PBS Forum

Quote from: Uli on April 04, 2023, 11:53:57 AMThe beautiful Corydalis nobilis was impossible to maintain in my former garden in Germany but is a dreaded weed in Sweden. I could not talk my Swedish friends into digging up some of their weed for my garden......
Uli

Thanks for your response. This is exactly what I was thinking about, (not the Corydalis).

I was awarded the "rest of the bunch" of seeds last fall and sowed them all, along with some of the Sparaxis I collected from the neighbors yard and I will now have to decide how to evaluate the 40 some odd pots of seedlings. Some are not really very interesting to me and I will harvest the "bulbs" for the exchange. Others I am going to try to figure out how they will do.

I really like small growing plants, some Lachenalia, Massonia, and Albuca for example, but also curious to see how the Ferraria and Babiana behave here. The gophers moved some of the Babiana around but so far I like them that way.

We're going to the UC Berkeley Botanic Garden soon along with a visit to Ruth Bancroft's garden in Walnut Creek. I first saw Ferraria there and want to see how it might be spreading.

Quote from: David Pilling on April 05, 2023, 06:29:25 AM

Quote from: Uli on April 04, 2023, 11:53:57 AMProbably all of us do not want to introduce a new weed to our garden or the landscape.

Ellen Willmott, who liked to secretly scatter seeds of the plant in other people's gardens."

Ah yes, now called Guerrilla gardening... not a bad thing sometimes, we have a "vacant" Beach house across the street and spread some magenta poppy seeds, wonderful show.

The thread about Oxalis pes-caprae  reminds me that "we" have a long history of thinking that a cool plant from somewhere else is going to play nice in our garden. I grew O. megalorrhiza 45 years ago in my quest for caudiciforms and gave a few plants to a friend at the local college botany greenhouse, returned 30+ years later and my gift had become a resident in almost every pot.

In California we have seen plants from the southern hemisphere take over large areas of our landscapes, some of the Eucalyptus and Acacias for example. This is not to bash SH plants, as our well loved Liquidambar has turned into a big mistake as a street or landscape tree in CA.

Where am I going with this? I'm pretty new to exotic bulb collecting and want to be sure I don't do this to my landscape. I love Sparaxis, but not like this. (Okay, I love walking past this on my daily walks)



Visiting the UCSC arboretum yesterday I came across a gladiolus that was going to town.. Beautiful but again, I dont want to be weeding too much any longer (late 60's), listed as G. tristis 'Moonlight' but wrong color. I think this plant was a volunteer that liked the label.



I am just hoping that the ones I want are going to be tame. 

Peter

Visiting UCSC Arboretum (Santa Cruz CA. Arboretum known for plants of the 5 Mediterranean climates) yesterday to see the Puya, and came across these bulbs. 

Any ID help?

Both are very short, the purple one might be only3-5" tall.

Geissorhiza corrugata from the bulb ex. Thanks!

We've had so much rain and cloud cover that I had to bring them into the garage and put then under one of my shop lights to get the flowers to open. I guess more light is needed early to get the twisted leaves.

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Pretty awesome, thanks for the link.

Hi Mark,

We have used that lab for years and the price is quite fair.

IN my opinion, looking at the results show the impact of the addition cow manure.

there are several things I would be concerned with, the pH, EC and Na levels are very high while the N is quite low. Cow manure is usually very high in salts as seen by these elevated levels and the mineralization rate of N is slow over time.

My biggest complaint with animal based compost is the high levels of P compared to the other primary nutrients.

Anyway, just my opinion, as I have told my students over 30 years, if it works for you, fantastic!

Quote from: Leo on March 06, 2023, 12:33:33 PMThe nitrogen source matters. Unless it's in the form of nitrite or nitrate it takes a while for soil organisms to break it down. This can take quite a while during cold weather, or much less time during warm weather.

I don know of any fertilizer source with NO₂^- in it (other than when NH₄⁺ is oxidized to NO₂^-) and it would need microbes to covert it to NO₃^- anyway.

The three main sources of inorganic N found is fertilizers are Urea, Ammonium and Nitrate. Urea and Ammonium both need microbes to do the work, but ammonium can easily be taken up during cooler weather.

The main reason I prefer fertilizer formulations with nitrate forms of N is that they do not contain high amounts of P

Hi Jane,

great question considering our lower than normal temperatures as well. I applied some diluted liquid fertilizer just yesterday to many of the plants that needed some moisture in the media. My lack of experience with these winter growers made me somewhat hesitant but I made the otherwise educated assumption that they are used to growing in winter and the water/nutrient uptake process should be fine.

I am not much of a fan of slow release fertilizers as many of them have too much ammonium.

My soluble fertilizer is "Jack's" two part from the local hydro stores - CaNO3 in one bag and all the rest in the other.

I use the same for all my cacti and succulents, at a 1/2 recommended rate.

My media also has no nutritional contribution.

thanks for the ID and moving it to the proper forum.

Peter

Had these in the garden for a bit (Santa Cruz CA) and would like to know the name.

Just getting started with these, and just what I hoped for.

sorry, yes plant rings. Found them online

Beautiful plants!

I am just over the hill in Aptos, I hope your beds are doing okay with all this weather.

Peter

Any ideas on where to get bulb rings for the garden?

These are outside slightly covered but we have had huge rain the last 2 weeks here in Santa Cruz CA.

Ill pop them out of their pots and have a look.

I am not watering the ones in the greenhouse though and they are also showing some of this,

Fertilizer is NO3 only and about 30-40mg/l (ppm) but my guess is thats long gone with all the rain.

Would they prefer a much higher pumice percentage? I am over 50% with some perlite and coir.