IBSA Symposium 2003/Visit to South Africa TOW--Breaking Ornithogalum dormancy
Mary Sue Ittner (Wed, 01 Oct 2003 12:15:56 PDT)

Dear All,

On this list at least Paul Tyerman and I have bemoaned the fact that some
of our Ornithogalum dubiums choose to remain under ground in spite of our
efforts. I think Lyn Edwards also reported on this list or the ABA list of
having amazing blooms one year only to find the bulb had disappeared the next.

So it was with great interest that we had a conversation with Andy who is
Rod and Rachel's partner in their tissue culture ventures. Some of you who
order seeds from Silverhill may remember a picture in their latest catalog
of Ornithogalums they were attempting to grow and hybridize. The picture
was really gorgeous guaranteed to make anyone who saw it want these plants!
Well this year a lot of them have not come up which they have found very
frustrating as they want to sell them and if someone buys a lot of bulbs
and they don't come up that person is not going to be happy. Andy told us
that they were having the most trouble with their larger bulbs. Does this
mean that if a bulb blooms really well it needs a year or more to recover
he wonders? Should they only be selling bulbs that are a smaller size?

They are experimenting with gibberelic acid to see if this will help. Andy
thinks that it is temperature that starts them into growth. Theirs are
stored dry and warm and he things that it is cooler temperatures that
initiates growth. So he wonders if you could get successive blooms by
keeping them warm and then moving one pot at a time to a cooler place.

Anyone care to speculate on any of this? I thought Paul would be pleased to
know that he and I are not the only two people who have this problem.

Mary Sue