mystery Sternbergia
Antennaria@aol.com (Mon, 01 Mar 2004 10:46:23 PST)
Jane McGary <janemcgary@earthlink.net> wrote:
here is a really serious mystery Sternbergia:
http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/…
The story of it is on the Photographs and
Information page for Sternbergia. In short,
it has yellow flowers in fall and utterly
S. candida-like foliage in spring, and it
was part of a batch of bulbs bought by
Panayoti Kelaidis in the early 1990s,
which apparently had been wild-dug because
there were S. candida bulbs among them.
Any ideas?
I agree with Alberto that it looks like Sternbergia fischerana. I have a photo of it on my website at:
http://www.plantbuzz.com/Buzz/im_stern_id.htm
In the past, one year my plants budded in late autumn, but it's too cold and frozen here to open in winter, so the buds hung on until early spring. Yesterday, on the warm and sunny south side of my house, the 8" (20 cm) layer of granular icy snow that still covers my yard, melted away in one spot to reveal the Sternbergia, with 6 strong sprouts indicating it has finally increased after several years. The first snow drops are in bud too.
Mark McDonough
Pepperell, Massachusetts, United States
"New England", near New Hampshire
USDA Zone 5
=======================================
antennaria@aol.com
website: http://www.plantbuzz.com/
alliums, bulbs, penstemons, hardy hibiscus,
western american alpines, iris, plants of all
types!