Tecophilaea info
Jane McGary (Sun, 09 Jul 2006 11:41:40 PDT)

Mary Sue wrote,

"There are a lot of people on this list who grow Tecophilaea. What is your

In northwestern Oregon I have to grow Tecophilaea cyanocrocus in an
unheated bulb frame, where it is kept dry in summer. Mine increase slightly
slower than Lee's do, usually just one or two offsets a year. Most years,
they set seed, but this year only one potful produced seed; I think this
happened because there was a severe cold snap about the time they should
have been fertilized, and either there were no pollinators present (I
didn't hand-pollinate them, being out of town at the time) or it was simply
too cold for fertilization to take place. The group that set seed are a
different seed-grown population and bloom a little later than the others.

The seeds germinate well but don't always form corms. I've tried growing
these plants in a cool but frost-free solarium, but there, they become
elongated and do not flower. I haven't lost any in the bulb frame in about
14 years of keeping them there, although temperatures inside the frame have
gone down to 20 F. I started with 3 corms purchased from Potterton's in the
UK and now have about 20 plants, but I do sell some corms every other year
and give seed most years (not this year, sorry) to the NARGS exchange.

Incidentally I had a nice visit last week with Arnold Trachtenberg and his
wife and daughter, who were vacationing on the West Coast; they were then
heading down to visit Diana Chapman and perhaps Mary Sue Ittner. It's
always fun at last to meet people one has corresponded with for years on
forums.

Jane McGary
Northwestern Oregon, USA