Flores and Watson old Leucocoryne seed
Mary Sue Ittner (Wed, 24 Dec 2003 17:43:17 PST)

Hi,

Jane's picture of Pabellonia incrassata is on the Leucocoryne and allies
page. We decided to do that instead of creating a page just for it:

http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/…
On this page are also some gorgeous photos of Sheila Burrow's as this is
one of her favorite bulbs.

I love Leucocoryne too after I finally got them to start blooming. I
believe they are heavy feeders. I planted some I got from Lauw in the
ground and these plants were quite nice the first year, but not seen since.
I'm not sure why this is. It was a test before I tried any others and
obviously I haven't put the rest in the ground. I've been sharing the
numerous offsets with the BX. Maybe next year I should plant some more out
instead since there is only one failure so far.

The ones I grow in pots are long blooming and beautiful and I don't give
them any protection from our rain. They can stand freezing, but how cold I
don't know. I found Diane's comments about soaking the seed interesting.
Some of the seeds I got from our own PBS BX in 2002 that didn't germinate
the first year are germinating now. Some germinated the first year, but
perhaps the others needed the pounding rain to break them down as I am
happy to see them coming up now. We've had more than 3 inches in the last
two days.

Diane, perhaps it is just a matter of protecting them in those rare years
when it gets unusually cold. Good luck with your seeds. The ones I grow
(many courtesy of Bill Dijk) are L. purpurea, L. ixioides, and L. vittata.
We all thought what we were growing was L. coquimbensis, but Alberto
advised us to change the tags to L. vittata. I bought some L. purpurea from
Telos too and it comes up later than my other L. purpurea every year and
blooms later too.

There is a key, but it is in Spanish and the translation you get over the
Internet is a bit strange so I'm not sure exactly how L. coquimbensis and
L. vittata differ.

Mary Sue
Mary Sue Ittner
California's North Coast
Wet mild winters with occasional frost
Dry mild summers