April 2024

[Too Many Plants!]

Another exciting first flowering for us from the last BX!

Babiana "Jim's choice", and quite spectacular imho.

Again a big Thank You! to those generous PBS peeps that share the bulb Love!!

[Emanuele Mura]

My Grans' Ornithogalum Arabicum finally blooming after a long flower bud staring.

[Diane Whitehead]

What is the gray leaved plant in the bottom left corner of Too Many Plants'  Img 4509?

[petershaw]

Its a cycad.
It could be Encephalartos horridus  but I am sure the owner will chime in.
 
I saw them at Ruch Bancroft Garden last week,

[Too Many Plants!]

What is the gray leaved plant in the bottom left corner of Too Many Plants'  Img 4509?

Hi Diane, Peter's correct it is a Cycad. It's an Encephalartos hybrid of Horridus X Arenarius. These are SA Cycads native to the Cape and surrounding habitats. I'm guessing Horridus and Arenarius probably share their habitats with some of the bulbs we collect and enjoy...

[Diane Whitehead]

Thanks.  It is a good looking plant, and spiky enough to deter the deer in my neighbourhood.  Maybe I should grow one.

I thought it odd that I have never seen it, as I have been to South Africa four times, but I just googled E horridus, and it is native to the Eastern Cape Province where I didn't go.

[Too Many Plants!]

Thanks.  It is a good looking plant, and spiky enough to deter the deer in my neighbourhood.  Maybe I should grow one.

I thought it odd that I have never seen it, as I have been to South Africa four times, but I just googled E horridus, and it is native to the Eastern Cape Province where I didn't go.

Diane, I feel compelled to tell you, in general cycads are SLOOOW GROWING! IDK how old you are, but I'd recommend you buy a hybrid of Horridus X Arenarius as hybrids generally grow much faster than pure species, and are usually cheaper especially in bigger sizes which is the point I wanted to make here. Buy something (online most likely for you) that's 3" caudex MINIMUM! The bigger the better!! Seedlings can take 10 years in good growing conditions to look like the plant you see in the pictures I posted.

[Martin Bohnet]

@Diane Whitehead you can actually "quote" someone's pictures even if they are not included in the post directly - all you need is the image ID (you'll get that by hovering over the thumbnail, the number after "attach=" and then use it like this:

Code Select Expand

[attach id=6188 width=300]Too many's pic[/attach]
Not a valid attachment ID.


As we had a few more outright hot days here, things progress quickly, like the double Tulip cultivar "Brisbane", opening up yellow-green and getting a peach color over one week. Funny enough, these proved to be far more direct sunlight tolerant than most single tulips which just burned over a few days.

Another sunny souvenir from Bulb'argance is this Moraea ochroleuca

aurantica, while Allium karataviense

Life form:

bulb

subsp. henrikii hails from Janis Ruksans, and Lachenalia suaveolens

originates from Uli in EX07. The wiki-praised carnation scent seems to be only feint for me, but maybe my nose is spoiled from the Muscaris.

Last time I promised outdoor orchids, so here we go with Orchis mascula

Height:	45-60 cm (1.5-2 ft)
Flower Colors:	pink, purple
Flower Season:	late spring to early summer
Life form:	tuber

, followed by Cypripedium Barry Phillips

Height:	30-45 cm (1-1.5 ft)
Flower Colors:	yellow, green
Flower Season:	late spring to early summer
Climate:	USDA Zone 5-8

and Calanthe tricarinata

Height:	20-30 cm (0.7-1 ft)
Flower Colors:	green, brown

- that one was only planted in fall so we'll see how they deal with a full growth cycle, not just the very mild winter.

[Diane Whitehead]

I tried to follow your instructions, Martin, using your most recent photos but nothing happened.

So then I just clicked on the part under a photo - paperclip DSC6434.jpg -  and two things happened:  a circle popped up and then down into my "downloaded" file, and a copy of the photo opened up in a separate window on my screen.

It might depend on one's computer - mine's a Mac.

[Too Many Plants!]

More first flowers opening this season!

1- Gladiolus Carneus...

2- Moraea Polyanthos...

[David Pilling]

@Diane Whitehead - hovering, gets you the attach number... on Chrome when you hover over a link the URL appears in a bar at the bottom of the window. Presumably something similar happens on Safari (Mac). Right click will get you 'copy link address' which lets one paste the same thing as in the URL. Looks like this:

https://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/pbsforum/index.php?action=dlattach;fs=41293;attach=6248;image

we can get the attach value, 6248 and put it into the message:

Code Select Expand

[attach id=6248]Martin's orchid[/attach]

[Martin Bohnet]

@Diane Whitehead "hover" is the magic word here - just let your mouse pointer linger on the thumbnail, don't click.

@Too Many Plants! that Moraea polyanthos

somehow looks like the missing link between the Homeria- and Iris style forms. Quite interesting.

[Diane Whitehead]

I just checked on my other Mac which uses Chrome.  Hovering puts a line of information at the bottom of the screen, just as David wrote.  This does not happen on this Mac where I am using Safari.

[Too Many Plants!]

@Too Many Plants! that Moraea polyanthos

somehow looks like the missing link between the Homeria- and Iris style forms. Quite interesting.

Funny you should mention that...I'm trying to cross pollinate my peach Homeria with this Polyanthos both directions to see if I can get any to take.

[Too Many Plants!]

Tritonia Deusta, or Crocata???
For most of the time I've had these I thought they were T. Deusta because they seemed more orange than Crocata and they don't have those windows that are in most pictures of Crocata. They are missing the dot markings that appear in most pics of Deusta, and the anthers to me clearly look more like Crocata. I'm just not sure...
... any thoughts out there?

@Robin Jangle