Recent Images on the Wiki#7
Mary Sue Ittner (Tue, 06 Apr 2004 07:50:02 PDT)

Dear All,

I replaced a picture on the Babiana page that was a scan of a print from
the past with one that was much improved from the digital camera this year.
Last year I asked if anyone could help me figure out a plant that I
purchased originally from Jim Duggan (a very long time ago.) He called it
Babiana nana angustifolia. There was a plant by that name in Jeppe's book
but that is the only place I have found the name. There is a Babiana nana
and a Babiana angustifolia, but they are different from my plant. I hoped
Alan Horstmann from South Africa who grows and knows a lot about Babiana
could help me sort it out and he may still, but I know he is really busy.
Julian Slade often helps me identify South African plants so perhaps he'll
help me on this one too.

This plant is about 10 cm tall, with pale lilac flowers. The bottom three
tepals shade to white with maroon v like markings. The flowers are strongly
scented like cinnamon. The flowers have a pale lilac stigma on top of
purple curved stamens. My plants were especially happy this year with less
rain than usual during their flowering time. And they smelled so nice when
I passed them. Unlike a lot of Babianas I grow that seem much happier in a
deep pot or in the ground, these do well in containers. I wish I knew if
they were a true species or just a hybrid.

I also added a picture Bob took at Alan's of a Babiana that he was growing
that could be a new species. It is such a handsome flower.

My Babianas were wonderful this year (with less rain to spoil the flowers)
and we took a lot of pictures, but many of them do not look the same color
on my screen as in the garden and I'm yet to figure out what to do about
that so have waited on putting them on the wiki.

http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/…

I also added pictures of the white Ornithogalum (dubium?) we purchased for
a bargain price at Orchard Supply last year along with some yellow and
orange ones. They were all wonderful and I thought at that time that for
the amount of pleasure they gave me and the low cost, it wouldn't matter if
they returned. The bulbs all looked healthy afterwards, but I was still
disappointed that they remained under ground with the new season.

I have just added a couple of pictures of my orange Ornithogalum dubium to
that page as well. This pot of four usually only has one or two start to
grow and bloom. This year possibly two came up and one seems to have split
and has nine spikes. That does kind of make up for the others sitting the
season out. I was hoping the yellow one would behave like Paul Tyerman's
yellow and bloom every year, but it was not to be. I was really happy with
the way the picture of my orange one in bud turned out.

http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/…

Mary Sue

Mary Sue Ittner
California's North Coast
Wet mild winters with occasional frost
Dry mild summers