August 2023 photos

[Wylie]

That is the Crinum which has growth during the summer and dies back in the fall. My 'Rose Fonce' looks like this:

[Uli]

Hello Wylie,

Also more color intensive than mine, very nice!

Uli 

[David Pilling]

Arum pictum italicum fruits

[Uli]

This is the set of tubers from Dracunculus canariensis. Interesting to see that it produces stolons. Some are still attached to the mother tubers, whereas with others the attachment point had withered and the stolon is detached. These are seed grown plants but I remember having seen wild plants in habitat in Tenerife always growing in colonies. The ball pen serves as a comparison for scale.

[Rdevries]

Seedling presumably from Sinningia 'Bananas Foster'

[Carlos]

Seen in the Val d'Aran, Spanish Pyrenees in late August.

Allium ericetorum



Swertia perennis



Lilium pyrenaicum. Unripe seeds!!



Colchicum montanum, including a white one.

[Carlos]

The white C. montanum



And some of the Saxifraga given to the EX-07

S. media



S. umbrosa



S. pubescens subsp. iratiana



S. aquatica



S. oppositifolia - much showier in bloom



Carlos

[gastil]

Every August this white intergeneric hybrid of Amaryllis blooms. I do not know its parentage. I got the bulb as part of a huge pile of Amaryllis, mostly the ordinary pink, that was dug out to build a parking lot back in the 1990's. It has multiplied and it blooms true from seed, although quite a few years later. I have sent in some recalcitrant seed collected today and the past week. For me, here, every seed sprouts whether planted or not. I just set them on top of sand and neglect them. Some seeds sunburn pink but whether white or pink all seeds bloom white. Occasionally blooms are double, not nested double, more like conjoined twins. Since it blooms in August, I put the photos in this topic. 

[David Pilling]

Gastil - beautiful flowers which I envy. In the first photo they look smaller than typical.

[gastil]

the stalks are thicker but about the same length and the individual flowers wider and longer than ordinary Amaryllis belladonna. The groups of flowers is the thing so much bigger because it is radially symmetrical, not all flopping to one side like the ordinary pink ones, nor the ordinary white variety. I do not have a photo with a grid or ruler. Normally these do not overlap in bloom time with the pink ones but in 2020 they did so here is a photo with both, for comparison. 

[Uli]

Hello @gastil,

Very interesting! Your white Amaryllis hybrid could be the famous hybrid Hathor or an offspring of it. I have seen the true Hathor in the greenhouses of the late Harry Hay in England but never managed to get hold of a bulb. It certainly is one of the best if not the best white hybrid. The radially symmetrical arrangement of the flowers is due to the Brunsvigia parentage of this group of hybrids.
On checking I came across this old contribution in the PBS list archives.

https://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/pbslist/2005-August/isomehpv7sccr9us0lp4ia1ur3.html

[gastil]

Hi @Uli , Interesting to read that PBS List post from 2005. Someone had told me mine were most likely a hybrid with Brunsvigia. My bulbs do grow with 2/3 above-ground and are more round in shape than the A. belladonna bulbs. I'm pretty sure mine are self-fertile, as they set seed w/o any other similar ones nearby. In the rare case the ordinary pink ones are still in bloom, I cut those to prevent cross-pollenation (in the years I pay attention.) 

The petals are not very "ruffled" but are not completely straight either. So maybe this is more like 'Harbord'. And 'Hathor' was infertile. Mine are quite fertile. I also have an all-white A. belladonna with the shape and size of ordinary pink A. belladonna and those are completely infertile, and bloom latest. Also in a follow-up list post Hathor is described as having a "deep apricot centre". Mine have more of a "lemon" center. 

I searched the PBS List Archive for Hathor and found a photo with the same coloring as mine but hers had only 3 flowers on one stem whereas mine have zillions. And her petals are more ruffled. 

The last post was by the late Bill The Bulb Baron, who likely could have identified my bulb. He mentions 'Hathor' needs "hot dry spring-summer followed by heavy late summer rain." That happened this year and I did get the best bloom ever. He mentioned leaves. My bulbs have leaves the same color as ordinary A. belladonna, but wider and thicker. There is no sign of a glaucous color but the thickness does attest to the Brunsvigia heritage. I've never seen disease spots in their leaves. Also I notice these need less sun than ordinary A. belladonna. 

As I originally wrote, mine came to me without a label, part of a huge scale bulb rescue. 

Well mine are in the mail on their way to Lisa  who will be offering these recalcitrant seeds so some PBS members will get to grow them, whatever its parentage.