April 2024

[Too Many Plants!]

Here's a better pic of my Moraea I previously posted. I believe this is one of the genera that was lumped into Moraea, and to me it doesn't look Moraea. An interesting story to go with...I had a patch of this yellow and peach planted together and had a gopher come through the patch during dormancy. When the next season came around only yellow was left, and it looked like he had not eaten any of the yellow, certainly very little if he did at all. So...my conclusion is the peach must taste good, and yellow must taste bad. 😂

[Martin Bohnet]

Ah, yes, that time of the year... funny how it's so powerful both in Mediterranean and temperate climate. As it's been a few days since I posted, there's a lot to catch up on:

let's start with Ranunculales - that's Ficaria verna

Height:	0-10 cm (0-3.9 inch)
Flower Colors:	yellow
Flower Season:	early spring to mid spring
Life form:	tuber
Climate:	USDA Zone 5-8

"Copper knob" and a unspecified double form of Anemonoides ranuncoloides mixing. On the Berberidaceae branch of the order, here's Bongardia chrysogonum

(here in front of Iberis).

On the classic end of the Tulipa palette there's Tulipa sylvestris

- quite a distance to blue parrot, which I added especially for you @David Pilling.  Again close to the Tulips are of course Erythronium - I think that's a hybrid....

Speaking about hybrids, here's a direct comparison of Tropaeolum tricolor

and its hybrid with brachyceras...

Last one is a Asarum I grew from seed - I didn't plant it out because I a) don't remember the exact species (looks like a white caudatum, but I'm rather unsure here) and b) I had trouble keeping the slugs off it even when potted.

[Too Many Plants!]

@Too Many Plants! - that is also a hybrid. Obviously tricolor as one parent; the other is pillansii
The tepals are identical to pillansii - they are lanceolate and subacute whereas in tricolor the tepals are broadly lanceolate-ovate. Also the markings are a mish mash of the two species - tricolor has minimal black markings on the yellow cup whereas pillansii has very bold markings

Robin, you make it sound like most of my S. Tricolor are hybrids. I'm wondering if you've seen the Sparaxis Tricolor bulbs that are available commercially, that come in many mixed colors? I guess I assumed those were colors Tricolor naturally comes in, but now I am wondering if they could be hybrids from the growing farms that produce them commercially. However, I've never seen any other Sparaxis species bulbs commercially available. Is there a certain set of colors that are true S. Tricolor?

[Martin Bohnet]

Of course my favorite order is Asparagales, and boy do they deliver these days... Muscari are everywhere, but of course in the gardens around it's very rarely Muscari macrocarpum

- the somewhat fluffy double form of debateable descent here in background actually is much more common - one of those easily clonable mass products. But macrocarpum and the sister species M. muscarimi have their intense perfume that really brings you too your knees.

In the pots it's orchid time again - both the first Pleiones and Anacamptis papilionacea

Height:	30-45 cm (1-1.5 ft)
Flower Colors:	pink, purple
Flower Season:	mid spring

put on their show - but a lot more will soon happen in the garden if the heatwave goes on.

The alliums are active, too - Allium paradoxum

var normale always makes me wonder if there's an Allium absurdum var plausibile around...but of course Allium egoroveae is a lot more rare. Also part of the tribe is of course Ipheion uniflorum

, here a lovely bluish form which seems to be better behaved than the pinkish forms...

Last but not least: the Irids - this time in the form of Moraea vegeta

and, as the evening settles in, Hesperantha bachmannii

, another wonderful perfume drifting through the garden.

[Too Many Plants!]

Last but not least: the Irids - this time in the form of Moraea vegeta

 

Very nice Martin! Love to see this species...I just got seed from Silver Hill and this is one of the species I got.

[Too Many Plants!]

1- I got this as Babiana Angustifolia.

2- Albuca Acuminata

3- Babiana ... ?

[Arnold]

Freesia laxa

[Wylie]

Here's a better pic of my Moraea I previously posted. I believe this is one of the genera that was lumped into Moraea, and to me it doesn't look Moraea. An interesting story to go with...I had a patch of this yellow and peach planted together and had a gopher come through the patch during dormancy. When the next season came around only yellow was left, and it looked like he had not eaten any of the yellow, certainly very little if he did at all. So...my conclusion is the peach must taste good, and yellow must taste bad. 😂

It looks like Moraea ochroleuca (or Homeria ochroleuca). Mine is in bloom right now.

[petershaw]

Here is Moraea ochroleuca from the Berkeley Botanic Garden that we saw last weekend.

[Too Many Plants!]

Here's one that popped up around a plant I dug from an old timer collectors garden that had many SA bulbs.

Speculating this could be a Geissorhiza...

Any thoughts out there?

Robin Jangle..?

[David Pilling]

Taken today,  freesia, bear garlic and @Martin Bohnet if I can't have blue tulips, blue bells.

[Robin Jangle]

@Too Many Plants! it looks to be an Ixia. Could you please take some pics of the foliage and of the bracts. I should be able to narrow it down then .

[Too Many Plants!]

@Too Many Plants! it looks to be an Ixia. Could you please take some pics of the foliage and of the bracts. I should be able to narrow it down then .

Pics from today...

[Robert_Parks]

A few recents:

Ixia dubia better than any of the commercial yellow Ixias, foliage fairly broad.

Hesperantha bachmannii, delicate and perfect.

Bulbine mesembryanthemoides, tiny flowers, but insanely complicated.

Babiana odorata or similar.

Ixia viridiflora, I'm sorry if it shows up as a vivid sea blue (maybe just this monitor)...it is a delicate greenish blue in person.

Coelogyne cristata, OK, not a geophyte, but it hangs out with them and requires chilling to bloom well.

Elsewhere in the garden, Bomarea are blooming variously, and there are still a few Arums pushing up flowers.

Robert
Actual springlike conditions in San Francisco at the moment

[Uli]

This Gladiolus is flowering for the very first time with me, raised from seed. The label says G. carinatus which it is definitely not. About 60cm tall, leaning sideways.
The foliage is not hairy and some of the flowering shoots are branching. No detectable fragrance. Any idea of the ID?