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foliage identical is not really an issue - that' t true for almost everything in that tribe.

Quote from: Randy Linke on July 10, 2024, 09:22:42 AMthe foliage is pleated.

Pleated foliage -> Tribus Tigridieae, no Neomarica. I'd go for Phalocallis coelestis - it's common in trade, sometimes as cypella coelestis or cypella gigantea

A little update: All packages from Box 1 are now on their way - I withheld them during the weekend due to tropical temperatures, didn't want them to cook in the Pack Staition. Everyone in the first batch already has received a personal email tonight, so if you have not heard from me, you'll be in box two (as are Uli's and my own orders, so we are motivated to push things on)

@Wylie great to see I did chose flowering size bulbs, as intended - both species are about to flower here as well, where both ave proven hardy.

@Aad great to see you sharing the joys of our EX!

So now's time to wrap up June, which was even wetter than May, with a grand total (for now - somethins's cooking in the tropical air) 230 l/m² (=230 mm) - no surprise that my Hostas look like Monstera and some of the dahlias still didn't reach 5 cm height. At least Mirabilis multiflora seems to have finally reached the point of no more slug-down. but tose beasts also killed off a second year seeling of Clivia gardenii. But let's see what has survived:

Starting with something sold as yellow form of Bletilla striata

Height:	10-30 cm (0.3-1 ft)
Flower Colors:	pink, purple, blue, white
Life form:	deciduous rhizome
Climate:	USDA Zone 7-9

- it actually doesn't seem to be a ochracea, so "yellow striata" may be right? As always: rain from above is not popular with Bletilla. Another orchid in flower ist this hybrid Epipactis - I'm not too great i telling the hybrids apart - Summer? passion? Epipactis tend to "rhizoom" around, not making this any easier.

The potted Cautleya spicata

already has opened up, the outdoor specimen will need a few days more. Also early (for the Genus, not for the species) is Tricyrtis latifolia.

New in the list of survivors in the outside garden is this Freesia - I wouldn't dare to say either grandiflora or laxa, as both seed around. Ferraria welwitschii

Height:	30-45 cm (1-1.5 ft)
Flower Colors:	yellow, brown, patterned
Flower Season:	early summer

seems to once again prefer flowering in early summer, I've also seen them flowering synchronous with fall crocus - they seem to decide spontaneously, maybe depending on whether summer heat came early.

Next one is maybe not exactly a geophyte despite living underground most of the year. It's Orobanche centauriana (syn O. kochii), growing on Centauriana scabiosa - a very welcome surprise finding after heavy rain threw down the Centaurea. Growing parasites always is tricky and nerve-wrenching - I had put the seeds to that parent plant in fall 2021, and this is the first overground sign since then.

last one is a beautiful mutant flower of a Zantedeschia hybrid. would be brilliant if one could force those...

@Robert_Parks love that blue potato. I once tried blue-fleshed potatoes, but they flowered pale lilac for me.

time for more orchids: Epipactis thunbergii, Bletilla ochracea

Height:	20-30 cm (0.7-1 ft)
Flower Colors:	yellow, white
Life form:	corm

, Bletilla striata

Height:	10-30 cm (0.3-1 ft)
Flower Colors:	pink, purple, blue, white
Life form:	deciduous rhizome
Climate:	USDA Zone 7-9

'Blue Dragon', Bletilla striata

Height:	10-30 cm (0.3-1 ft)
Flower Colors:	pink, purple, blue, white
Life form:	deciduous rhizome
Climate:	USDA Zone 7-9

'Trilips' and Bletilla 'Brigantes'

Height:	30-45 cm (1-1.5 ft)
Flower Colors:	pink, yellow
Life form:	corm

don't get me wrong, Carlos, that silvery species from #5 is stunning and has, depending on ease of culture conditions, definitely ornamental value, especially if someone wanted to max the effect of a "black & white garden" with the silvery stem. It's just the #15 one that seems to follow the evolutionary idea of being completely invisible in a stack of hay...

Hope you're not too upset Carlos when I say that Allium is interesting, but not spectacular... I guess the land owners won't miss it much.

I'll start today with a comparison of Oxalis stipularis (small pale pink) with Oxalis magnifica

( 2 o'clock, biggest, purple) and Oxalis lasiandra

(7 o'clock, more flowers than magnifica per stalk, slightly smaller, closes slightly earlier in the afternoon, magenta purple) All of them interesting and useful, but all with the potential of becoming pot weeds when substrate is reused. All were already available at the EX.

Also from the EX is Arisaema candidissimum

, first flowering in the 3rd year after receiving them in EX04. Ophiopogon chingii was also offered in EX before (by me) but surprises me this year with excessive flowering.

Next one is Cardiocrinum giganteum

, which flowers for two years in a row for the first time for me. and i finally managed to stick my nose in there. brilliant!

Back to the smaller scale there is Anacamptis pyramidalis

Height:	30-60 cm (1-2 ft)
Flower Colors:	pink, purple
Flower Season:	late spring to early summer
Life form:	tuber

and Gymnadenia conopsea

Height:	45-80 cm (1.5-2.6 ft)
Flower Colors:	pink, white
Flower Season:	early summer

, both local natives, and in the bog Pogonia ophioglossoides goes rampant. There are no weedy orchids, they say.... Less weedy is is of course Disa kewensis, which of course grows in a pot in my climate.

