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I was thrilled that Crinum 'Stars and Stripes opened today.

I have found that most snails and slugs are clever enough to use pellets as some sort of obstacle course. I will go out at night before going to bed with a salt shaker and it seems to deter others.

In spite of bad weather, wind, rain and more wind, spring is trying to happen in the Azores. The hedychium are sprouting and I have this Moraea elegans:

I find that in the Azores they are a late summer/early fall bloomer. I have them in the ground and let them have a dry summer. Strangely, I bought the original bulbs in Germany at a supermarket.

This opened today, and it is a Gladiolus, but is it species or hybrid? I have several Gladiolus, and when I repotted everything last summer, I put a bunch of bulbs that weren't labeled together and this came up. 

This is finally blooming, a dark leaf Oxalis purpurea 'Garnet'.

I find that my South African bulbs do just fine outside in the rain, and it rains a lot here during the winter, as long as they are in well draining soil. Bagacina, a lava rock product, does well as an additive. Once the sun gets high enough, my oxalis will finally open. There are fields that are full of the dreaded O. pes-caprea that will be opening soon.

One of my hybrids, Gladiolus huttonii x Gladiolus undulatus is in bloom. I caught a photo when the first flower opened, but since then the wind has beat up the other flowers on it. It is in a raised bed with the neighbor's cement block wall in the background.

I live on the north side of Terceira, on the north side of the street, and during this time of year I get sun on the roof of my house but nothing in the front yard due to the neighbors having metrosideros trees that block the sun from November to February. In the back of the house, it gets lots of sun. The Ferraria I have do a lot better in the back and while they grow in the front, they may not flower. The light is strong enough in the front that my daylilies still give flowers.

Speaking of daylight sensitive, my poinsettia bush that I have outside has colored up nicely without needing any of that darkness treatment. We grow them in the ground around here.

My current background photo on my computer is of 'Abu Simbel' from the Exbury Nerine collection:

Quote from: KenP on November 11, 2022, 11:28:09 AMParamongaia weberbaueri (winter growing)

Three years ago I purchased one near flowering sized bulb. Second year in flower. I also purchased 5 'summer' growing bulbs. The 5 came up in summer for two years but this year nothing. Fall of this year they emerged. I guess they are not summer growers after all.

I used the microwave method Uli wrote about, and it looks hopeful for seed! It has been a month, and the pod, while not very large, has not withered and the scape is still strong.

Mine has to be a 2 petal/2 sepal daylily. There are lots of 4 and 5 polymerous types, but the 2 petaled one is very rare.

I came to the Geophyte world through Daylilies. When you start the seeds from a single pod, they are considered to be genetically different from each other even if they look similar. So I am wondering if this also applies to seed propagated Nerines. In a bag of gift bulbs, I received many small immature bulbs that are now flowering for the first time and I am wondering how they should be treated when they look similar to each other. Example:
 and  
They look alike, but are not offsets on my end. Should I give each its own seperate ID number?

I had received all different sizes of Nerine bulbs, and there are about 10 that finally reached flowering size and have scapes. (I also have 35 scapes on named varieties). The others will need time to bulk up, and they will be moved to larger pots next year. Then I do collect and sow any seeds that form and have a number of those growing.

In the last EU Bx, there was a very generous donation by Exbury Nerines. In the final year before Brexit closed trade with the EU, I had bought some bulbs from them and they very generously included over 30 unbloomed bulbs as a gift. Well, the first ones are starting to bloom, so here a couple of what can be anticipated from those who are lucky enough to get some. The last one is "Amethyst Delight' in a purple pot.

I sent some of the bulbs to Uli a couple of years ago, so one of us will have some results soon, I hope.