BX 227 - notes on 22 to 31

Tom Mitchell tom@evolution-plants.com
Sun, 22 Nov 2009 11:21:25 PST
I had meant to send Dell some brief notes regarding the seeds I sent  
him recently but forgot to do so. Here they are.

22. Nerine bowdenii 'wellsii'. These are from open pollinated plants  
grown in a garden with dozens of other Nerine bowdenii cultivars.  
This version is from a form that occurs in the high Drakensberg and  
flowers significantly earlier than cultivars derived from Eastern  
Cape plants. I expect that the seedlings will be reasonably like the  
parents, therefore, but I don't think it would be honest to label  
them 'wellsii'. They are hardy in the coldest region of the UK and  
quite tolerant of wet, heavy soil too.

23. Veratrum album, ex Auvergne White'. Open pollinated seeds from a  
garden with numerous Veratrum species and other V. album selections.  
'Auvergne White' is a selection from the wild - I won't reveal where  
in France it was made - by Keith and Lorna Ferguson many years ago  
and is an exceptionally floriferous plant. I have no idea whether the  
seedlings will resemble the parent in this or other respects but you  
can't have too many Veratrum.

24. Veratrum nigrum ex hort. Also open pollinated, also from Keith  
and Lorna Ferguson's garden. For my money this is the best Veratrum  
species for foliage effect in spring.

25. Fritillaria lusitanica?, TCM 09-578, Algarve, Portugal. This name  
is an educated guess. I have photos of the seed capsule, which I  
collected in soil pockets between vast granite boulders near Caldas  
de Monchique in southern Portugal in early October. This was the only  
place I found this species growing.

26. Herbertia lahue ex 'Prairie Nymph'. I ordered 20 seeds of this  
species from Peckerwood Garden along with several other interesting  
seeds, and received four 'bonus' packages, each containing at least a  
thousand seeds. I'm guessing it does well in Texas.

27. Urginea maritima TCM 09-580, ex Algarve, Portugal. These plants  
were common all along the Algarve in garrigue, mostly just emerging  
from dormancy. In a few places spikes with ripe seed were still  
standing and these are from one of those collections.

28. Arisaema consanguineum ex hort. From a magnificent clump in Keith  
and Lorna Ferguson's garden. Cold (zone 8) and wet hardy.

29. Lilium sp., received as L. regale from Chen-Yi, but most  
definitely not! I received bulbs under Chen Yi's number L-11 last  
year but managed to completely miss the flowers, so I am still none  
the wiser as to what it might be.

30. Cardiocrinum giganteum ex Chen-Yi. The parents of these plants  
had variably dark stems. Flowers were not especially fragrant but  
still magnificent.

31. Cardiocrinum cathayanum ex Bob Brown. Again from Keith and Lorna.  
I haven't seen the parent plants but they were acquired originally at  
Cotswold Garden Flowers.

Regards,

Tom


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