Last but not least, and stayig in the same color family is Hieronymiella marginata

- the "half-naked" hibernation method seems to be the right idea for repeated flowering - it even slowly forms offsets, but it will take time to have enough for the EX...

I've moved the river discussion part to general discussion We're fine here now, but people at the (now not so blue) Danube are still in trouble. 

Anyway, the Beschorneria is originally from Cotsworld Garden flowers, so it's a pre-brexit order and was sold as basic septentrionalis, no special form or cultivar. They don't offer it anymore.

ah, the beauty of the metric system Yes, mm is the official measurement here as well, though in my experience most non-technical people have a better comprehension of volume per area, even though the linear measurement tells how high the water would stand if it didn't drain away...

Thing is, it may be no news in the future - though it's statistically a "century flood", it will be more and more common.

Last night again was more critical than expected. I've been immensely lucky - both two villages upstream and one downstream, desaster struck, while we were spared. This video is in German, but the images tell enough - these are literally situations in a radius of less than 10 Kilometers around my home. My personal weather station tells me almost 160 l/m² since Friday, monthly expected average for June is about 100l/m²

I'll cut this one out of the picture topic and move it....

Hi and welcome to the Forum!

We'll need a little more information: where are you (Hemisphere? Climate?), what is the status of the bulb (resting/in the green/ with/without roots/ adult or juvenile....) - everything helps.

A little follow-up to the wet flower pics: we had 94l/m² in the last 36 hours. this water level is already at least 50 cm above my street level and 4m above normal, so it would reach my front door ("Hochpaterre"), but for now the dike is holding. Rain slowed down but likely won't stop until another 6 hours...

Atheists don't pray, Engineers calculate and watch the levels upstream. Bonus points if you know the flooding plans: the other side of the river will drown first if there are no failures of dikes and canal backflow flaps... Still, I'm feeling uneasy.

Seems my very wet May wil end in a very wet finale - until Sunday there are about 150l/m² predicted - let's hope the rivers can deal with this... anyway, yesterday there was a sunny break in between showers, allowing for some wet flower beauty shots:

Lets start with the Alliums: Allium cristophii

already sparkles when dry, but the water adds another layer. For such a big plant it's astonishingly weedy seeding around. Allium obliquum

Height:	60-100 cm (2-3.3 ft)
Flower Colors:	yellow
Flower Season:	late spring to early summer

is more well behaved but multiplies enough to be slowly moved to more places in the garden - too bad the timing is a little bit off this year as they are brilliant in combination with European gladiolus.

Speaking about combinations: the next one is Iris filifolia

with Beschorneria septentrionalis - the latter one being a classic example what should not be on the wiki (together with Hesperaloe) but also a favorite in seed exchange. Staying on the Iris topic, the Iris spuria

s really put up a show. If anyone has an idea as to why the upper leaves turn yellow? couldn't bee too dry as we're drowning, so it may be too wet?

Also going for mass effect is one of the summer Oxalis, I think it's Oxalis stipularis, we may have to add that to the Wiki in time. Less weedy and more of a pain to bulk up some stock is of course Weldenia candida

- give me another 5 years and I can contribute some to the EX 

Last but not least is my first flower of Tigridia chiapiensis - it seems to be easy for some but I always failed to grow them from seed so I had to resort to buying a bulb. Sidenote on Tigridia: This year, several pavonias have survived the winter planted out in the garden. climate change, hooray!

Lets start off-classic, with Phlomoides tuberosa - glorious detail, far less impressive as whole plant - I may need more of them for an effect, but they are actually quite popular with the slugs...

Third is Luzuriaga radicans from the Altroemeriaceae,as the twisted leaves hint at. Smallish plant, evergreen and so maybe not too tuberous...

On the orchid front it's Dactylorhiza time, with the pale Dactylorhiza incarnata subsp. ochroleuca and a purple one I can't really put a label on since most species are hellish difficult to tell apart. On the sphagnum I seem to start to get seedlings of Dactylorhiza, guess there are worse things than a weedy orchid...

On the classical iris front we have Iris sibirica "Butter and Sugar" and Iris fulva

. Staying within Iridoideae, last one is Moraea huttonii

, which flowered 1.5 years after planting - last spring, half-grown stalks were aborted. I hope that's just a temporal effect during establishing, they are too nice to be erratic. Hardy to at least -11°C

@Carlos: what a beautiful color palette on that muscari! love it!

OK, I've been lazy with the may postings so there's something from the backlogs...

1st one is Anemonoides soyensis, which is only a fraction of A. nemorosa in size, as the euro coin provesTiming may be off as I planted it only this year. Also from the first days of the month: Tulbaghia simmleri

, and a comparison of Anacamptis morio

Height:	20-45 cm (0.7-1.5 ft)
Flower Colors:	pink, purple, white
Flower Season:	mid spring to late spring

(front) and Orchis mascula

Height:	45-60 cm (1.5-2 ft)
Flower Colors:	pink, purple
Flower Season:	late spring to early summer
Life form:	tuber

(background).

Next ones, second week of May are Libertia grandiflora

and the proof that Camassia leichtlinii

is a truely beautiful weed, pops up everywhere.

More up to date: Moraea simulans

and Gladiolus anatolicus

Height:	20-30 cm (0.7-1 ft)
Flower Colors:	pink
Flower Season:	mid spring

.