Happy December 27th..raining at latitude 42,,, Thanks for all the great
information I'm reading... Seed is the way I propagate...or cuttings
depending on species...So many possibilities and time slips by...
On Sat, Dec 27, 2025 at 1:32 PM Nan Sterman via pbs <
pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net> wrote:
> As muhc as I LOVE the idea of starting from seed, I have had mixed
> success. It would help so much if we had a section of the Wiki with
> directions for starting each kind of seed. It would be a huge project, I
> know, but oh so helpful!
>
> > On Dec 27, 2025, at 12:52 PM, Robert Parks via pbs <
> pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net> wrote:
> >
> > 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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