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I haven't had too much luck starting Hedychiums from seed that I purchased, so I mixed two of the species I had and got a nice strong color. I used Hedychium rubrum x Hedychium gardneranum. The H.gardneranum is considered a weed in the Azores.

I'll post a photo of my Hedychium when there is a really good display, which should be in the next week. Here is a photo of just up the street, it was taken on the 13th. Today it is overcast and about 25°

Thanks @Uli for the info. I hope the summer isn't being too bad for you. It finally hit here mid-July and I was worried a lot of the bulbs wouldn't get a dry summer rest. But now it is around 26° and very little wind. I have a strong orange xHedychium that is starting to open.  I crossed H. rubrum x H. gardneranum.
Wylie

I have been repotting bulbs that haven't been touched in awhile, and I would like to contribute the excess to the Bx (EU) coming up soon. So is there a minimum that should be included, and in packaging them should it be in one envelope or in several envelopes. I couldn't find any guidelines for contributions, either bulbs or seeds. I understand about everything being cleaned and free of dirt and husks, it is just how to package them and make Martin's job easier.

Quote from: David Pilling on June 14, 2022, 06:24:45 AMGardeners warned to report weird froth on plants linked to deadly disease

The spittle looks like a ball of spit

https://www.lancs.live/news/lancashire-news/gardeners-warned-report-weird-froth-24209380?int_source=nba


Scientists are worried that a deadly plant disease known as Xyella could be spread between plants by the spittlebug as a carrier. The Xyella disease has devastated olive groves in Italy in the past few years and experts have called Xyella one of the world's most dangerous pathogens.

This came out several years ago and the EU banned a long list of plants from being imported into the EU. Daylilies were on that list and it killed the import of new cultivars. In order to receive a phytosanitary certificate, daylily roots are very, very clean, but they are no longer allowed in. Nettles are also on that list that has 595 plants listed as hosts.

I have found that all of the gladiolus species I have are about the size of yours. They lack the large size the popular hybrids have. They can also last a shorter amount of time and have fewer buds. Given all that, I still wouldn't trade them for those others.

My piece of Fuchsia Bolivianna came from some woods I bought. It was just growing up there, wild. I liked it so much I got the white form from a dealer in France. They look good side by side.

Mine are in a 18" pot and towards the bottom. They have gone dormant and I just put the pot to one side and let the infrequent July/August rain provide water. I used a potting soil with lots of coconut fiber and fine lava rocks (what else could I use since the Azores has few sandy beaches but lots of dormant volcanos). It has multiplied so much I need to divide and repot this year.

Uli: We have the Oxalis pes-caprae in the Azores. There are some of the little squares that the farmers have that are completely yellow with them. Cows won't eat them so there is no control.

The wild Allium is probably A. subvillosum, commonly called Wild Garlic. I have a few plants growing wild, but it needs to be thinned every couple of years. I do have another Allium that has fairly small bulbs and stalks that are 2 meters tall with purple flowers. I pull it out and it keeps returning - it is also in flower now.

Hedychium gardnerianum is an invasive rhizome. But the leaves are used when making traditional bread. My house has a traditional oven. It looks like a giant pizza oven and is built of lava rocks to help retain heat. You make the fire inside of it and then put the dough wrapped in the Hedychium leaves off to the side to bake. It grows in just about every dry stream bed on every island in the Azores. Tourists like it, so they don't go overboard pulling it out.

For these I used the insert from an Ikea shelving unit. It is 3 sided, 12" flat black. Give it a little angle so there is no shine from the sun. It is mobile and easy to arrange in the back. Also, if the flower is in a pot, I use stairs to position them. I tried using GIMP to edit photos, but it is way too hard with no one around to explain how to do things, so I have to get inventive.

Thanks - that link works for me, although I didn't see a difference in the one I was using. The diamond dusting on their nerines is captivating.

Talking about not being able to see a site, Exbury Nerines is the same way. It uses the excuse that I am not secure, but that only happened since Brexit took effect. Fortunately I panic bought and a lot of unnamed seedlings were included in my last order, so I do have a lot of their nerines which are now going dormant.

I post photos on Flickr (www.flickr.com/photos/wylieyoung/) and one of the groups I am in is for flowers with jet black backgrounds. Since a lot of the bulbs I grow are in pots, this can be easy to arrange the pot and a black backdrop. Others require a little work, but it really highlights the flower. These are some of the bulbs in bulb now.