Dear All, This year the South African winter rain fall area has been very dry. Right before the IBSA Symposium they had rain and snow and while we were there they continued to have a little rain and have had some since we returned. But in Namaqualand, the West Coast, and some of the areas where my husband and I saw flowers in abundance on our last trip there were few flowers this year. Reports were that bulbs in the areas with so little rainfall just sat the year out. We always worry when our bulbs do that so it is good to remember that it happens in the wild. This made it very difficult for the organizers of the Symposium who had planned to take us to see flowers in areas close to where we were staying as they just weren't blooming at the right time. I understand some have bloomed since. So they had to scramble to find places to take us. 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 spent a lot more time on the bus than anticipated but both days I was lucky to have interesting travel companions. The views out the window in spite of the drought looked very beautiful. There was snow on the mountains and there were swatches of color: green, yellow from farm lands. South Africa is a very beautiful country I think. The sun was out and once we arrived and started walking it felt warmer outside than it had in the previous two days. We got very excited as we found our first bulbs. One of the first was Laperiousa pyramidalis. We saw this one over and over again while we were there. We also saw Gladiolus carinatus, Moraea miniata and tripetala, Oxalis obtusa, Oxalis purpurea, a succulent Oxalis with purple flowers, a couple Romuleas, some nice orchids, a white Geissorhiza, etc. Rhoda McMaster helped my understand the difference between Geissorhiza and Hesperantha. In Hesperantha the style divides at the base of the flower or below and in Geissorhiza the style extends upward and divides higher up. After she clarified this we could at least say we were seeing Geissoriza sp. or Hesperantha sp. for all those white ones that sometimes had pink or brown markings on the back. I have in my notes we saw Moraea fergusoniae and Gladiolus permeabilis. Since those aren't species that I knew before it will be interesting to look at our pictures and see how well they fit with the descriptions. There was enough room for people to fan out and explore on their own. Some of the people I never saw once we got off the bus as they moved more quickly. A new friend I made from South Africa who doesn't grow bulbs was fascinated by the conversations about what we were seeing (since there wasn't always agreement.) People pointed out special finds. Some of the best flowers got photographed by a line of people, often lying in strange positions to get the best shot. I was pleased when Pat Victor went out of her way to back track to find me to show me a natural Oxalis "rock garden" overlooking the river. Those people who went the farthest came back exclaiming over a Gladiolus tristis they saw leaning over the cliff near the river. 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. We had lovely walks through the preserve after lunch. On the way back to the Spa we stopped a number of times along the road when someone spotted flowers blooming and I think everyone appreciated that opportunity and while the bus drivers waited we jumped out of the bus to see what we could find. Both buses didn't stop at the same places so we saw different things. We found a field of Gladiolus abbreviatus. Since we weren't expecting a lot even this plant which I'd say is one of those kindly called, "collector's items" was exciting. Their were some pretty Romuleas and a Babiana that most people thought was purpurea. And of course there were Oxalis including some that had wonderful large leaves that reminded me of strawberries and were not blooming. And we saw our first Watsonias about the time I ran out of film. The light was really low by then I reassured myself and I probably wouldn't have gotten much of a picture. Luckily I saw Watsonias in bloom many times after that. The final day we went to the Worcester Botanical Garden. This wasn't such a long trip. A lot of people were leaving at noon so they decided rather than to rent buses to just pile into private cars. This is a dry area and the garden has a lot of succulents. We were lucky to be allowed to view the private bulb and succulent collections. There were a lot of Oxalis pots that attracted my attention. As I looked at them closely there were many different leaves in the same pot and I began to understand that we may be lucky ours don't reseed. I think sorting out all these pots (as there were a lot of them) would be quite a job. We were told they planned to plant many of them out in the garden. Since some of us have discovered except for the weedy ones Oxalis planted out in our gardens haven't done well, it will be interesting to hear how these do. 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. I'm not sure I am explaining this very well so I posted two pictures to the wiki: http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/files/… http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/files/… The man who is in charge and who was talking to us said that the bulbs were really responding well to this new planting and were growing much better than in pots. This was especially true of the Amaryllids. You can see some nice leaves in the second picture. What they are finding however is that some of them are increasing so rapidly they need dividing. It didn't seem to me that with this design it would be especially easy to divide them or transplant them once planted. He thought ultimately they would be able to grow bulbs better there than at Kirstenbosch. They don't have so much rain so could control the moisture I'd expect. A lot of the South African delegates purchased plants here. They looked through the containers that were for sale and often found bonuses that they valued more than the plant they were purchasing in the same pot. My husband who loves to take pictures of signs found a picture of a Lachenalia that was for sale marked Cape Cows Lips. The Symposium ended after lunch. My husband and I, Patty Colville, and Lauw de Jager spent the afternoon exploring on our own with suggestions about where to go. We explored an area that had been burned first (always a good choice) and found more Moraeas, Albucas, more of that same Lapeirousia, and Lachenalia orchiodes (which we also saw repeatedly). We got our first practice climbing between the barb wired fences and trying to step carefully so we didn't end up with black streaks on our pants. We saw Moraea gawleri here which Bob and I saw often in shades of orange and yellow. At Tulbagh we found some beautiful red Babiana villosa near a cemetery. We found some pretty Romuleas and Lauw removed his shoes to wade in the water to get a better photo of Spiloxene aquatic. As we returned we found a small section of land where the roads crossed that we had been told about but missed on the way that had Lachenalias and Oxalis in bloom. The whole patch was solid flowers. This might have been Lachenalia longibracteata. The International delegates had become quite friendly and a number of us weren't quite ready to say goodbye so thirteen of us arranged to meet one more time for dinner in Worcester. For me the Symposium was a great success. I learned a lot, saw some interesting plants, but most of all I appreciated talking to fellow bulb enthusiasts. Thursday night was scheduled to be the farewell dinner and the local delegates were encouraged to attend and many of them did. At the dinner the noise level was very high. If you looked around the room you saw a lot of happy people very engaged in conversation. IBSA is considering sponsoring another Symposium in 2-4 years and I highly recommend this to anyone who is interested in South African bulbs. I'll continue to share throughout the week about our trip to South Africa and some of the talks, but won't some of the rest of you who are on this list who attended please say something! Shelley, Patty, Stefan, Audrey, Rhoda, Allan, Alan, Nico, Malcolm, Chris, Jim, Dawie please. Rachel is out seed collecting and Lauw has already written. Won't a few of you at least help me out here. Mary Sue
