bit of sun and good will you'll see the red, but surely not the catalogue version... On the other hand, the sarniensis from Wylie's EX09 donation (yes I kept the one that already grew a flower stalk, didn't want to risk another transport, sorry) on the other hand lacks the red of the species, but the pink anthers are adorable.

Last but not least: enough talk about colors, the very first Greencap of the season has opened up - don't worry, it wasn't outside when that snow fell.

probably Oxalis hirta

. more than likely that it had slipped in between somewhere, especially if one tends to reuse potting medium.

Welcome on Board, Vicky. 

I'm not really sure why you want them to be dark, all I'd expect from that treatment is to give them overly long stalks and floppy leaves. Dormancy in Hybrid Hippeastrum is mostly moisture controlled as far as I'm aware. I'm not exactly sure about the time frames, but after a minimum duration dry dormancy it will take a rather predictable time to flower after staring to water. as for the precise numbers I'm also curious as I got myself a cybister Hippeastrum bulb this year as "by-catch" on another order...