Favorite Yellow Flowered Bulbs--TOW
Lee Poulsen (Wed, 21 Jan 2004 17:03:49 PST)

First of all, why do so many of you dislike yellow so much (and orange
even more so it seems; Cathy Craig has been telling me since I met her
that she can't stand most orange flowers)?! I would hate it if that
part of the spectrum were missing from flower colors. But then again, I
was a huge fan of the 64 colors box of Crayola crayons back when I was
a kid. I had to have my very own box because I didn't want any of my
younger brothers or sisters playing with them because they might lose
one of the colors--I even saved up my allowance money to purchase my
own box! :-) I guess I really like intensely hued versions of all the
"major" colors on the color wheel, in flowers and also in birds and
tropical fish. Are we going to step our way around the color circle
with TOWs?

Here is a list of some yellow flowers I could think of that I like in
particular:

1. Yellow Clivia miniata--especially this one unnamed variety that
Shige Sasaki found among a group of Joe Solomone's yellow Clivias when
he and Masashi came to visit and Harold Koopowitz took them up there to
visit. It was the most intense deep butter yellow Clivia I've ever
seen. No paleness whatsoever, almost but not quite a golden yellow with
no hints of orange or pink at all, that almost glowed. It looked almost
like a melted yellow crayon in color. I hope he gets its genes into the
gene pool soon.

2. Bright yellow Division 1 or 2 daffodils or masses of yellow jonquil
type narcissus. No names in particular. There is an area of the
foothills of the Sierra Nevada in central California where you can
drive down the country highways in spring and see massive drifts of
yellow daffodils scattered all about. I think it's breathtaking.

3. New favorite: Paramongaia weberbaueri. What can I say? These are
awesome flowers. The next one is about to bloom, maybe tomorrow, and a
third one is now sending up a scape! What would a field of these look
like in bloom? I read that in Peru bunches of these are sold and the
scented air around the sellers is very memorable.

4. Lycoris aurea that bloomed for me the first time last year. Nice
gold yellow color. And I really like the flower shape; it's so
intriguing.

5. The yellow-based Lachenalias, esp. this one hybrid I found at a
local alternative grocery store chain (Trader Joe's) that is the same
size and shape of L. bulbifera, but was a solid, intense, butter
yellow. I hope it re-blooms this year.

--Lee Poulsen
Pasadena area, California, USDA Zone 9-10