Favorite Red Flowered Bulbs--TOW

The topic of the week for our PBS list is favorite red flowered bulbs. This
discussion is in addition to anything else people would like to talk about.
Please tell us about your favorite five red flowered bulbs you grow. Be
sure to list where you live in your message or your signature so people
will know where these plants are successful. I hope we have a lot of people
taking time from their gardens to give us their choices even if they only
have time to list the names of the plants. It's o.k. if someone else
mentions it. We'll just know that it is loved by more than one person in
more than one place.

Once again we may find that there is overlap between orange-red and red and
red and red with pink tones. Sometimes the digital camera picks up tints
that I don't see when I look at the plant and I'm never sure whether that
has to do with the camera or the way pigments get translated to the human
eye. For our discussion we won't quibble. If your favorite seems red to you
it's fine to discuss it. As usual when I first thought of this I wondered
if I could think of five and then of course found it hard to limit it to five.

So here goes, but not in any order of preference since at the moment any of
these bloom I love them.

1. I guess this is a way to get an extra one, but I'd find it hard to
choose between Romulea sabulosa and Romulea monadelpha which are two of my
favorite plants. These red beauties from South Africa usually are in bloom
about a week apart and so sometimes bloom at the same time. The most
glorious all time image in my memory bank of mass displays of bulbs in the
wild was Romulea sabulosa in Nieuwoudtville. Pictures are on the wiki.

2. Lilium maritimum -- I have a special fondness for this plant which grows
where I live and is rare. We monitor it in our local destinations every
year. This was not a good year for it since it has been dryer than usual
and in our favorite wild population the deer got them all this year, but
we've had good blooms in some of the spots it is planted in my garden.

3. Tulipa linifoia -- There are a lot of nice red tulips, but this one
which I grow in a pot is not only charming, but dependable and brings me
great pleasure every year.

4. Dichelostemma ida-maia -- Another California native, this one, known as
firecracker flower, is quite striking and looks so different from all the
other Dichelostemmas. I have it planted in containers and in the ground and
this year with drier warmer temperatures when I returned from my trip I had
blooms in 4 or 5 places in my garden.

5. My last choice was a tie between two South African irids, Geissorhiza
inflexa, and Babiana villosa. Both of these species have flowers in other
colors than red, but it is the red ones I am nominating. Babiana villosa
has a long period of bloom. Where I have it planted in my garden it is not
becoming overbearing, but is making a nice statement every year (unlike
some of my other Babianas which increase rapidly or sulk.) Geissorhiza
inflexa I am not having quite the success with that I would like. But when
it blooms, it really dazzles.

Pictures of all of these are on the wiki pages for those genera.

Mary Sue

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