PBS Forum

Dear Members living in the EU
The donation time window for the autumn seed and bulb exchange is now open until further notice. Please read this notice carefully.

Please send your donation to                              Martin Bohnet,
                                                        Ludwigstr. 1
                                                        73035 Göppingen
                                                        Germany


Please remember that bulbs should be clean and healthy and seed free of chaff and debris.
As in previous exchanges we ask you to pre-pack 5 portions of seed on a voluntary basis, the portions should contain enough seed for a good potful of seedlings, at least 5 seeds with rare plants and less with super rare ones. Seed envelopes are available free of charge from Martin: (garak@code-garak.de) If there is a lot more seed available than 5 packets, you can include a larger packet for Martin to do extra portions if requested. Pre packing seed is a tremendous help for Martin. Bulbs should be sent in one bag per species and not pre-packed.

Please label each species of seed/bulb with the botanical name and your own name.

Every  donor will be refunded the postage for the donation, please send a copy of your receipt to Martin.
We will do two consecutive exchanges this autumn, the time window for donations will remain open for some time. Please do not get stressed with seed which is not ripe by now, or with bulbs still growing, they will be for the next spring exchange.
This notice will appear in the PBS Forum, in the old email list and all EU members will receive it as a private email.

We have received some correspondence concerning this coming BX, it looks as if it will be a very good one. This might be a reason for non members to consider joining the PBS, as only fully paid members with a postal address in the EU will be entitled to order.
Once Martin has compiled the new BX list it will go online through the same channels.

Thank you all very much in advance!
Please do not hesitate to contact me in case of questions or difficulties. (johannes-ulrich-urban@t-online.de)

Uli and Martin

Dear members living in the EU,

As we were asked several times when the donation period for the next EU BX will start: here is a short information. We are scheduling the autumn exchange for Mid to End September so that the donation will open around mid to end August. Precise dates have not yet been set.

All fully paid EU members are in a mailing list and will receive a personal email once donations can be sent to Martin in Germany. This information is also posted in the forum and the old email list. Please come back to me (Uli) if you want to be removed from the mailing list or if you do not receive a personal email with the same content.

So.... please think of your fellow gardeners when you dig up bulbs or harvest seed. Personally I (Uli) am very busy right now cleaning and packing seed and sorting dormant bulbs. Harvest was good this year and there will be some nice things to share.

Please do not hesitate to come back to me (Uli) with questions

Have a good summer!

Uli and Martin

Dear All,

This unusual flower opened where I planted Typhonium giganteum. But this flower does not at all fit the pictures in the internet. What is this?
Your help is very much appreciated.

Bye for now

Uli

Dear All,

With the onset of warm weather, spring in the Algarve is coming to an end. Among the last flowers are the Californian spring bulbs, very nice.

Gladiolus floribundus

Flower Colors:	white, pink
Climate:	winter rain climate

Helicodiceros/Dracunculus muscivorum

Tropaeolum leptophyllum

Flower Colors:	yellow, patterned
Flower Season:	late spring
Special:	climber

Dichelostemma ida-maiae

Iris spuria

cultivar

Triteleia ixioides

Lachenalia multifolia

, the last one to flower of the genus

Enjoy

Uli

Dear All,
Having offered seed of Hippeastrum evansiae

to the curent EU BX, here is a portrait of the plant: relatively small bulbs for a Hippeastrum, stoloniferous, so that the pot is relatively quickly filling with bulbs. But it resents root disturbance. My plant is one clone and during more than 20 years has never set seed. Now, with a second clone it did both ways. H. evansiae is fully decidouus and flowers before the new leaves appear. The relatively small flowers open flat, are slightly asymmetric. They are yellow with a greenish throat, several to a scape, not detectable fragrance. Good bulbs produce two scapes so that a potful gives a good display. The leaves hang downwards and are greyish green and soft, it is best grown warm in filtered sunlight. During growth it needs ample water and fertilzer from time to time, dormancy is totally dry. Like all Amaryllids it is prone to mealy bug infestations. The offered seed is very fresh.
Bye for now,
Uli

Limodorum abortivum is an interesting parasitic orchid living with cork oaks in this case but can also use other trees like pine trees for nutrients. It has no chlorophyll and no leaves. The 40cm tall inflorescences appear in unpredictable places in spring, often in small groups. They look like a purple Asparagus sprout at first but then show attractive relatively large purple flowers.

Dear All,

Here are some spring flowers from my garden. Right now I am too busy to go and take pictures in the wild. We have good rain right now so maybe I will take habitat pictures later.

Enjoy 

Uli 

Freesia Hybrid 

Not a geophyte but fascinating Clathrus ruber, a mushroom. I always feel as if it had fallen from another star.....

Allium moly 

Ferraria araneosa

I cannot add more attachments, there will be a second post 

Dear All,


The form of Ixia viridiflora posted yesterday and today seems to be paler than the one I grow. Mine was raised from an autumn 2019 sowing and it flowered beautifully in its second year. I donated seed to the US BX in 2021. What this plant needs is ample water during growth and flowering and a dry rest only after the leaves have died down. This year the flowers were almost completely ruined by a hot and very windy spell, last year's performance was better.
My seed was purchased from https://www.owlsacreseeds.co.uk/ixia-viridiflora after a discussion on this list. Owls Acre stated that the corms are short lived and new plants should be raised from seed regularly. They also stated that they carefully selected the seed bearing plants. 
The enclosed picture is from 2021. Do you see the beetles? I checked the flowers yesterday. The center appears black but is in fact of very dark blue.
The second picture shows seedlings from a November 2021 sowing. They are in a 20cm pot and the tallest ones are 30cm tall, still growing. They will not be repotted until after flowering next year.

Bye for now 

Uli 

Dear All,


The article describing the microwaving of pollen to overcome self incompatibility was put into the Wiki by Robin and David. Thank you very much to both of you for editing and formatting. The title was somewhat misleading and has now been changed. Thank you, Tim, to pointing this out.
I am at present using this technique on Cyrtanthus falcatus

for the first time and again on Hippeastrum evansiae

. It has failed on an Aloe species but with the Aloe I had the impression that there was almost no pollen.
I will keep you updated and I am most interested in your feedback. I am very sure that this method can be improved.
Here is the link to the Wiki again.  https://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/Microwave

Bye for now

Uli

Hello again,

As most of the pictures I will post to the forum are taken with my iPad and iPhone, I need help on how to change the files into a permitted one