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I've grown L. parvum from seed - nice little lily. I wasn't nice to it, so it hasn't flowered and I still don't know if it got lost in the move. Lilium washingtonianum - I doubt anyone has bulbs. But seed is available fairly often from various seed exchanges, not so much from commercial sources. The seeds germinate without much problem and I have a tray full right now. I have mature bulbs of what are either washingtonianum or a wash. hybrid; they haven't bloomed so I'm waiting. If you saw where they grow in the Cascades, as I have several times, you'd understand why they're a pain. Often they're growing up through other shrubs in sun on well-drained slopes...

About all I can suggest is researching their habitat and trying to duplicate it.

This is a reminder that MSI grant applications are due March 31, 2023. PBS did not receive any applications for nor award any grants in 2022 and we're hoping to receive requests this year. Information is available on the PBS website
https://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/pbsforum/index.php?page=grant

Click on Application PDF in the first paragraph to begin the process. If you have any questions, please contact me or another board member.

This is also a reminder that we have  special funds available for a grant to study microwave pollination. Please write for details as this is separate from our usual MSI grant process. The application will be the same but there are some specific requirements to obtain funding for this grant.

These funds are typically awarded to a university student or graduate working on a masters' or doctorate in the field of bulb studies. If you know someone who is studying in this field, pass the word! PBS has funded studies in such countries as India, Mexico, and the United States, so even if you don't live in North America, you may still qualify.

Regards,

Robin Hansen
President, Pacific Bulb Society

Good Morning, or Evening, wherever you are,
 
We are still trying to find volunteers to staff the Pacific Bulb Society board of directors. While we have been contacted by possible volunteers, we'd like to remind all of you that our society runs on the willingness of its members to help keep the society going, which means supporting the seed and bulb exchanges, the forum, the list and the monumental bulb encyclopedia on our website. Every one of us potentially benefits from these perks and they are all the result of willing volunteers.
 
Most positions take a minimal amount of time. For board members in general, that time consists of meetings of about an hour via Zoom four times a year. That's not much, is it? Your input is needed on the board, particularly as our society grows and needs guidance and new ideas.
 
Two positions need to be filled: Vice-president – four meetings a year and standing in for the president should they be unable to attend a meeting. The secretarial position does require a bit more work, good spelling (ok, there's always Spellcheck, sort of) and making a record of the board proceedings, again four times a year.
 
If you're hesitant, don't be. If you're a lurker, step forward. What training you might need is on the job. You'd be joining a board that has a strong ethic of working together in a congenial manner with a willingness to listen and speak up.  
 
Your real-world expertise might be in building satellites or running a flower shop or selling shoes. You may not realize how much experience and knowledge you have that would apply to helping run a group of total plant nuts. Contact me or any board member. We're listed with email addresses in each Bulb Garden or through the PBS website.
 
Please think about volunteering. Without volunteers we would not have such an incredible  and special (not to say unique) plant and bulb exchange and a wonderful website well-known all over the world for information on bulbs.
 
So you may not want to volunteer for the board – well surely, you must have some special knowledge that would be helpful to others via our journal. Anyway, jump on board!
 
Best regards,
 
Robin Hansen
President
The Pacific Bulb Society

Oh, I sprayed and sprayed the root ball but you never saw such an overgrown tight mess of roots in your life. I left it too long in its pot to the point there wasn't a lot of soil.

If it had been a perennial of any kind with fine roots, I'd have taken a knife and sliced off the bottom half inch or so, slashed the sides, sprayed it again, then with a wing and a prayer sliced from the top in sections, making sure of enough buds in each section.

Not this mess, so I potted it up in a larger pot with the hope the roots will stretch out and go straighter and will attempt it again next winter. In the meantime, those tiny half-inch seedlings with a single root are starting to growing, so now I just hope to avoid killing them... If I had more than one large S bigelovii, I'd have sliced off the bottom and tried separating the roots but I only have the one large plant.

I have Halt (powder) and Immunox (liquid), both fungicides but have never used Vitamin B although I see references to it now and then and have for years.

Up until now, I've let the seeds alone in the pots of Scoliopus hoping for better luck germinating than I'd had on my own. However, many different seeds have germinated for me here in Coquille that never did before. I must have the right climate and the greenhouse, which is Lexan with proper screen doors and ventilation along the length and just under the eaves on the east side, is holding at 5-6 degrees warmer than the 18 to 23 every morning. I had potted up the S. bigelovii by the time your message came but will continue to divide every year.

I'm guessing your location is not too good for this plant as I recall trees more toward the back (west?) of your property and your much drier conditions. I will do my best. In the meantime, I hope you have Galanthus Theresa Stone. If not, let me know.

Do you use this in your bulb beds or out in the rock garden also? I vaguely remember you having trees in your gardens and if this would work in the rock garden, that would help a lot as I have this double-flowering pink cherry in the front on one edge of the garden with nice big, brown leaves everywhere...

Help! I have this 8-inch or more clump of Scoliopus bigelovii and am trying to divide it. I've been gently tickling the roots and loosening the soil, have sprayed it with water  and am to the point where I have such a tangled mess of roots that my only solution seems to be to slice a half- to an inch off the bottom to give more access to separating the roots.

I wouldn't hesitate to slice the bottom off of other plants in this situation but these are thick fleshy roots. I divided Scoliopus hallii yesterday with little problem but it was a much smaller plant. It's also much slower growing and does not set seed the way S. bigelovii does.

In the process of working on S. bigelovii, I found about 16-20 seedlings (tiny - half to one-inch) and potted those on. Am I better off to not cut the bottom of the roots and pot into a bigger pot or? They are such slow little critters that the more seedlings and plants I can pot on, the better.

