PBS Forum

What a well-designed site the UK one is!  Everything right there.

Interesting information about more than just plants, too.  Like how butterfly wings are pigmented.

I would find it useful.  My own collections of those journals start at about 1970.

Thanks, Uli.

I've just looked on the wiki, which shows some photos of lots of bulbs at the bottom of a leaf cutting.  Have you tried that?

Will any portion of a leaf work, or does one need to use the bottom of the leaf?  Maybe I could cut a leaf into several sections, so I could get bulbs forming on the bottom of each piece.

I've just found excellent instructions on Matt Mattus' blog.

https://growingwithplants.com/2006/04/propagating-lachenalia/

My Lachenalia viridiflora is also blooming, in my unheated greenhouse (currently 8 C, a bit warmer than the 2 C outside).  If yours is in the rain, you must keep it outside.  I wonder if I should plant one outside.

That is quite a difference!

I've spent about 5 months in South Africa  (Jan, Mar, July, Aug, Sep) and didn't really notice that it was so bright.

I did notice that one area had a daytime temperature like Victoria's summer and a night time temperature colder than we get in midwinter.  And there were flowers in bloom everywhere!

Do you think it is the brightness, or the extra hours of light?  Might they be day-length sensitive?

The stigma of the X Amarine I have does not divide into 3 until the  petals start to shrivel.  I am waiting till this happens before I pollinate the flowers.

My granddaughter found a couple more at the garden centre where she works.

Here is one, with 13 flowers.

Yours is rather crinkly, and it has ten flowers.  Six is more usual here.

No, I just went out and counted and my pink bowdenii all have ten flowers.  It looks like the white one will have eight.

I recently bought a pot of this white one.  It appears to have two bulbs, each of which has put up two tall flower stems - one metre high!  (about 40 inches)    Much taller than the usual pink ones that are common here.

And I've never seen a pink one with wavy edges.

When I travelled south to California, I took photos of flowers and made detailed notes about where they were growing.  Then I would go again in two months to collect seeds.  It was often difficult to see them since surrounding plants had usually grown tall.

I wonder how long it takes for seeds to form in other places, like South Africa or Chile.  I don't plan to travel to collect any, but I'd like to know when to expect to be able to buy seeds.  It would be good to have this information on our wiki.

Just now I'm reading the new Saunders' gladiolus book.  Gladiolus flowering times vary widely.  Here are dates for a few:    mid-December to mid-January, February to April, between April and June, mornings only August to October, between  mid-October and early December.   etc.  

I guess I will have to check Silverhill every month.

How do you eat it?  Fresh, cooked, made into jam?

a pun!  Hederifolium among the Hedera

Oh, that's not what I consider vertical gardening.  The plants are growing on horizontal shelves.

A few years ago there was a lot of true vertical gardening, much of it outside, and popular in one country in particular.  Memory fails here.  I think they were covering walls with fabric pockets.

What a stunning flower!  Are you lucky enough to be growing it in your garden?

According to the book Calochortus by Mary Gerritsen and Ron Parsons, Calochortus superbus is variable, and can have white, yellow, pink or purple flowers. They all seem to have very dark blotches, often surrounded by a rim of bright yellow.

Calochortus luteus is also variable, but the bright yellow petals are stippled with reddish brown marks.  

The two species often produce hybrids.

All the marks on your flower are dark red.  Could it be luteus?

Diane Whitehead