PBS Forum

Hi, this is how the Proiphys looked yesterday. I covered the bulb after receiving a couple of suggestions. I had to spray it against those nest-making caterpillars. I had little time and did not take more focused pics.

Proiphys amboinensis, imported with a phyto from Thailand, going to flower in its second season here. It behaves quite like a rain lily but needs minimum temps above 20°C / 68F. I have three smaller bulbs which won't flower, so I'll try to self it.



Carlos 

Hi, except the most southerly ones like caerulea  (Habranthus caeruleus) which Rimmer told me that has an autumn-winter cycle, all Zephs should be kept dry in winter until minimum temperatures are above 15 degrees C and maximum reach 25 or more, plus the rainstorm effect.

We had one on Monday 1st and I photographed the tubispathus on Thursday 4th... I last visited the collection on the previous Friday 28, but I'm confident that there were no signs of scapes...

Zeph time... longistyla ex Córdoba (ARG, received from Uli), tubispatha (no data, from Gianluca Corazza), katheriniae (from Rimmer de Vries). The tubispatha are my first ones and though it's common in collections, I'm in love.

There will be plenty of seeds of katheriniae for the next EU-SX. I know that many people have it in the US, but it's rare in collections in Europe.

I only have one flowering plant of longistyla and it is self sterile, which is strange for a Zeph.


Longistyla

Katheriniae

Tubispatha

I get it. You have won some seeds of "number 5".Those other taxa closer to 'n° 15' seem to mimic dry grasses, for some reason, maybe to escape herbivores looking for the last green leaves to eat before the long summer drought..

Here another tiny jewel from Portugal. Number 20?

Hi, well, Martin, I wish I found a truly spectacular, stunning Allium, I think Uli's plant can be, but this is what I've got...

My "duty" is to try and name them if they are really new...

Went to look for an Allium which I have been told that it's new by the expert botanist Jean-Marc Tison (the greatest botanist in France at the moment, probably. They have nog bloomed because of the drought but I found a few immature bulbs, and several Muscari atlanticum and Allium moschstum wity seeds.



That's up in a small mountain, below it's full of houses, but some plots remain more or less untouched, waiting to be sold...

I detected from the car some small Allium in bloom and there it was, another Allium sp nov I previously knew only from three sites 30 to 40 km further south...

They will be destroyed someday so I think I did no harm by taking some bulbs and seeds.

Allium pruinatum. A delicacy from SW Iberian Peninsula.



Allium ionicum. A delicacy from Southern Greece.

Hi, prior to my article on Allium featuring part of my research, and partly funded by an MSI grant, for which I am so grateful, here goes one of the Allium sp. nov. I have been lucky enough to identify since I started in June, 2021:




Description and illustration are under process, I can only tell thet I received these yesterday from somewhere in Seville province, Spain.

Stay tuned.

Hi, Rimmer, that plant is amazing!! Press dry a piece of a green leaf for me, please...

Yes it is a Beschorneria!! I hadn't paid attention.

I hope the level of the river is lower now...

Zephyranthes filifolia (I think) ex Uli 

Hello everyone.

I had placed an order to Shire Bulbs and another one to the SA Bulb Company with a colleague before the orders from the PSB were placed, so I have my bulbs (photo attached).

Overall it all went OK but we had an issue with VAT and I think it is advisable to ask Leigh if she can give directions to DHL (I assume we are going to choose DHL, as we had the bulbs delivered in France within 4 days, after being almost 10 days sitting in the premises of Mailwise (Mail-lazy?), once they finally shipped they would have taken three weeks more to get to the EU!!)

I told Leigh about it and got no answer but I'm getting used to that when I email her. The % of VAT is calculated using the total amount in the invoice, it's not a fixed amount like the phytosanitary tax, so in big orders it can be quite considerable.


"Hi, Leigh, ------ has the bulbs, it was really fast, thanks. There has been an issue with DHL as they declared the contents as "dried flowers"which was charged a VAT of 20% instead of declaring "living plants", which are charged 10% only.

By doing it that way, the import tax was 10% and not  5.1% and though we skipped the phytosanitary tax of 31.50 euro, overall we paid more in taxes.

It seems that DHL does this randomly (we had a previous order from another supplier declared as Tonka beans - Dipteryx odorata, I had to look it up), but I thought that they had enough experience to be aware that bulbs are living plants, why else do they carry a phyto?

Maybe you can try to make it clear for the European orders from the PSB (I don't know how it goes in the USA).

Anyway, ------- complained to DHL, we might have some money back. [Note: no answer from DHL]

Finally it seems that if the invoice comes in ZAR, the VAT will be lower, at least that was what happened with the other seller. This is something you don't have to know, I suppose".

I had some bulbs of Eucrosia bicolor I managed to import from Thailand (yes, it's easy to find in the US) in a bag with substrate to send to a colleague, and when I went to look for them this is what I found. They must be got wet with the last rain (over a month ago)...



So my colleague will have to wait, or I'll have to bring them to Barcelona (he is on chemo unfortunately, but it seems to be working).

Hi, I have been researching a bit on the local Hymenocallis and I think it might be Hymenocallis guatemalensis, but there is not much information on it.

I would like to get in contact with the collector to know if the plant was found in a wild station or cultivated.

https://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/files/Hymenocallis/Hymenocallis_sp_ex_Guatemala.jpg

Ok. I think I saw footage of that, but could have been a fake.

This is not fake: i was cleaning some wild corms of Colchicum aff. montanum and I saw a tiny seedling which had germinated in the very neck formed by the tunics. 

Surely the seed fell into the hole formed after the leaves and stalk dry up and germinated just below the ground.