PBS Forum

This sprouted long ago from Silverhill seed. Pack rats continually take labels. It is in a 3"/7.2cm diameter container. It is the most sensitive winter rainfall bulb in my collection to underwatering; if I forget once, it goes dormant for the season. This is about the longest I've managed to keep it in leaf, which is probably why it hasn't flowered. I tore the top, longest leaf while removing it from the bench for this photo.

I've tried over the years to grow Gladiolus murielae (syn. Acidanthera bicolor) in my very hot summer climate. Bulbs planted in spring in large pots typically melted when it got really hot, even with pots shaded from the sun. There are too many hungry critters here to plant in the ground.

Last spring I backslid again and ordered some. I was even more lax than usual, and didn't get them into a 5-gallon / 20 liter pot until early September, which still would be considered pretty hot by most of you. They did sprout, and continued to grow through the winter. They were undamaged by some nights we had that were a few degrees below freezing. Now they are flowering; plants and flowers have been unharmed by frost that severely damaged Crinum leaves.

In a cursory search I couldn't find much information about their actual habitat, just the countries in which they grow. Are these really summer growers? Are they a high-elevation species? February in Phoenix is a strange time for a summer-fall flowering species to be flowering. Maybe day length isn't a trigger for flowering? Of course, garden cultivars are many generations removed from the wild, and might have different schedules than wild plants.




As an aside I might have some Moraea speciosa seed for the BX soon. Keeping my fingers crossed.

I bought a Lilium formosanum seedling from Annie's Annuals this spring. I kept it inside my house in a window. It went on to produce one flower in the shipping pot, which is 4" square and low. That is the first time in 38 years at this house a member of genus Lilium has flowered, inside or out.

After flowering the top gradually died down. Today I unpotted it and found a small lily bulb about the size of a Queen Anne cherry.

I have repotted it to a tall, narrow 2-gallon nursery container. I don't know the natural history of these. It is still good and hot here. Should I expect it to grow again this season, or is it likely to remain dormant until Spring? I know I should never let Lilium bulbs in a pot dry completely.

I have flowering for the first time two bulbs of Boophone haemanthoides ssp. ernesti-ruschii from Silverhill seed I received Spring 2000. I'll post photos later.

For now, I'm asking about storing pollen. One has had open flowers for some days, and the other is still in bud. I want to store pollen in case they don't overlap. Does the method on Jim Shield's Web page work as well for Boophone as for other amaryllids? I have a -10 F freezer.

A search of the List archives confirms others think this plant not self-fertile. Does anybody have other knowledge? I would rather not waste pollen if so.

These three survivors share a pot. It goes outside when it begins growing in late Summer/early Fall. I bring it into the house when the leaves die back in Spring or early Summer. I keep it in a room with the air conditioning vent shut. The room is warm but never over 95 F. I went in there for something else and noticed a strong sweet scent. I didn't expect any to flower yet because I thought the pot too small. I've been meaning to separate to very large pots for some years but haven't gotten a round tuit.

I have Ipomoea purga from SX 480, courtesy of Robert Lauf. I don't see him in the members list for this Forum so I'll post this to the E-mail list as well.

My usual practice with Ipomoea seeds is to soak until they swell, then plant. With the annuals this is usually overnight. With the others I change the water daily. But it's been well over a week and the two I. purga I've been soaking are doing nothing. These come from very dry environments in habitat.

Have others sprouted these? Should I continue soaking or just put them in the ground? Should I scarify them?

The Recent view of the forum
ww w.pacifi cbulbsociety. or g/pbsforum/index.php?action=recent
lists all posts in chronological order. It is a way easily to see everything that has been posted - the only way, as far as I can tell, without wading through the fora individually. There seems to be no button for this view so one either has to remember what to type in the address box at the top of the browser, or bookmark the Recent view.

A few days ago it seemed photos did show up in the Recent view. But now they don't. I need to guess whether a post has a photo, and the only way to find out is to go to the post. I do this by right-clicking the message name in the post header and opening it in a new tab, otherwise I might lose my place in the Recent view.

Is there a way to display photos from the post in the messages in the Recent view? Or is there a way a message shown in the Recent view can indicate whether there are photos?

In another forum the view corresponding to our Recent shows a list of threads with recent posts, in chronological order. Clicking on a thread in this view takes the viewer to that thread.

The first time I came to the forum I clicked on Unread Posts and got all the messages displayed in a date-sorted list of threads. Does the software recognize I've read a post, or do I need to mark that myself? If it were automatic I could click Unread Posts to see everything new since I last dropped in.