Dear Den; Rob, Mary Sue et al:
Rr. chilense, araucana,
phycelloides all belong to the group that spend a long dry winter in the
wild, mostly under snow. I suspect the advena you are growing (providing it
is the real advena) could have been collected from the Andes foothills or
slopes populations in search of extra hardiness and not the lowland advena.
In England it is common to see high altitude strains of species that are
usually regarded as half hardy, (Nerine bowdenii, Schizostylis, Moraea
spathulata, Kniphofias, Galtonia, Eucomis, Rhodohypoxis, and on and on). Do
let it behave as a winter dormant species and see if the bulbs increase in
size. Rob, that yours have remained evergreen is not bad and not uncommon at
their early childhood. This is the period of their life when they take
advantage of proper fertilizing the best.
Incidentally, all of you
who are growing granatiflora keep them well. My adult bulbs (only 6) caught
a virus and seed production declined sharply in a year and are of course
doomed. Fortunately it is an easy plant under warm conditions (say suitable
for a Cape bulb).
I don’t know what R.
rosea is. Something an amateur baptized, probably.
As for Ravenna, when he
publishes a species properly, it is valid. It is difficult to explain it in
short. Imagine you learn of a new bulb species published by Peter Goldblatt,
Brian Mathew or Alan meerow. Their reputation is such that no one would even
dream of disputing its validity. Ravenna’s motivations are others and he
publishes species with such a haste that you necessarily have to check and
recheck (in our case, you have to go to the type location and see if the
species is a good one!!) to reach a conclusion. You can not imagine how much
it has slowed down the research in these bulb families.
And Mary Sue, I did not
include all the species of Rhodophiala in my introduction as it would have
made it too long. Only a fraction of the species are offered for sale as
seed every year by the Archibalds, John Watson or Chiltern Seeds.
All the best for now
Alberto
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