Dear All, Coming from late winter in South Africa to late summer in California is a bit of a shock since everything looked green to me in South Africa in spite of the drought and this time of year in California the hills are brown. We haven't had any significant rainfall since May where I live, just fog and light rainfall one day this month that didn't end up doing more than settling the dust. As Arnold keeps showing all those Colchicums and Doug his Haemanthus I feel compelled to report what is blooming here and show a couple of wiki additions as well. Gladiolus carmineus which is one of my very faithful in the ground bulbs started blooming while I was gone and is still blooming throughout my garden. It has reseeded in my garden and I have many delightful patches. It is known as the Cliff Gladiolus as it is common in Hermanus where it overlooks the ocean. Here in Gualala I don't think it is tall enough to see the ocean, but I can see the ocean through the trees. I still have Amaryllis belladonna hybrids in bloom. Some more started while I was gone and the last to bloom last year is just now appearing. For the first time I have blooms on pots of Nerine angustifolia and Nerine platypetala and there are spikes on N. bowdenii too. My first Polyxena is flowering too. But the two I want to share are a new Gladiolus and my first Oxalis. The Gladiolus is going to be another one of those memory plants we talked about as a topic of the week. It is G. martleyi. http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/files/… This is another one of those that blooms before the leaves appear. It is very delicate, pink with pretty markings on the lower tepals. The reason why it has special meaning for me this year is that it came from IBSA seed collected by Gordon Summerfield in Betty's Bay. I had quite a few very interesting conversations on my trip to South Africa with Gordon. Next week when we are talking about the IBSA meeting I will probably devote a day to some of the things I learned from Gordon. Secondly my husband, Patty Colville, and I stayed in the delightful beach house of IBSA member Henry Pauw in Betty's Bay. Not only did he and his wife Helga feed us well before they left us on our own, but Henry also drove us around the area and led us on a very nice hike where we had splendid views of the area. So when I looked on my tag to see what was blooming and looked at the details I was really pleased. The other addition to the wiki is my first Oxalis to bloom in this growing season, Oxalis hirta 'Gothenburg'. http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/files/… This Oxalis was a present from Lauw and I didn't manage to get it to bloom the first two years I had it, but this year I planted it in a much bigger pot and it has rewarded me. The regular Oxalis hirta increases radically each year so you need to have a lot of friends to share it with. This cultivar doesn't increase very much and is a bit taller. Maybe some of our Oxalis fans can tell us more about it. Mary Sue
