Summer blooms

The weather has been more typically cool in August with morning fog
sometimes lasting into afternoon and overcast, but the Amaryllis
belladonna/A. b. hybrid spikes keep appearing in places I've obviously
planted them where they have never bloomed before so it is really very
exciting. Some of those places have multiple spikes forming so they had
been expanding in spite of not blooming. And unlike Jim Waddick's Lycoris,
rainfall is not what stimulates bloom since we've had none since May if
memory serves me. Even though we've watered every now and then, if you dig
in the soil down very far, it is bone dry. Since I'm leaving for the IBSA
symposium early next week I'll miss seeing what some of them will look
like. My friend Jana gave me some she purchased from Bill Welch so they
could be really gorgeous.

It was a good summer for my naturalized Dieramas. I finally got blooms from
one I got from Telos years ago as a gift for finding the mistake in the
catalog. It was supposed to be dark purple, but the color matches most of
the rest of the ones I grow and is more what I think of as magenta or dark
pink but obviously what Diana thinks is dark purple. I believe that
transplanting sets these back. I'm hoping the Marilyn has finally got the
ones I was going to throw away (as I was sure they wouldn't grow) to bloom.
They survived being on the ground out of soil without roots when she
transplanted them weeks later after convincing me she wanted them even
though I didn't think they'd make it.

Another bulb that has been incredible this summer is my Alophia. It has
bloomed and bloomed for months so that even though the flowers are fleeting
it has produced a lot of them. I also had good blooms from Gelasine
elongata. These flowers are also fleeting and close as the day gets warmer,
but the plants have attractive pleated foliage and it appears are happy in
my northern California garden. It looks like none of the pictures on the
wiki illustrates the foliage very well so I'll need to write myself a note
to add to add a picture of that. This one definitely blooms better for me
in the ground. I had some other plants that I couldn't figure out what they
were and thought maybe they were Babianas because of the leaves and finally
gave up and planted them out and it turns out they were Gelasine not at all
happy to be treated like Babianas and dried off in summer. The late
blooming Gladiolus were wonderful this year.

I also had blooms from the beautiful Cypella aquatilis that Diana Chapman
gave me at the bulb meeting at her house and from Cypella osteniana. The
flowers of these South American Irids fascinate me with their complexity. I
think however I've just about given up on Tigridia which was so happy in my
hotter garden in Stockton. And yesterday there was the first gorgeous
bloom on Hesperoxiphion peruvianum so it looks like I'm going to miss it
mostly. Sir Peter Smithers found if you didn't let it go to seed and kept
pinching off the spent bud each day it would keep blooming. And my Bessera
is going to bloom, but hasn't so I'll miss it too. And a Trimezia given to
me by one of our members in Texas has a bud, but will have to bloom today
or tomorrow or I won't see it either. On the other hand Milla biflora has
bloomed for a long time as the different corms in the pot have bloomed one
at a time and I love those large white flowers.

Two very exciting events were first blooms from Scadoxus. It has been down
to the wire as every day Scadoxus multiflorus opens a bit more. I moved it
to my greenhouse hoping to speed it along so I wouldn't miss it. Another
Scadoxus that I guess is S. multiflorus is blooming in the leaves and it
was just by chance that I saw it.

Once again I have few blooms from my Eucomis so perhaps this is not a plant
I can successfully flower regularly. I'm sure the bulbs I have are big enough.

The early blooming Cyclamen are blooming and the leaves appearing on some
of the other species. My first Gladiolus that blooms before the leaves is
in bloom and G. carmineus spikes appearing here and there. Moraea
polystachya leaves are showing and a few Oxalis. So the cycle begins again.

As much as I will miss seeing the bulbs wake up in my garden I am really
looking forward to seeing many of you on this list who live far away at the
bulb symposium in South Africa. And they have had a lot of winter rainfall
so those of us traveling there will no doubt have some amazing botanizing.

If people need help while I'm gone with the list write Arnold or Susan and
Jay, Susan, and Linda can help with wiki requests.

Mary Sue