While the book does focus on South African species, I'd think it would be valuable in the sense of geographical and climatic regions giving information on how to grow these bulbs.

Unfortunately, this is the only book that I'm aware that focuses fully on Gladiolus. Two others might be of peripheral interest.

Mountain Flowers by Elsa Pooley which covers the Drakensberg and Lesotho, and maybe Field Guide to Fynbos by John Manning although it's focused on southern SA. An older book Cape Bulbs is probably not much use in this case.

None of the South African books are easily available but the best source might be Struik House Publishers in South Africa
https://struiknatureclub.co.za/index.php

Bulbous Plants of Turkey and Iran has a number of species listed and Bulbs of the Eastern Mediterranean has three listed. I'm told Oron Peri is now writing a book on Bulbs of the Western Mediterranean. The first two are available from the Alpine Garden Society in the U.K. and I assume Peri's new book will be available from them as well.

Members,
 
Please consider volunteering a bit of your time to PBS. We are in need of two board members – a Secretary who takes minutes at our quarterly board meetings, and a Vice-president who mostly serves as backup to our PBS President. Neither position takes much time and in terms of qualifications, there are few requirements.
 
For the Secretary position, good spelling of course and attendance at all board meetings (usually four a year) but missing one is not a problem if arrangements are made ahead. For the Vice-president, a good knowledge of Robert's Rules of Order is helpful but can be learned and a willingness to step in and lead a meeting on the rare occasion the President is not available. In both cases, members who have a little plant knowledge and have been members for at least a couple years is helpful because a knowledge of our organization provides an understanding of PBS.
 
In both cases, you can live anywhere but need to be available for Zoom meetings since the board does not meet in person. If you're in one of various time zones this is not a problem. One board member is in Portugal, another in Germany, some in the eastern U.S. and so on. We accommodate our meeting times so that everyone can attend.
 
Please consider volunteering! PBS is unique in the world of non-profit plant societies in that we have frequent seed and bulb exchanges that cover many countries and in order to continue these benefits to our members we need the support of board members to make sure we can all take advantage of these special benefits. I know there are lurkers out there who may be hesitant, so you're welcome to sit in on a meeting or visit with some board members via Zoom to get an idea of what we do. Just contact me and I can arrange a Zoom meeting. It's easy and fun to serve on a board whose members are scattered all over the world (well, not Antarctica...).

I have an elwesii called Theresa Stone which has been blooming since late December. It's from a garden in Corvallis Oregon and does not set seed but is also the most reliable snowdrop I have here close to the coast of Oregon. Nor does it make a lot of offsets, to my dismay. I'm still not having much luck with other snowdrops and suspect they'd be happier planted which I will do this spring.

Oh, I'm positive they aren't setting seeds as the pods aren't forming after bloom, while all around ovatum, rivale, kurabayashii and others are filling up their pods. I learned the hard way with Asarum seed long ago to watch it by the hour when seed is nearly ripe. In fact, I've found I can get away with harvesting just before the pods split. The pods soften up just as Cyclamen pods do and change color a bit.

I was just rereading an article by Dale Sullivan from a number of years ago regarding propagating Trilliums by notching a circle around the rhizome below the terminal bud.

Has anyone tried this, and if so, does it work? He says that disbudding could be fatal, and I've not done that but wouldn't risk it in any case.... My normal propagation method is seed, but T. ovatum is a cantankerous dude and less likely to set seed for me that any of the other trilliums I grow.

Has anyone mentioned these problems to Silverhill. For a commercial website these problems are very bad and need to be corrected ASAP.

https://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/pbsforum/index.php?PHPSESSID=r4jboanef5v6rjhaepm6apbi7g&page=grant 
 
There was no room in The Bulb Garden you will soon be receiving (it's at the printer's) and I wanted to reminded you all of an important service the Pacific Bulb Society provides to academics and other qualified applicants for financial assistance in studying some aspect of bulbs.
 
Details are available at the above link. If you have questions, please contact me. PBS did not award any grants for fiscal year 2022, so the board hopes you will consider spreading this announcement around and if you have a project, please apply. Applicants must be members to receive these grants.
 
Also, a generous member has donated a sum to be used for microwave pollen studies of a specific kind. If you are interested, please contact me. Depending on the number of qualified applicants, there could be some additional funds available to supplement this donation.
 
Enjoy the holidays. As gardeners I do believe the Winter Solstice is our signal to look forward to the new year ahead.
 
Best regards,
 
Robin Hansen
President, PBS

We are lucky here in the Coquille Valley (about 14 miles east of the Pacific Ocean) - the low 20s temps have been ongoing for about 3 weeks with not much increase during the day. I've been watching for signs of damage in the potted nursery stock and so far so good. The gradual cooling is always best and we're a good 10-20 degrees below normal for this time of year, although this habit of saying normal ought to be thrown out on the compost pile.

At the same time, the one enclosed greenhouse with doors shut and under roof ventilation vents permanently open (designed that way) is routinely 5 degrees warmer than open air. Even the alpine house, so-called, which has double-wall siding (opaque, not polycarbonate) is warmer by 2-5 degrees. I can't moan and groan if all this cold means our water supplies increase, although economically there's always a negative impact in some way.

I listen to the local NOAA weather reports and the winters in the 1920s, at least in the west set all kinds of cold records that still exist. My mother as a young child lived in Portland, OR and it was common for the Columbia and Willamette rivers to freeze so solidly that people would drive their Model As and wagons out over the river. In the winter of 1978-79, in Boardman (up on the Columbia), we had a total of 3 feet of snow from Oct. 31 to the end of March and the river froze over where it's three miles wide. It was not hard enough for driving on since the dams widened the river considerably after they were built. Nothing like that has happened since.

So these wide swings have occurred in the past but seem more frequent and increasingly more severe, just from where I live.