PBS Forum

I agree on the damage in bud, as the stem leaves look good. 

I grow Babiana, am in the Pacific Northwest, and would recommend planting, watering a little, but keeping cool for the summer to keep the bulbs from drying out. Which reminds me, I need to rescue mine from under a sword fern before fall comes. 

I planted 5 Amaryllis belladonna bulbs from my parents' yard about 25 years ago. The original bulbs were planted 100 years ago by the first owner of that house. 

These are pink, no stripes, not dark, not white, plain pink, and in my climate usually flower between mid August and late September, depending on  how warm the summer is. Leaves are up from mid fall through mid spring.

This week I dug up the last three clumps, as they had divided so much that the upper bulbs were at the surface. I found 30-40 bulbs in each clump, with more than 100 in all. I replanted one in each original hole, and now have over 80 bulbs looking for a new home. 

If anyone is interested, please contact me using my email address, kathleen.sayce@gmail.com. Your cost will be whatever the shipping costs are. 

The view from England on the 16th July. Its been a very cold Summer, yet some things keep to the timetable.

The lily cheered me up big flowers with little trouble and scented. When I started growing lilies, 20 years ago, lily beetles were unknown this far North, it is now getting to the point where it is not worth growing them.

Jim McKenney used to talk of the "tawny family curse" regarding day lilies.

Montbretia
Cosmos 'Cherry Chocolate'
Agapanthus
Dahlia/Begonia
Hemerocalis
A nice lily

You never know. At first I thought it might be a Rubus volunteer (thanks to bird distribution). but then I though the pot has always been in the greenhouse, so maybe a volunteer Pelargonium (not many dicots that produce seeds in there). Lets wait and see.

I think it was the 4th leaf that started the progression towards Pel. bowkeri. The last leaf is entirely typical for bowkeri. On mature bowkeri plants, even the tiniest stem buds produce fimbriated leaves.

Robert
in wet, cool San Francisco
where Pelargonium bowkeri has to live in the greenhouse because it melts in the fog.

FarmLife: Mixed Habranthus tubispathus naturalizing next to the greenhouse after a couple of days of welcome rain.

Mark Mazer
Hertford, NC

In my experience -
A. aurea is uncommon in cultivation. The real species is very attractive and a modest size.
A. namaquensis seems to be confused with A. polyphylla. The real species is like shawii but with twisted leaves. The latter is a fabulous plant - winter-grower, small, freely off-setting and with fantastic scent to the flowers - epigeal bulbs but otherwise like a small shawii.
A. spiralis seedlings do not have curled (spiral) leaves. There seem to be a few, quite different, clones in cultivation, possibly including what are actually A. namaquensis.

Thank you both.  Yes, the leaves are slightly sticky and smell like pinched spruce needles.

I've just checked, and I have sown seeds of lots of albucas.   aurea, canadensis, namaquensis, rupestris, shawii, spiralis.  I can't find any labels, though.

@Uli is almost certainly correct - the leaves should be slightly hairy, slightly sticky and angular - to me they smell of turpentine and all you need to do is very gently brush aginst them to smell it - if I reach past it and there is the slightest of disturbance of the foliage, I can smell turpentine. Flowers on my clone here have a good citrus scent, better/stronger than "slightly".

It may be a common(ish) plant in cultivation, but it is so for very good reason. It is even generous with seed too. One of my favourites.

Hello Diane,

Looks like Albuca shawii to me. Have you gently rubbed the foliage? Albuca shawii has fragrant leaves. But I have also had identical looking plants without any detectable scent from their leaves.