PBS Forum

This reminds me that when I have received emails with a subject line being the taxonomic name of one of the many plants with the species epithet formed from the Latin adjective for 'black' (niger nigra, nigrum), the message gets tagged with a red chili pepper, signifying offensive content. Earthlink apparently believes it's a message from a nasty racist who can't spell either.

Last year both of my large B. josephinae developed a pronounced curve in their inflorescence stalks.  One is in the front garden and one in the rear.  The front one is pictured. Why they did this is a mystery to me.  Has anyone else experienced this?  The one in back grew nearly horizontal to the ground after emerging.

Jim
Santa Barbara

My Boophone haemanthoides have suddenly decided to bloom but this bulb has 2 flowering stalks!  This is a first for me.

I presume they are still dormant, if so, you can store them til fall. I've lifted commercial Babiana and they do fine with dry coolish storage, apparently not needing a warm dormancy satisfied. I've also left them in dry soil under cool conditions, and in the ground with moisture and cool conditions...this is San Francisco, after all. They all grow the same in the fall after watering starts. It may be that more exotic species Babiana will be more demanding.

I've had more bulb losses in pots where the soil never dried out or got accidental moisture than storing bare and dry. Indeed, there are plastic sorting trays filled with bulbs sitting on the top shelf near the grow lights getting their warm dormancy satisfied.

I agree on the damage in bud, as the stem leaves look good. 

I grow Babiana, am in the Pacific Northwest, and would recommend planting, watering a little, but keeping cool for the summer to keep the bulbs from drying out. Which reminds me, I need to rescue mine from under a sword fern before fall comes. 

I planted 5 Amaryllis belladonna bulbs from my parents' yard about 25 years ago. The original bulbs were planted 100 years ago by the first owner of that house. 

These are pink, no stripes, not dark, not white, plain pink, and in my climate usually flower between mid August and late September, depending on  how warm the summer is. Leaves are up from mid fall through mid spring.

This week I dug up the last three clumps, as they had divided so much that the upper bulbs were at the surface. I found 30-40 bulbs in each clump, with more than 100 in all. I replanted one in each original hole, and now have over 80 bulbs looking for a new home. 

If anyone is interested, please contact me using my email address, kathleen.sayce@gmail.com. Your cost will be whatever the shipping costs are. 

The view from England on the 16th July. Its been a very cold Summer, yet some things keep to the timetable.

The lily cheered me up big flowers with little trouble and scented. When I started growing lilies, 20 years ago, lily beetles were unknown this far North, it is now getting to the point where it is not worth growing them.

Jim McKenney used to talk of the "tawny family curse" regarding day lilies.

Montbretia
Cosmos 'Cherry Chocolate'
Agapanthus
Dahlia/Begonia
Hemerocalis
A nice lily

You never know. At first I thought it might be a Rubus volunteer (thanks to bird distribution). but then I though the pot has always been in the greenhouse, so maybe a volunteer Pelargonium (not many dicots that produce seeds in there). Lets wait and see.

I think it was the 4th leaf that started the progression towards Pel. bowkeri. The last leaf is entirely typical for bowkeri. On mature bowkeri plants, even the tiniest stem buds produce fimbriated leaves.

Robert
in wet, cool San Francisco
where Pelargonium bowkeri has to live in the greenhouse because it melts in the fog.