bulbs for foliage

Joe Shaw jshaw@opuntiads.com
Mon, 07 Aug 2006 15:50:55 PDT
Hi Gang,

When I was growing up Morea iridiodes was commonly employed in landscapes 
(southern California).  Now, I think I see the same plant along the Gulf 
Coast (Greater Houston area).  The plant has seen several name changes over 
time and seems to be most commonly called Dietes iridiodes in the nursery 
trade.

I never really cared for the flowers, they were plentiful but ephemeral. 
However, seeing them planted here and there in zone 9b (maybe 9a 1/2)  I do 
like the foliage.  It is sort of like Iris 'Contraband Girl,' every bit as 
tall but not as coarse--and maybe darker.

There are other geophytes that I grow for foliage including red-leaved 
Crinum, some sort of bulb-like Aloe species, a few Colocasia or Alocasia 
types, and some Canna hybrids with bright leaves, etc.

QUESTION:
Are there other geophytes, or wannabe geophytes, that make a nice foliage 
display as does the fortnight lily (or Iris 'Contraband Girl')?  I'm mostly 
looking for the grass-like foliage that is on the hardy side.  Maybe I'm 
dreaming but a few more things must be out there.

I'm thinking to try a few plants of the Restionaceae, but they are not 
really geophytes and they might be too tall for what I'm really wishing to 
find.



Cordially,


Joe
Conroe, TX

Not too hot today, scattered rain, humidity high.





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To: <pbs@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Monday, August 07, 2006 11:00 AM
Subject: pbs Digest, Vol 43, Issue 6


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> Today's Topics:
>
>   1. Re: Scadoxus nutans seed (African Bulbs)
>   2. Re: Scadoxus nutans seed (Doug Westfall)
>   3. Re: Cyrtanthus epiphyticus (Ernie O'Byrne)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Sun, 6 Aug 2006 18:19:04 +0200
> From: "African Bulbs" <africanbulbs@haznet.co.za>
> Subject: Re: [pbs] Scadoxus nutans seed
> To: <pbs@lists.ibiblio.org>
> Message-ID: <004901c6b99a$43a09f60$813ed0c4@MECER>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> Doug
> We don't grow S. nutans, but with S. katharinae, S. membranaceus and S. 
> puniceus, it can take up to four months - wait until you see the green 
> berries change colour to orange or red, then clean out the seeds inside, 
> rinse and dry them for a day or two before sowing - make sure all the 
> membrane/pulp is cleaned off the seed. We usually keep them in an icecream 
> tub and wait for them to send out a radicle before sowing (like most 
> fleshy-seeded amaryllids, the seeds need light and should be visible above 
> ground when sowing). Some Scadoxus will grow a bulb and roots in the first 
> year, but no leaves - in the second season the leaves appear.
> Rhoda McMaster
> Napier, SA
> Good winter rains, a very good spring flower season starting in the W.Cape
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Sun, 6 Aug 2006 15:57:37 -0700
> From: Doug Westfall <eagle85@flash.net>
> Subject: Re: [pbs] Scadoxus nutans seed
> To: Pacific Bulb Society <pbs@lists.ibiblio.org>
> Message-ID: <F4403DD6-259E-11DB-9002-00050277B6E6@flash.net>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed
>
>
> On Sunday, August 6, 2006, at 09:19  AM, African Bulbs wrote:
>
>> Rhoda McMaster
>> Napier, SA
>
> Thanks, Rhoda,
>
> This is the first time that I have had S. nutans bloom.  I do have a
> good collection of Scadoxus, and most of them have bloomed. The only
> one that has not set seeds is S cinnabarinus, but it has bloomed only
> once a year ago.
>
> Thanks again.
>
> Doug Westfall
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 3
> Date: Sun, 6 Aug 2006 18:38:56 -0700
> From: "Ernie O'Byrne" <eob@peak.org>
> Subject: Re: [pbs] Cyrtanthus epiphyticus
> To: "Pacific Bulb Society" <pbs@lists.ibiblio.org>
> Message-ID: <LAEKJNEKGLJMECPJKKLCAENHCEAA.eob@peak.org>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>
> I should mention that when we were visiting S. Africa we did not have very
> good references for ID. We only had The Flora of the Natal Drakensberg by
> Donald Killick and The Botany of the Southern Natal Drakensberg by 
> Hilliard
> and Burtt. Somewhere between the collection which was listed as aff.
> epiphyticus and the planting into the garden the aff. was lost. It is not 
> a
> positive ID, but seemed most likely at the time based on the books we had
> and the info in the various botanical areas that we visited that had 
> samples
> with ID. We collected the seed in January, '96 on Naude's Nek right above
> the parking area at the hairpin turn below the pass, up near the cliff 
> face.
> There were some also growing, not in rock crevices, as the literature
> states, but in the very rocky meadow area below the cliffs.
>
> Ours is just finished flowering and I would describe it as orange also,
> although both Hilliard & Burtt and the newer Mountain Flowers: a Field 
> Guide
> to the Flora of the Drakensberg and Lesotho by Elsa Pooley show an 
> "orange"
> flower cluster and describe the color as red. Color desription are very
> cultural, though. My wife (who is German) and I used to argue over the 
> color
> line between orange and red frequently, her "red" going well into my
> "orange". Interestingly, she has been acculturated over the years of 
> living
> here (we now agree) and now cannot even remember those discussionsof 
> thirty
> years ago.
>
> Perhaps Panayoti would have an opinion re whether C. epiphyticus grows in
> that particular spot, or whether another Cyrtanthus does.
>
> Sadly a freeze of 17 degrees F. in February this year, just about wiped me
> out. I only had one plant blooming this year, whereas last there must have
> been 25-30 inflorencences.
>
> Apologies for not being more accurate with the nomenclature.
>
> Ernie O'Byrne
> Northwest Garden Nursery
> 86813 Central Road
> Eugene, ORegon 97402
> USA
> USDA Z. 7B
>
> "Most stern moralists are in the habit of thinking of pleasure as only of
> the senses, and, when they eschew the pleasures of sense, they do not 
> notice
> that the pleasures of power, which to men of their temperament are far 
> more
> attractive, have not been brought within the ban of their ascetic
> self-denial."
>                -- Bertrand Russell
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: pbs-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org
> [mailto:pbs-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org]On Behalf Of Mary Sue Ittner
> Sent: Saturday, August 05, 2006 5:37 PM
> To: pbs@lists.ibiblio.org
> Subject: [pbs] Cyrtanthus epiphyticus
>
>
> Blooming now from BX seed offered by Ernie O'Bryne in January 2004 is
> Cyrtanthus epiphyticus. My flowers don't look like the ones that are
> pictured on the wiki from Bill Dijk, <SNIP>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
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> End of pbs Digest, Vol 43, Issue 6
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