PBS Forum

I've been thinking about Uli in Portugal too, and also all our correspondents in other places undergoing terrible heat. We had a historic heat wave here in Oregon in June 2021, but this year seems normal so far, and no fires close enough to send a lot of smoke our way.

During the pandemic some plant groups experimented with presenting illustrated talks on Zoom. Our NARGS chapter did this with mostly good results. The programs combined live narration with screen-shared photos. I showed one old talk, one new one, and later did a program on Fritillaria for an Anchorage, Alaska group. Probably more than a few PBS members have similar programs they've prepared for groups. Should PBS offer an occasional online offering of this kind? We would need a coordinator to set  up the Zoom meeting and act as "host." I'm not sure how we could get the invitations to all our members, since few of them seem to be using this forum, and not all are on the email list. It is also an opportunity to see, at least briefly, the faces with whom we've been corresponding, sometimes, for years.

It would be well to wait and see how these new descriptions are accepted by the botanical profession. Crocus is a genus in which what some botanists view as a single species can be quite variable in morphological features, especially flower coloration. Brian Mathew has written well about ongoing development in Crocus, seeing "continua" rather than clearly separate species in certain groups. As a linguist, I am reminded of dialect continua, in which it is difficult to determine what degree of difference (percentage of mutual intelligibility) is necessary before one calls two varieties different "languages." A number of the Crocus varieties presented as species in Ruksans's book on the genus have been controversial, as are some of the new species published for Turkey in recent years. I don't know about Puschkinia.

Good point that Deno did not usually grow on his material. Also, he got a lot of the seeds he used from the NARGS seed exchange, meaning that they had been harvested, cleaned (sort of), and stored in an uncontrolled way. I think he was too sure of his conclusions, but that was his manner. I remember hearing him pontificating to someone, saying that no one could say he was "growing" a plant until it was self-sowing in the garden. He once had me convinced that most Ranunculaceae had very short viability in storage, but now I try them all, and I have currently four species of Trollius growing well from the NARGS seedex leftovers.

There were several other pots of the same style at the Potters Association sale, but most of her work was in different styles (though also very skilled). Terry L. thought the "seaweed" pot may have been wood-fired.

Mark Akimoff and I recently visited Wild Ginger nursery and noticed that they had shade cloth put  up inside their poly hoop houses, rather than over the top. This would be easier, hanging it over hooks during the hot season. I don't know how available shade cloth is in other areas, but here it is sold in various proportions of shade. You can have grommets put in when you buy it. I used to put some over the solarium in my former home, but that entailed climbing out on the roof each June. I also hung the shade cloth at the edge of the west-facing veranda where I grew a lot of seedlings.

I'm puzzled about plants under the name Biarum dispar. When I saw it in nature, a botanist gave this name to a plant with a very large, broad spathe, flowering in October. Plants I've raised from seed under the name have much smaller spathes, but still rather broad. Robert's photo shows a narrow spathe such as I associate with Biarum carduchorum -- which does flower for me in midsummer. I don't have the monograph on this genus, but I've been told it is problematic.

The genus should be Caliphruria.

The attached photo shows Calochortus kennedyi using a tactic popular with long-stemmed species, climbing up along the stout stem of a perennial (Delphinium trolliifolium in this case). If not supported, it would have lain along the ground.

As I read old issues of Brian Mathew's Bulb Newsletter, I come across mentions of things I once grew and lost, mainly when I moved and had the bulbs out of the ground too long. Where can I now get seed of Colchicum kesselringii, Crocus baytopiorum, Fritillaria liliacea, Fritillaria brandegeei, or Fritillaria tubiformis? The full list is a long one. What are you missing now?

Not all the corrections I provided got into the SX list. Brodiaea "kinkinens" is B. kinkiensis. The others are trivial misspellings that readers can figure out for themselves.

Yes, Rick, the plants in the photo are leaning some away from the house, but in a fully open position they form a nearly upright colony. They grow mostly at openings in woodland, on roadsides, and other places with at least some sunlight. I've seen the subspecies in the east, and I can understand why people don't realize the western subspecies is a great border plant.

The summer-dry raised bed in the bulb house, May 21 2022. The tall blue plant is Triteleia laxa 'Mariposa Giant' and the clumps of pale blue to white flowers are Leucocoryne coquimbensis and L. odorata.

Maianthemum (Smilacina) racemosum subsp. amplexicaule is the western subspecies of a widespread North American plant. The inflorescence is denser and larger than in the eastern subspecies, and the flowers have a beautiful fragrance that will scent a room gently when cut, lasting almost a week in water. This group in my garden is a clone I found in a tree farm near my former home and is particularly robust.

David Pilling's photo of a hybrid Paeonia shows a remarkably good form. I assume it's a cross between P. delavayi and P. lutea. I've grown and seen a number of these hybrids, but never one with such striking color zones.