Sept. photos

[Arnold]

Colchicums.  Label long gone

[Uli]

This particularly elegant form of Amaryllis belladonna is flowering for the very first time in my garden. The bulbs were given to me some years ago and were originally raised from wild collected seed. I like the faint touch of pink in the white flowers.

[Wylie]

The first of the xAmarines is blooming. This is supposed to have been developed by the Dutch firm van Tubergen and named after their nursery at Zwanenburg House, so it is xAmarine tubergenii 'Zwanenburg'.

[Judy Glattstein]

Love the Rhodophia bifida, flowering in scarcely a week after transition from greenhouse to outdoors, exploding into bloom triggered by the deluge

[Martin Bohnet]

@Arnold  sorry, but that Colchicum color seems to be smart phone image correction on an amok course.
@Judy Glattstein Always a nice effect to have them synchronous - mine reacted strangely on all the strange weather and spread over several weeks in different positions

@Wylie I take your xAmarine tubergenii and raise by xAmarcrinum 'Fred Howard' - now I wish I'd ever gotten the "plant in between" back to flower, but Amarillis belladonna only ever give leaves to me besides the first year and, other than the Amarine, which seems perfectly hardy, the Amaryllis leaves suffer from hard frosts.

In the mean time, I have finally gotten Agave amica back to flowering - seems they liked the wetter and cooler summer. Staying in the color family, I've got one of my Eucomis pole-evansii

seedlings to flower size - years after the other one, so I'm surprised that this one is more whitish and less cream than its sibling. I actually like both.

Finishing with another color double - first a Hedychium deceptum

Height:	80-120 cm (2.6-3.9 ft)
Flower Colors:	red
Flower Season:	late summer to mid autumn
Climate:	USDA Zone 8-9

, far earlier than I'm used to it due ti the cold and wet August around here. But the last one is even more of a surprise for me - The timing is better than what I'm used to, but actually I thought that to be a pink form of Hesperantha coccinea

- do they sponaneously return to the main form like some variegated plants lose their variegation (or switch to full white and die) in some shoots?

[Arnold]

Habranthus brachyandrus Cherry Pink

Very old plant not sure of the ID

[Arnold]

Couple of more shots of the Colchicums.  I believe the white is Colchicum byzantinum Alba

[David Pilling]

Photo 1 shows that the Amaryllis belladonna bloom line passed through Blackpool on Sunday heading towards the North Pole.

There are quite a few flower spikes appearing, which is nice. Some years I get none.

The Summer was cold and wet. First week in September was hot. Always discussion of how to make Amaryllis flower. That brings me to Photo 2, which is a Hosta flower stalk. I've no doubt it is not unheard of, but seems unusual for them to have an Autumnal flush - they did and usually do flower at the end of Spring.

Another thing about Amaryllis is that they are scented.

[Robert_Parks]

@Wylie I take your xAmarine tubergenii and raise by xAmarcrinum 'Fred Howard' - now I wish I'd ever gotten the "plant in between" back to flower, but Amarillis belladonna only ever give leaves to me besides the first year and, other than the Amarine, which seems perfectly hardy, the Amaryllis leaves suffer from hard frosts.

Easy to get leaves, hard to get flowers with Amaryllis in off conditions. If they are generally healthy, a simulated fire can prompt blooming...weed whacking the leaves near the end of the season, clearing overgrowth in the spring/summer may give sudden results!

But, as you know, a cold winter is a problem, and they perform poorly potted.

I've planted a lot of Amaryllis in the street median, which suits them well, sun, poor soils, and little competing plant growth. Some actually get substantial summer water from fog dripping off the street trees, but it doesn't affect flowering. Among the standard Amaryllis are obvious Brunsvigia hybrids, enormous fast growing bulbs, bigger inflorescences, and broader color ranges. Which is a reminder to stop babying my Brunsvigia seedlings and get them in the ground.

[janemcgary]

Re. the white-flowered selection identified as Colchicum byzantinum album,  this is now considered to be a clonal selection, and according to the new monograph by Grey-Wilson et al. (p. 459), "might all be referred to 'Innocence'. " The original stock is believed to have been sold to English growers by Van Tubergen.  The authors mention the variable pink tipping; I think coloration of colchicum flowers may be a response to temperature, as it is in many other kinds of flowers. Large colonies of 'Innocence' (received many years ago as C. b. album) are just finishing their flowering here in Oregon.It is one of the most vigorously increasing large colchicums in my garden.

[Carlos]

Hi, very busy with planting and sowing, worried about storms (about 100 mm from september 1st, which is a bit above average for our climate, and hail like medium-sized plums, which is unusual, there were injured people for the hailstones and even human casualties because of floods),but there are some flowers.


Narcissus obsoletus from Sicily (elegans for some)


Narcissus deficiens (old serotinus in part, miniatus for 'Koopowitz's school', obsoletus for Flora Iberica). One of the first wild daffodils seen in Spain this late summer, on Sept 17, Northern Castellón province, Spain.



Acis valentina



Hannonia hesperidum



Squilla maritima (not Drimia, nor Urginea anymore),wild in Castellón province, not far from the sea.



The massive Squilla numidica, with bulbs bearing brick-red sheaths and reaching the size of Cantaloup melons. This is known in the US as maritima, but it is not. It was used for tests to produce rat poison,but the project was not profitable and several thousand bulbs were given / retailed to a nursery. There's a paper telling the story. It occurs wild on the Balearics, northern Africa, Greece and Lampedusa island near Tunisia, but seems to be rare or absent from Malta and Sicily, where S pancration, with white coats, occurs. 

Carlos

[Uli]

Hello Carlos,

Is Squilla (not Scilla with a ,c') now the new correct name for Drimia maritima?

Yet a new set of labels to be written.....

Uli 

[Carlos]

It seems so, if no one demonstrates anything in contrary. At least the board of nomenclature has said that Squilla is sufficiently different from Scilla to be kept as a good genus.

I am doing my own research on the subject...

[Carlos]

Biarum tenuifolium ? Lost label


Muscari parviflorum


Prospero sp Turkey


Prospero autumnale 'var latifolium'


Narcissus cavanillesii SF268 - thanks to Dylan Hannon!!


Narcissus broussonetii

[Ron]

...This is known in the US as maritima, but it is not. It was used for tests to produce rat poison,but the project was not profitable and several thousand bulbs were given / retailed to a nursery. There's a paper telling the story...

Hi Carlos - I would be very interested to read that paper.  Do you know the title of the paper, or where is was published?