Romuleas in bloom

J.E. Shields jshields104@insightbb.com
Thu, 27 Feb 2003 05:47:00 PST
Hi all,

I have Romulea tabularis in bloom, a tiny, light blue flower 3/8 to 1/2 
inch across (9 to 12 mm).  It self-seeds profusely.  It is from South 
Africa and is one Romulea that blooms reliably in the greenhouse.

R. sabulosa has trouble surviving in a pot and is of course not 
freeze-hardy.  The flowers would only open in full, bright sunshine, which 
is a scarce commodity here in winter.  My last pot of this one seems to 
have died, which is too bad.  Overall, a big disappointment in pot culture 
here.

Most of the South African Romuleas I've tried from seed have not lived to 
bloom.  I've had better luck with some of the Mediterranean Romulea species:

R. tempeskyana (corms from Potterton & Martin) bloomed and has more buds 
coming along.  It's a nice large blue flower (>1" across).

R. bulbocodium (ex NARGS seeds) bloomed and produced a few self 
seeds.  Small yellow flower (<1").

R. crocea (ex NARGS wild collected seeds) is growing very slowly for me so far.

I'd like to find a Romulea that would bloom late enough and was hardy 
enough to grow outdoors here in the rock garden.  Anyone have any ideas?

Jim Shields
in central Indiana

At 02:20 PM 2/27/03 +0100, Lauw wrote:


>Mary Sue Ittner a *crit :
>  Also blooming for the first time is a small bright pink flower that was
> > supposed to be Romulea monticola and is probably Romulea rosea and will 
> not be kept.
>
>Dear Mary Sue and All,
>Don't throw it out too quickly. If it is in flower now, it is probably
>not R rosea, which flowers much later (end of April - end of Mai)
>(I hope that you eliminated my superfluous Romulea images in the Wiki?)
>Kind regards
>
>Lauw de Jager
>BULB'ARGENCE, 30300 Fourques, France
>Site: http://www.bulbargence.com/

*************************************************
Jim Shields             USDA Zone 5             Shields Gardens, Ltd.
P.O. Box 92              WWW:    http://www.shieldsgardens.com/
Westfield, Indiana 46074, USA                   Tel. +1-317-896-3925
Member of INTERNATIONAL CLIVIA CO-OP


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