pbs Digest, Vol 38, Issue 8

Jane McGary janemcgary@earthlink.net
Thu, 09 Apr 2020 10:27:26 PDT
Regarding Pasithea caerulea, it does grow somewhat inland from the coast 
in Chile, and I've found a couple of Alstroemeria species with the same 
habitat that survive here in Portland, Oregon (usual winter lows around 
20 degrees F). However, I've never been able to keep Pasithea (grown 
from seed) more than three years (I have a covered but unheated bulb 
house). I was surprised to see people saying it has "bulbs." As far as I 
know, it has just a persistent root system with crowns, and a Chilean 
plant guide describes only "fibrous rhizomes." Brian Whyer's comment 
confirms this view. I wonder if the "bulbs" people bought were of some 
other species? Anyway, it grows among other vegetation, including 
grasses and small shrubs, in areas which are very dry in summer but 
experience some winter rainfall. In my experience, however, some other 
plants from the same climate tolerate summer irrigation well. An example 
would be Eccremocarpus scaber, a climber grown in some of the warmer, 
wetter parts of England.  It grows on the outside of my bulb house, 
picking up ground water all summer. It usually kills back in winter (it 
has a big, almost tuberous root), but this year the upper stems survived 
and it's already flowering; I've seen it flowering in Chile at a similar 
season, and in both places it's a favorite of hummingbirds. I seem to 
recall that the seed I grew it from is known as the "Tresco strain" and 
produces darker flowers.

Jane McGary, Portland, Oregon, USA

On 4/9/2020 6:15 AM, Brian Whyer via pbs wrote:
>   Hi. Here in the SE UK it seems to flower in late May for me, but after an almost frost free but very wet winter it is wait and see this year. It is "spring" flowering in the wild. I bought mine some years back and it seeded and gently spread. I was quite surprised when I moved it last year to a sunnier bed that the group were almost all runners and that the seed apparently came to nothing, at least when self sown. It has nodules on the root system which are presumably nitrogen fixing. It seems to have yellower leaves this year but I have very chalky soil so may need some sequestrene.
> Brian Whyer, SE UK
>      On Thursday, 9 April 2020, 13:22:13 BST, Jonathan Knisely <jpsknisely@gmail.com> wrote:
>   
>
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