So true about plants geophytes glowing far out of their normal locations...
Andean tuber crops from 10-14K thriving in sea level SF with summer water,
OK similar temperatures. Presumably, I'd be able to grow other plants from
that regime.
Pulsatilla vulgaris, that acts like it is eternal springtime in SF.
A lowland tropical aroid (Amorphophallus ongsakulii) that thrives in year
round cool tropical conditions with dry dormancy. There must be some
residual cool tolerance there.
And all the geophytes that really don't seem to care that their normal
dormancy conditions aren't attended to.
On Sat, Dec 27, 2025, 12:07 PM Jane McGary via pbs <
pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net> wrote:
> Thanks to Lee Poulsen for two interesting posts. Of course, if you want
> a selected clone, you need to buy vegetatively propagated plant
> material. I'm more interested in natural species and their variability,
> so I rarely do that. I've also found that some named clones are not
> visibly different from plants grown from wild seed. For instance,
> Narcissus romieuxii 'Julia Jane' appeared identical to seedlings from
> wild collections from the same general area. Commercial bulb growers
> tend to name clones, or strains, to make them more attractive to
> customers, even if their stock is not visually different from typical
> forms. (They may have selected forms that increase rapidly by
> offsetting.) If you donate seed of a named form to an exchange, it can't
> be listed under the cultivar (clone or strain) name, but "ex" ('from')
> can precede that name.
>
> Second, sorry to disappoint you, but even on the coast in the Pacific
> Northwest, we have summer heat waves -- increasingly so. However, I've
> noticed a fascinating related effect: high alpines can be grown
> successfully at sea level in some places on the North Atlantic coast.
> This didn't really surprise me, since I lived for a long time in Alaska
> and knew that plants I saw at 10,000 feet in the Rocky Mountains were
> growing at 2,000 feet in the mountains of interior Alaska (where it can
> still get warm in summer). Temperature is only one variable in whether a
> plant will succeed. Seasonality is another, and some plants just seem to
> require a long winter dormancy with the protection of consistent snow.
> Others can't tolerate low summer humidity, gradually declining over a
> few years of warm days and sharply cooler nights (one theory is that the
> temperature drop triggers the onset of dormancy). If you grow your bulbs
> in a temperature-controlled greenhouse, with careful attention to
> watering, there may still be variables you're unable to control without
> a laboratory growth chamber.
>
> Even plant species that are narrowly endemic may have genetic
> variability hidden in their genome. Brought into cultivation, they can
> surprise us with their adaptation to conditions different from their
> homes. We won't know until we try them. I believe growing from seed
> gives us a good chance of identifying positive adaptations.
>
> Jane McGary, Portland, Oregon, USA
>
> On 12/26/2025 7:16 PM, Lee Poulsen via pbs wrote:
> > Since I have had the experience of trying to shift bulbs from the
> opposite hemisphere, and have been moderately successful (maybe 2/3 of the
> attempts), I have always wondered if it would have been easier with the
> ones I failed with if I could have only grown them in those rare but
> existent climates where it basically never gets hot in the summer. Places
> like the coastal Pacific Northwest of the US in Washington state or
> northern Oregon, or San Francisco city, or that area near Monterey Bay
> where they grow artichokes, lettuce, and broccoli all summer long for the
> produce market, or far northwestern California along the coast in places
> like Eureka or Crescent City, or coastal British Columbia in Canada, or
> Scotland to name a few. Maybe we could contract with some of our members
> living in those areas to switch our imported bulbs from the southern
> hemisphere for us. 😊
> >
> > --Lee Poulsen
> > San Gabriel Valley, California, USA - USDA Zone 10a
> > Latitude 34°N, Altitude 340 ft/100 m
> >
> >>> A vexing problem when obtaining bulbs from the southern hemisphere is
> that of acclimatizing them to a reversal of the seasons. Often they are
> shipped just before growth is beginning in the southern hemisphere and one
> must choose between allowing growth to commence and hope they will tolerate
> the higher or lower temperatures involved in this "off-season" period, or
> attempting to prolong their dormancy until the proper season arrives and
> hope they do not become too desiccated (as is more likely to happen in very
> young bulbs). Our experience has been with winter-growing bulbs and we have
> tried both methods with mixed and often unhappy results. Some general
> principles have been derived.
> >>>
> >>> When imported bulbs are allowed to begin growth out of season, their
> growing period is usually short as they will go dormant as heat increases
> and, I believe, especially when night time temperatures remain elevated
> (and some will be prone to rot if their soil remains moist at this time. As
> a consequence, their following resting period is also abbreviated ---
> perhaps only two or three months --- before their winter finally arrives.
> Restarting them after so short a dormancy can result in poor growth or none
> at all. (One very fine Gethyllis was given up as a lost cause when it made
> no appearance at all the first winter, but has since thrived and
> multiplied.)
> >>>
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