Mary Sue, The bug appears to be a Chrysomelid beetle. They are voracious both as grubs and adult. In California we have two cucumber beetles that do the same damage. chuck Schwartz Southern coastal California ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mary Sue Ittner" <msittner@mcn.org> To: "Pacific Bulb Society" <pbs@lists.ibiblio.org> Sent: Saturday, March 06, 2004 11:15 AM Subject: [pbs] Gladiolus on the wiki > 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 > > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.ibiblio.org > http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php