That is really cute Mike. Congratulations! Laura Niagara on the Lake On Sat, Apr 2, 2022 at 12:44 AM Michael M. via pbs < pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net> wrote: > Hi, gang. > > I wanted to share a little success story with you. It only took nine years, > but Moraea insolens finally bloomed for me this week, for the first time > ever. As you can see, it's a very cheerful deep orange flower with unusual > brown and cream markings. It was quite a treat to find the little flower > glowing among my other plants. > > M. insolens is a rare bulb, known from only a few spots in South Africa. > Seed has been offered commercially a couple of times I know of in the last > two decades, but it doesn't look like it's well established among PBS > members. The only references I could find on the PBS list were that Joyce > Miller once offered a few corms to the bulb exchange, and Will Ashburner in > Australia reported once that it had bloomed for him (only two years after > germination!). I wish I knew how he did that. > > In my garden M. insolens is not as easy to grow as most of the other > Moraeas. I tried several times to grow it in pots, with no survivors. What > finally worked was a raised bed in a spot that stays damp all winter. Even > with careful care and watering, the bulbs took nine years to reach blooming > size (the usual for Moraea species is 3-4 years). I know that's not a long > wait compared to some Amaryllids, but for me it was a long delay. > > The little insolens seedlings put up a single threadlike leaf that was a > little bit more robust each year. This year one plant put up a > normal-looking leaf and then a short bloom stalk. > > I don't know why it chose to finally bloom this year. Fire is supposedly a > trigger for these plants in the wild, so I burned some dry grass over them > in the summer. Maybe that helped. Or maybe it just takes a long time to > build up its strength in my climate. > > Anyway, it's a very cute little plant. > > If anyone else has this species, please ping me -- maybe we can exchange > pollen, so we can get some seeds, In the meantime I am having fun trying to > make hybrids. > > Mike > San Jose, CA > -------------- next part -------------- > A non-text attachment was scrubbed... > Name: IMG_2202.JPG > Type: image/jpeg > Size: 2466290 bytes > Desc: not available > URL: < > http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/pipermail/pbs/… > > > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net > http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/… > Unsubscribe: <mailto:pbs-unsubscribe@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net> > _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/… Unsubscribe: <mailto:pbs-unsubscribe@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net>