Phaedranassa
Mary Sue Ittner (Sun, 25 Jul 2004 10:35:50 PDT)

Dear All,

In June I wrote about Phaedranassa carmioli hoping someone would respond to
help me clarify this species. I refer to that post:

http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbslist/old.php/…

No one responded.

I saw a plant named Phaedranassa carmioli in a friend's garden in Santa
Cruz, California. She had purchased it from a nursery and plunked it in the
ground. I remember wondering if it would survive the winter. When I saw it
there were seed pods just opening and she said I could have some. Later she
lost it in a cold winter confirming my fears. I floated my seeds (I have
since gone to planting winged seeds directly on their sides in containers
within a plastic bag tent and lose fewer to transplanting that way) and
they germinated in two or three weeks (1998). My first bloom was in 2001.
Ever since Bill Dijk and Diana Chapman explained that blooming is more
consistent if you withholding water for periods of time, I have had good
success with getting a number of my pots, all grown from seed, to flower.
Rarely do they lose all their leaves in winter even after several months
without water. Last year I decided to vary when I stopped watering them to
prolong the bloom. It seemed to work as I had one container start to bloom
in April, another in May-June, and another in July.

This plant from my friend's garden is the most reliable bloomer I have. A
couple of other species have not been as successful. I grow it in a
container I keep in my greenhouse all of the year, although this year I
brought out some of the plants when they were blooming which prolonged the
bloom I think. I sent seeds to Dell for the BX and have explained that it
was labeled Phaedranassa carmioli, but this may or may not be what it is.

I've added pictures of this plant from the ones that bloomed in April and a
close up of the flowers in another pot that bloomed this month.

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

This genus was requested to be a topic of the week. Anyone else willing to
share their experiences with it?

Mary Sue