September 2024

[Too Many Plants!]

Brunsvigia (Josephinae ?) update

I'm bringing this over to September as we are 6 days in...

Well, I'm bummed to say...we are having a major heat wave in So Cal, and yesterday we hit a high of 112F with 15% humidity. Today is slated to be even hotter🔥! And several days of heat in the 100's still to go 🫨. I'm reluctant to water this Brunsvigia much at all, I believe this should be it's summer dry season? I fear this weather is going to take its toll on my first ever flowering of this Brunsvigia 🤬

@Robin Jangle

[Too Many Plants!]

Amaryllis X Crinum

Here's one of my Amaryllis X Crinum bulbs that puts out flowers in different shades of pink. I believe I have at least a couple that do this.

These seem to do MUCH better in the heat and sun than most of the straight Amaryllis I have.

*and a second set of 3 pics of a darker pink version flowering and putting up with full sun pretty well in our 105°F 🌡� summer 🔥...

[David Pilling]

Nerine bowdenii today... sign of the end of Summer

[Arnold]

Cyclamen growing along a path just north of Rome in Calcata

[Uli]

This show of Amaryllis belladonna Rose Foncé is getting better every year. I was away and on my return I found this, some of the flowers are already over.....

[Too Many Plants!]

This show of Amaryllis belladonna Rose Foncé is getting better every year. I was away and on my return I found this, some of the flowers are already over.....

Very nice, Uli! What Aloe is that you're growing behind your fountain and Amaryllis???

[Uli]

I don't have a name of this Aloe. It was raised 34 years ago from seed from the outside slope of Ngorongoro crater in Tanzania.

[Too Many Plants!]

I don't have a name of this Aloe. It was raised 34 years ago from seed from the outside slope of Ngorongoro crater in Tanzania.

Can you post a picture of the plant, and flowers? I may be able to help...

[Uli]

Here is a picture of the whole plant on the edge of our terrace. For a picture of the flowers I would have to look in my archives.
Thank you very much for offering help

[Too Many Plants!]

Here is a picture of the whole plant on the edge of our terrace. For a picture of the flowers I would have to look in my archives.
Thank you very much for offering help

There aren't as many trunking Aloe species, so good pictures of the flowers will go a long way towards an ID, or at least narrowing down the species possibilities to maybe a couple. Also a couple better close up pics of the Aloe head, one from the side, and one from the top would help.

[Carlos]

Hi

I am not much into Aloe and there seems not to be specific papers on the flora if the Ngorongoro, but I found something generic on Tanzanian Aloe with distribution maps and I think that it could be Aloe volkensii.

[Too Many Plants!]

Hi

I am not much into Aloe and there seems not to be specific papers on the flora if the Ngorongoro, but I found something generic on Tanzanian Aloe with distribution maps and I think that it could be Aloe volkensii.

Hi Carlos...Aloe Volkensii is a more petite Aloe, and rarely solitary. I have Volkensii in my collection... There isn't much online that is comprehensive regarding Aloes. At least not yet. For proper reference you need to consult the latest books by the few Aloe experts that have been actively studying the different habitat regions more recently. As I stated previously, flowers are the key to ID'ing an Aloe! There are however, some species with unique enough foliage that they can be somewhat confidently ID'd without flowers. That said, if I was to venture a Guess, based on what I've seen so far, and the timeline that Aloe came into cultivation, there's a good chance it could be Ferox, or a Ferox hybrid. Ferox foliage is variable, but I think the trunk and dead leaves look to line up...of course if the plants origin seed came from cultivated plants there's a HIGH chance it could be a hybrid! The Aloe kingdom has to be the sluttiest plant group on earth 🌍!!!

Of course if the seed ACTUALLY came from habitat some nearly 40 years ago, and that habitat locale was accurately described, then it may not be Ferox.

[Too Many Plants!]

More Amaryllis flowers, or possibly the Amaryllis X Crinum I got from an old timer collector. The anthers look a bit different to me than the ones he labeled for me as A x C. Comments are welcome...

[Uli]

Thank you very much for trying to identify my Aloe. I am sorry that I cannot supply any further information right now, I am too busy with repairs on our house and swimming pool.
I can say that I remember the habitat very well. The Aloes were very tall with thick massive stems, always very upright and straight (my own plant is curved because it grew in the open ground in my former greenhouse in Germany and was heavily leaning towards the light)
They were always single crowned and never branched. The habitat was dry with sparse woody plants and other succulents but no big trees, on a fairly steep slope. I remember this so well because we were on a safari and our old Landrover had a non repairable engine breakdown. Fortunately this didn't happen amongst the lions in the bottom of the Ngorongoro Crater but exactly on the rim after climbing out of the crater. So the driver let the car slowly run down the slope by gravity and luckily there was a village when the car came to a standstill in the plain. We were very friendly received and accommodated. We could not speak to the villagers but there was a lot of laughing and mutual curiosity. It took several days to get a replacement car which gave me plenty of time to walk around the village and the surrounding area. This was in fact the very best part of our safari......

[Too Many Plants!]

Thank you very much for trying to identify my Aloe. I am sorry that I cannot supply any further information right now, I am too busy with repairs on our house and swimming pool.
I can say that I remember the habitat very well. The Aloes were very tall with thick massive stems, always very upright and straight (my own plant is curved because it grew in the open ground in my former greenhouse in Germany and was heavily leaning towards the light)
They were always single crowned and never branched. The habitat was dry with sparse woody plants and other succulents but no big trees, on a fairly steep slope. I remember this so well because we were on a safari and our old Landrover had a non repairable engine breakdown. Fortunately this didn't happen amongst the lions in the bottom of the Ngorongoro Crater but exactly on the rim after climbing out of the crater. So the driver let the car slowly run down the slope by gravity and luckily there was a village when the car came to a standstill in the plain. We were very friendly received and accommodated. We could not speak to the villagers but there was a lot of laughing and mutual curiosity. It took several days to get a replacement car which gave me plenty of time to walk around the village and the surrounding area. This was in fact the very best part of our safari......

Based on your recollection story, it shouldn't be Volkensii, and your plant description sounds a lot like Ferox, which is not generally reported native to that area. However, Ferox is one of the earlier cultivated species by aboriginal peoples and could be plants from that. Did you see any flowers on them on that trip? Can you describe how your flowers look? I'll post a pic here of traditional Ferox flowers (mine) and you tell me if they look familiar/similar...