Is it summer or fall?

Giant Coreopsis giantcoreopsis@gmail.com
Fri, 16 Aug 2013 21:58:40 PDT
John, I found the same thing. Our Vitus californica fruit abruptly turned purple the last week of July, easily 2 or 3 weeks earlier than any of the last four years. I posted a picture to Facebook asking whether someone had sent a memo around to every garden in the neighborhood announcing "summer's over, get on with it".

On Aug 16, 2013, at 7:34 PM, John Wickham <jwickham@sbcglobal.net> wrote:

> Here in Los Angeles, I've notice that a few of my winter-deciduous plants are starting to turn. And its not just dead leaves, but taking on Fall color. The Vitis and Cornus have a little Fall color and the Betula and Fraxinus seems to be thinking about it. I'm afraid it means I need to pull my winter growing bulbs out of storage earlier this year than usual. I typically have a few winter/spring bloomers that start putting on green growth in late August. That might start earlier this year.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ________________________________
> From: Jane McGary <janemcgary@earthlink.net>
> To: Pacific Bulb Society <pbs@lists.ibiblio.org> 
> Sent: Friday, August 16, 2013 5:19 PM
> Subject: [pbs] Is it summer or fall?
> 
> 
> Mid-August is a time when the last Mediterranean-cycle bulbs of 
> summer overlap with the first bulbs of fall. Calochortus weedii and 
> C. plummerae have finally dropped their petals, and the California 
> onion Allium sanbornii is in full bloom, the only "summer" species 
> doing so in the bulb house. There, however, the colchicums are waking 
> up, whether watered (on the "moist" side) or not (on the "xeric" 
> side). Colchicum macrophyllum opens its flowers, which are 
> surprisingly small considering the size of its leaves. White 
> Colchicum kotschyi is open on the dry side, and I saw the pink tips 
> of another species emerging this morning. In the garden Brodiaea 
> californica (last of the themids) is almost over, and Acis autumnalis 
> has raised its sudden white bells, and where watered, Cyclamen 
> hederifolium is beginning to open, as is the related Cyclamen africanum.
> 
> In the borders, Crocosmia hybrids are the most colorful right now, 
> and Eucomis species remain ornamental for a long period. Eucomis 
> autumnalis doesn't wait until fall to flower here -- it blooms right 
> along with the other species and hybrids. Another curiosity that just 
> opened is Alstroemeria isabellanae; thank to Nhu for identifying this 
> plant, a Brazilian species that is being sold as "Alstroemeria x 
> Bomarea," presumably because some grower couldn't tell which it was. 
> The western South American alstroemerias here flower much earlier, 
> though little Alstroemeria hookeri has been pushing up flowering 
> stems for at least four months, and I harvested the first seed 
> capsules from it today. (If you don't want to lose your alstroemeria 
> seed, which is dispersed explosively, check the capsules by bending 
> them over gently. The mature capsules detach easily from the 
> pedicels. Slightly immature ones can ripen in the envelope, though, 
> if you have to pick them in the wild.)
> 
> By the way, I'd like to mention how useful it is to write out the 
> full names of bulbs we discuss, as I've done above. People doing an 
> internet search for a plant often find it on the PBS website, and if 
> the full name appears in our archived posts, it can be helpful to 
> them -- and even recruit new members.
> 
> Jane McGary
> Membership Coordinator
> PBS
> Portland, Oregon, USA
> 
> _______________________________________________
> pbs mailing list
> pbs@lists.ibiblio.org
> http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php
> http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/
> _______________________________________________
> pbs mailing list
> pbs@lists.ibiblio.org
> http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php
> http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/



More information about the pbs mailing list