Dear All, I assume that a lot of people from our list are attending the winter study meeting of NARGS in Eugene Oregon this weekend. I hope they will report when they return. Here in northern California it is a gorgeous day and there are all kinds of bulbs in bloom. I'd like to report on some recent additions to the wiki. I'll start with some South African Gladiolus in bloom at the moment. There are a number of early blooming varieties that don't fare very well in my climate. The rain and wind bat them around and they are often lying instead of standing as a result. When I shelter them, they may not get enough light and still look like they need support. I can't remember if they seemed like this in the wild. Perhaps they are supported by low bushes. I know a lot of the species from the wetter parts of South Africa's winter rainfall areas bloom later and perhaps this is how they cope. Many are so beautiful that I keep trying and some years am rewarded with sunshine at the right times. One that I wouldn't put in the beautiful category however is Gladiolus abbreviatus. This seems a very apt name. I got seed of this because the drawing in the Manning-Goldblatt book made it look floriferous and kind of interesting. In real life my reaction was more, "Is this it?" Definitely a collector's item. We saw some in the wild on one of the IBSA excursions and we were all excited at every bulb we found in the dry year, but I ended up tossing all my slides of it as I decided I'd never include it in a slide show. I had a terrible time photographing this one as the camera always chose to focus on the background, but finally tried a trick Alberto suggested and put clear plastic behind it. Bob thought I need to put up a picture looking up at the flower so you can see parts of the flower you can see head on so I've added pictures of both. This one has a reddish tint, but there are some that are brownish. Now have I gotten anyone's attention? It is supposed to be pollinated by sunbirds which are gorgeous colorful birds so perhaps that would be a reason to grow it if I lived in South Africa. I'll be on the look out for hummingbirds. Definitely more beautiful is the species Gladiolus bullatus. When Rhoda and Cameron McMaster took Bob and I, Lauw de Jager, and Patty Colville to Boskloof we saw it. It has a reputation for being hard to grow. I've been waiting for Cameron to put a picture he took of it up, but he's very busy so added one of Bob's from our visit to Boskloof. Blooming now is a species we also saw in the wild and a very beautiful thing, Gladiolus carinatus. My picture is a close-up which makes you think it is bigger than it really is. It is not a large flower, but the markings are really lovely. Finally when we were in South Africa on our own having a lunch stop Bob was looking for birds with his binoculars and said he thought he had seen a blue flower that might be worth getting closer to. We scrambled up this hillside until we finally reached the flower. Someone had gotten there before us. Can anyone tell me what this insect is that is so enjoying this Gladiolus? http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/… We were very disappointed but continued to climb around until we found at least one flower unscathed. I believe it is Gladiolus rogersii. Seeds I've tried of that have never germinated, but in the last IBSA Bulletin Rod Saunders writes about growing from seed and he says Gladiolus seed is not very long lived. Pictures of those four species can be found on: http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/… Mary Sue Mary Sue Ittner California's North Coast Wet mild winters with occasional frost Dry mild summers