PBS Forum

That is a lot of work! Thank you very much!

Dear All,
Spring is knocking at our doors, so the next EU Seed And Bulb Exchange (BX) is in the pipeline. Please think of your fellow members when you start repotting and sowing, surplus material is most welcome. As usual we will do two spring exchanges, the first one for mainly seed will be scheduled around mid March, the second one for mainly bulbs will be later. This has worked well in the past. We are never sure how the weather will be like in March,  that is why we do a second round for the more frost sensitive summer growing bulbs. Seed is much less prone to damage than bulbs.
This is only a notice, please do not send anything as yet; we will announce the opening of the donation time window in due course through all the channels. If you need seed envelopes for your future donation, the PBS offers them free of charge, please get in touch with Martin Bohnet  <garak@code-garak.de> who will send them to you.

All the information on the EU Seed and Bulb Exchange can be found here:
 https://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/pbsforum/index.php?page=EXbasics

Please remember that the EU Seed and bulb exchange is only open to fully paid members with a delivery address in the EU. You do not need to be a donor to be entitled to participate. This is a notice for the EU only, the US exchanges follow different schedules.

And please do not hesitate to contact Uli Urban (johannes-ulrich-urban@t-online.de) in case of questions.


Bye for now
Uli and Martin

That is a very interesting point! I very much enjoyed the pictures, many years ago I was at the same place. The hills seemed to glow from inside from a distance and being in the middle of the orange ocean was incredible. I bought seed at the shop, the plants performed beautifully once here in Portugal but then disappeared. They are definitely perennial in the right conditions which I do not seem to have for them. In some countries Eschscholtzia californica is classified as an invasive weed.

Hello Martin,

It was cold! Frost! In the very Southwestern end of Europe.....
It is the first time since 2017 that this has happened, I did not like to see this but finally there was only very marginal damage to the most fragile plants. It was early morning frost for several days in a row but daytime temperatures always went up to about 15 degrees.
We now have overcast weather with more or less the same temperatures day and night between 12 and 15 degrees.

Dear All,

Here are some impressions from my garden.

We had a long cold spell and now rainy and windy weather, so some flowers look a little unhappy.

Cyclamen persicum, pure white form 

Gladiolus carinatus. I had to hold the flowers for the photo because the shoots were pushed sideways by the bad weather 

Lachenalia bulbifera 

Bulbinella eburnifolia, from Silverhill Seeds 

Tropaeolum hookerianum 

Native Narcissus bulbocodium in a friend's garden 

Dear All,
Does anybody know of a source, or does anybody still grow two old compact selections of Zantedeschia aethiopica? One is called "Little Gem" and the other one is called "Perle von Stuttgart" which was raised in 1898 with Little Gem as one parent. I would be more than happy to refund postage, pay for a tuber or exchange with material from my collection. Please contact me privately if you can help.
Thank you very much in advance,
Uli

Dear All,

Reading the Bulb Garden journal, I noticed that there is a typo in my email address on page 2.

If you want to contact me, my correct email address is 

johannes-ulrich-urban@t-online.de

Bye for now 

Uli 

Thank you, Martin for the update 

Hello Arnold,

Is the miniature forest of Massonia a bunch of seedlings?

Uli 

Your climate allows you to grow a vast array of temperate plants which would be impossible in a climate with warm summers. All the moisture loving Southern Hemisphere plants...... and you are probably on acid soil?  You may not be able to grow bulbs which require a hot summer baking because that simply will not happen. But if you go through the WIKI you will come across a lot of bulbs which grow in constantly moist conditions. There are gladiolus species which grow in waterfalls, Wachendorfia and Wurmbea grow  in water, many Watsonia like a moist root run all year, so do Crocosmia. You do not state how much or how often you get frost, that may in fact be a more limiting factor than rain. If you have plenty of water: create a large water feature with Iris, Lysichiton, Aponogeton (but the last two may become very invasive) Gunnera may be possible, what about Hedychium? Bletilla? Maybe the more robust Crinum species and hybrids would like your conditions, Hemerocallis for sure.  Agapanthus can take a lot of moisture. I would also try the tropical tuberous waterlilies because you will have high light levels during summer.
My general recommendation is to start from seed as many different bulbs you can get hold of. This way they start under your given conditions. You will be surprised how easy this is. You will have failures, of course, but those which thrive are the rewards. And seed is not expensive. I can see a lush tropical looking very green garden.......and I hope your heart is not leaning towards a desert garden.
Happy experimenting!
Uli 

Hello Mike!

Very impressive pictures! Thank you very much for sharing. Hybrizing plants is a matter of personal preference and taste. I think some of the ones you show are worth to be grown by more people. Do I understand correctly that all seedlings are unique individuals? Or have you managed to create a (relatively) uniform stable hybrid which comes true from seed?

What will you do if you want to propagate a particularly outstanding seedling vegetatively? Do they offset? Are there other propagation techniques like splitting or the like? Or even micropropagation?

Uli 

My first thought was that your plants have a root problem. I agree with Martin, they look very wet.  If you have many it might be worthwhile to tip the rootball out of one of  the pots to check the roots. 
Ferraria is much happier with free root run or at least a large pot. Have you tried them in the open ground in Santa Cruz?
Uli 

Hello Jane,

Personally I am more interested in species with the odd exception. But I do not grow any old cultivars. I would be happy to share if I did.....
I know of a show garden in the Netherlands where they are preserving old cultivars, especially of tulips. 
https://hortus-bulborum.nl/?lang=en
I checked the website to be sure what I write and I saw that you can order bulbs online.
One of the most interesting facts about this garden is that they manage to maintain some of the historical tulips from the tulipomania era in the 17th century. These varieties became popular because of virus induced colour breaks, a reason why I would not want them in my collection for sure.....

Bye for now 
Uli 

So far I have not found any difference between the plants which grow from large or small seeds of Nerine or Amaryllis belladonna. One tends to look at the big ones with preference.....
Seed of the species you mention is much smaller than bowdenii seed. It needs immediate sowing and will produce good plants.

Uli 

Mine never did either