Not Spring Yet

J.E. Shields jshields104@insightbb.com
Sat, 19 Feb 2005 07:28:47 PST
Hi all,

No, it is not spring here yet, after all! The sun is shining (for the 
moment) but it is pretty chilly out there, maybe up to 20°F by now. My dogs 
keep seeing the sunshine and wanting to go outside, only to be reminded 
once out there that it is still cold.  Once this evening's promised snow 
gets here, they will know it's cold outside.

My "lost" pot of Cyclamen purpurascens has been found. It is bursting into 
bloom. Some very nice person sent me some seeds of C. purpurascens when I 
thought I had lost it. Now I can reciprocate with some seeds of C. graecum 
if anyone needs that. I will send most to the NARGS SeedEx next summer, but 
I can spare a few now for Dell's BX/SX.

Cyrtanthus [elatus X montanus] is blooming, in fact several pots of it are 
starting to open. There is a scape on one pot of Cyrtanthus mackenii 
cooperi (the yellow form) and one on Cyrtanthus obrienii.

In my little greenhouse devoted to David Conway's export clivias, there are 
lots of scapes suddenly starting to appear. More on those later.

Several of my Scadoxus puniceus are in flower, from several different 
sources. I'm running around trying to pollinate them. Wish me luck, please!

Ornithogalum apertum is blooming with yellow flowers with a green stripe, 
Onixotis triquetra is in bloom (white), and several Lachenalia have started 
flowering including LL. latifolium, mutabilis, and carnosa. Seeds have set 
on L. pusilla. I didn't get them collected last year, and now the pot has 
lots of tiny seedlings in it too.

The new greenhouse is virtually finished. The power company ran the buried 
cable from their transformer to the meter base yesterday, and they will set 
the meter on Monday. The electricians have less than one day's work left to 
do, and then I can have the final inspection. The new greenhouse will be 
just for Clivia plants. I can finally turn my suppliers loose to ship to me!

  Regards,
Jim Shields
in central Indiana (USA)

*************************************************
Jim Shields             USDA Zone 5             Shields Gardens, Ltd.
P.O. Box 92             WWW:   http://www.shieldsgardens.com/
Westfield, Indiana 46074, USA
Tel. ++1-317-867-3344    or     toll-free 1-866-449-3344 in USA



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