Bulbs that flower without leaves--TOW
James Waddick (Sun, 03 Aug 2003 12:40:01 PDT)

Calendar Year/versus Growing season.
I think this is a zonal problem. Here everything is basically
calendar as winter stops most foliage.
In Medit areas, the summer stops a lot of foliage and the
season goes from fall to spring.
Since this is the PACIFIC BULB SOC. -I'll bow to 'growing
season' considerations.

Even so Lycoris can be a bit of a problem as some mentioned
with spec. such as L. radiata. One of the few to bloom in late
summer/fall and then puts up foliage from late fall to early spring.
Is this foliage first (spring) or flowers first -Fall?
More common species produce foliage for a few months in
spring, but bloom in fall. That's foliage first.

I think your idea was to concentrate on bulbs where there is
a fairly major gap between foliage and bloom. And the grower needs to
decide which come first seasonally or chronologically. I always think
of Lycoris having foliage first and fall blooming. This is based on
all species basically going dormant in spring when foliage fades. But
I can see where those with fall foliage might appear to have flowers
preceding foliage. Still there is a major gap and there is no remnant
of foliage when the flowers bloom and that should be the key
character.

So the topic is:

"Flowers that bloom at least a month before or after foliage".

Right? Jim W.
--
Dr. James W. Waddick
8871 NW Brostrom Rd.
Kansas City Missouri 64152-2711
USA
Ph. 816-746-1949
E-fax 419-781-8594

Zone 5 Record low -23F
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