Boyce? Why do you top-dress with powdered sulfur? Is your soil alkaline? ----- Original Message ----- From: "Boyce Tankersley" <btankers@chicagobotanic.org> To: "Pacific Bulb Society" <pbs@lists.ibiblio.org> Sent: Tuesday, August 31, 2010 4:25 PM Subject: Re: [pbs] Hardy gloxinia >I am growing a species collected in China by the North American Rock > Garden Society. I live in Grayslake, Illinois, which is about half way > between Chicago and the Wisconsin border - USDA zone 5. Seeds were > donated to me by Jim Shields. > > I can endorse the observation made by Ina. I had 2 or 3 seed lots > germinate and planted over a dozen seedlings in the fertile soils of my > vegetable garden. The dog chose that location to bask in the sun during > winter - none survived. The veggie garden is 20' deep by 80' long. The > single remaining seedling in a seed flat was planted in a bed on the > east side of the house in soil amended with peat moss and every other > year top-dressed with powdered sulfur. Has come back for 6 years now. > Dog still wants to lie in this location in winter time but some chicken > wire encourages her to move aside. Theoretically, the roots may have > some insecticidal properties since the only other plant treated in this > fashion has been Thymus. > > Boyce Tankersley > Director of Living Plant Documentation > Chicago Botanic Garden > 1000 Lake Cook Road > Glencoe, IL 60022 > tel: 847-835-6841 > fax: 847-835-1635 > email: btankers@chicagobotanic.org >> >> >> Is anyone else out there growing I. delavayi or any other species of > this >> genus in the garden? Be sure to let me know where you are. And if you > are in >> eastern North America and are able to keep them from year to year in > the >> garden, I would like to know what you are doing. >> >> > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.ibiblio.org > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/ > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.ibiblio.org > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/