February 2025

[Too Many Plants!]

It's been a nearly totally dry winter for So Cal so far. Until this past Wednesday which brought us 3 rainy/drizzly days. So my Moraea PolyStachya have been sticking around since August. Though you can see they're winding down. I do believe this latest rain will encourage their finishing for the year.

Moraea PolyStachya 

[Too Many Plants!]

Lovely stuff

still in love with Romuleas and Narcissus

Clusiana from Gibraltar, these come from the first seeds I got in an SX, from Gibraltar ex Oron Peri through Uli Urban.

Requienii

Tempskyana from Turkey

Ramiflora wild, 

Gagea 

Moraea sisyrinchium. I hope to be back when those thousands of plants are in flower.

Drimia purpurascens

Love that thinner leaved dark purple Romulaea!
AND...Awesome leaves on that Drimia Purpurascens!!

[Too Many Plants!]

Romulea Setifolia - consistently one of my earliest winter flowerers.

[Carlos]

Crocus carpetanus at over 1000 m in NE Portugal. One of the two winter-flowering Crocus in the Iberian peninsula, the other one being C. nevadense. Took by a contact.

[Arnold]

Arum creticum x palaestinum

[Diane Whitehead]

WOW!!!

Did you make the cross?

[Arnold]

Diane

No it was made by Angel Porcelli in Italy.

I'm not sure which is the pod parent, though

[Uli]

Yes! A fantastic plant. I also got one and the flowers are spectacular and the whole plant is quite big. Unfortunately it is a sterile hybrid, or does yours set seed, Arnold? Thought I had a picture at hand but didn't seem to have taken any.

[Uli]

Some impressions from my garden. We had a lot of rain so some flowers are spoilt but these withstood.
Today it felt as if winter is over here in southern Portugal.

First picture Romulea clusiana

Iris cretensis

Lachenalia hybrid 

Tropaeolum tricolor 

[NOTLbelladonna]

What fabulous flowers! I am jealous. While your garden is in bloom, mine is covered in 1/2 meter of snow.
Laura in Niagara

[Uli]

Hello Laura,

I am still impressed about how many Mediterranean plants you can grow in your climate. Maybe the thick snow cover is the secret?

[Rdevries]

I need ID  help on this untagged hippeastrum. it is a medium size bloom. measured today with the 2 large blooms about 12cm and the 1 small bloom about 9cm. 

I first thought it was H. puniceum per the PBS wiki
https://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/HippeastrumSpeciesTwo#puniceum

but it does not look like the Telos example.

https://telosrarebulbs.com/product/hippeastrum-blossfeldiae/

It looks like Telos' Blossfieldii but my My Blossfieldii are still asleep

https://telosrarebulbs.com/product/hippeastrum-blossfeldiae/

and it looks like a very large H stratum, but again all my known H stratum are still asleep or barely waking.
https://telosrarebulbs.com/product/hippeastrum-striatum/

first 4 photos from 10 Feb, last 3 photos from today 21 Feb

[Rdevries]

first 2 pics are  my H Blossfieldii from April 2024 and the last pic if the unknown plant from 10 February 2025

[Carlos]

I think it is blossfeldiae. Different clones / strains can wake up at different times.

I think that the first two photos on the wiki feature blossfeldiae as well. Blossfeldiae offsets freely and lives at near sea level, often on sandy soil above the tidal level, and the described site in Hawai'i just matches that habitat.

Puniceum has a paraperigone with bristles (fimbriated) and blossfeldiae does not, if I remember well.

[Arnold]

Ferraria variabilis

Ferraria divaricata

Lachenalia sp