Dear All Now having read MarySue report I wouldliketo add a few of y imprssions durin the field trips msittner@mcn.org a écrit : Two large buses were rented and the first day we traveled to Swellendam to a farm where we had permission to look for flowers. We got very excited as we > found our first bulbs. It was a fantastic landscape in the Overland area along the Breede Rivier. We were just 'let loose' in this large area which was grazed quite regularly. On one side the ridge was bordered by a barley field and sloping toward the east to the river. Most bulbs were found on the top part of the flat ridge,(Moraea, Brunsvigia, Geissorhiza, Hesperantha, Laperousias). Going down towards the river we found more Ixias and Watsonias and Oxalis. The 4 hours spent there passed far too quickly. > > The following day we went to Hermanus. This was another long trip on the > bus. Hermanus has whales and they were present. It also has the Fernkloof > Nature Reserve and after we looked at ferns we drove there. Fernkloof has > fynbos vegetation so we saw Proteas, Ericas, and Restios. We didn't see a > lot of bulbs here, but did find one Gladiolus hirsutus that everyone > photographed and a couple of other things. Don'tforget the great stand of Aristeas major? and Romulaes. Our bus was led by Burger van Eeden, who had a detailed knowledge where to find bulbs. Like many other South africans we met, they have a great ability to spot bulbs from moving cars or buses. Apart from several side of the road stops to see Gladiolus, Babiana and Lachenalias, he took us to a 'Koppie' where there whas great stand of Nerine sarniense. Indeed amongst the basalt blocks on the north face of the granite outcrop masses of leaves of the autumn flowering bulb. On the way back to the bus I was struck by the numerous geissorhiza and Romulea simply growing in the middleof the path!. > The final day we went to the Worcester Botanical Garden. > There were other series of plastic pots, but the majority of the bulbs were > planted in large concrete deep planters where the bulbs have a deep root > run and where soil temperatures are very constant. The concrete is divided > into sections with different species in each and they are numbered. These pure sand plunge beds also intrigued me a lot. I think the succes is partly due to the cooler temperatures around the roots (compared to pot cultures). As far I could see it was pure sand, but I don't know how far it goes down what kind of of soil is down below. There were indeed some very nice stands of Babiana, Lachenalia and Ferraria. It reminded me a bit of the bed Dave Fenwick described to us some years ago. In the gardens there were mass plantings of Boophane and Haemanthus bosmanii, Brusnsvigia and lots of Watsonia, and in the shade of the office a very large clump of Cyrtanthus herrei. Very little iridaceae very seen as garden plants. (We will get to this subject when visiting Jim Holmes nursery) (On Bobs picture of the Worcester bulb beds you can see Rachel Saunders who is a frequent forum participator and one of the IBSA symposium organiser) Kind regards Lauw de Jager Bulb'Argence