February 2024

[Too Many Plants!]

Very nice Arnold!

[Martin Bohnet]

Hi all, let's start today with where we actually are in this crazy spring in Germany - OK, the kaufmannianas are very early tulips, but I've never seen them in flower at the beginning of 3rd decade of February. Next one shows Crocus heuffelianus

and Colchicum szovitsii

side by side. Colchicum luteum

would flower as well but has been attacked by slugs.

Meanwhile, Asphodelus acaulis

has opened up on the front door stairs, always ready to be protected - but we actually had frost ONCE in February, and even thought Temperatures are announced to drop, it may still stay frost free for several days ahead.

Last two show a "long term project" - I actually bought Corybas incurvus before Brexit in fall 2019, and now almost lost that very first flower to a slug - in the greenhouse! Anyway, I really think this tops the Pterostylis with which it shares growing conditions both in tininess and bizarrity, close to a miniature Nintendo Piranha plant. By the way that's not Orchid Seramis, that's the normal thing...

[Robert_Parks]

Last two show a "long term project" - I actually bought Corybas incurvus before Brexit in fall 2019, and now almost lost that very first flower to a slug - in the greenhouse! Anyway, I really think this tops the Pterostylis with which it shares growing conditions both in tininess and bizarrity, close to a miniature Nintendo Piranha plant. By the way that's not Orchid Seramis, that's the normal thing...

I'm creating a festoon of little hanging baskets for the most heavily and persistently slug attacked miniature geophytes.

[Carlos]

What the..

I had never heard of that orchid, it is from another world (so many things in Australia are).

Had I known you had A. acaulis, I would have sent some pollen to you. But I was told that it realy is self fertile and it is true. Pedicels coil somewhat like in Cyclamen but not so dramatically, seemingly to get the fruit buried or as close to the ground as possible. 

Where is your plant from?

Carlos

[Arnold]

Lachenalia pallida pink form

[Too Many Plants!]

Lachenalia this afternoon from a different area of my garden. We've gotten a LOT of rain this winter for So Cal!

[Too Many Plants!]

More flowers at one time on my Moraea Elegans than I've EVER seen before! 
Loving it!! Sadly, with ALL the rain we've got, none of my PolyStachya are around now to cross pollinate. 😔

[Martin Bohnet]

Where is your plant from?

My Asphodelus acaulis

is from Bert Zaalberg, the Corybas was from Paul Christian. Strange that he removed it from his product archive, as I can still see the offer in Wayback Machine...

[Carlos]

Mine is from him, as well, but he has two clones. First came from Antoine Hoog, he told me himself.

I think we have the same one.

[Mike Lowitz]

Visited Anza Borrego Desert State Park 2-24-24. While the overall wild flower display was average to below average for the amount of rain. The H. Undulata were abundant.  In speaking to a ranger to discuss my observations, he shared it's one of the best seasons for desert lily in the past  several years. 

[Uli]

Very nice pictures of Anza Borrego, brings back happy memories....

[Mike Lowitz]

Thanks Uli,

Hopefully the low desert areas begin to warm and get a couple more opportunities for moisture this season  .   Poppy Season should be great in Southern California this year, already seeing patches show up here and there. 

[Lee Poulsen]

Has anyone figured out a way to grow Hesperocallis undulata in captivity? The seeds germinate very easily and grow just fine the first year. But almost never seem to come out of dormancy the second year except for a very few. And then that's it after they go dormant again. The following year, no sprouts and no bulblets either. I've tried to mimic the kind of soil/sand they grow in. (Maybe I should have stolen some of the sand itself last time I was out there. ) And one time many years ago, during the IBS era, mature bulbs were offered for sale once when a road construction project dug through a large patch of them and an IBS member was allowed to rescue them and offered them to the membership. I got one, put it in a very well draining medium with coarse sand and pumice and only a little organic matter, planted deeply in the largest tree pot I could obtain (about 20 inches/50 cm tall with a 6 in. × 6 in./15 cm × 15 cm square top), kept it warm and dry all summer and watered it sparingly during the winter. It never sprouted, so I dried the pot out, repotted it and found the bulb was still there and healthy looking. And tried again the next winter. Still no leaves. And later after I dried it out again, I found that the bulb had rotted.

I think I read somewhere a while back that the Theodore Payne Foundation has been trying to grow it in captivity and were getting close to figuring out how to do it. I haven't heard anything since then. Maybe they've figured it out? Maybe Telos could figure it out since they figured out how to grow another different desert bulb, Calochortus kennedyi, in captivity.

[Rdevries]

Tristagma violaceum, ex Nothoscordum sp. Flores & Watson 8485, Santiago, seed from BX 476 in 2021 is blooming for the first time. About 5-6" tall  

My first thought was it looked like Nothoscordum gracile which makes numerous tiny offsets can invade a collection or lawn if you ever had one or got one in a mislabel and reuse any soil. I hope this is better behaved. 

[Uli]

Let's have a look what is in flower right now...... on a sunny and windy cool day.

The second picture shows a plant which I have raised from seed from the Alpine Garden Society and which was labeled Sparaxis roxburghii. Comparing it with the pictures in the Wiki I think it is not this rare species. What do you think? It grows to about 30cm tall, I did not notice any scent.