Winter Bulbs
J.E. Shields (Mon, 10 Dec 2007 07:48:59 PST)

Hi all,

The Lachenalia and the Massonia in the cool greenhouse are starting to
bloom. I pollinated two clones of Lachenalia rubida rubra
yesterday. Maybe I'll get some seeds.

The scapes are starting to come up on Lachenalia viridiflora now as
well. I have a picture of this species at:
http://shieldsgardens.com/amaryllids/…

L. pusilla bloomed a month ago, all over the place. I should have seeds of
it in a month or so.

Massonia sp. cf. depressa is in bloom. The seeds for this one came labeled
as "Androcymbium" so I'm not sure of the species. It might be M. echinata,
maybe.....

I have a web page on Massonia as well, at:
http://shieldsgardens.com/amaryllids/…
but it still contains only minimal information. I have lost all my
Massonia jasminiflora plants, so I'm down to a couple M. pustulata and one
M. echinata besides the depressa? bulbs.

Androcymbium are interesting, but only one species grows in summer, A.
melantioides (striatum), so far as I recall. A pot of A. latifolium
(pulchrum) are in bud and due to bloom shortly.

Haemanthus pauculifolius is the only Haemanthus in bloom now. Everything
else has finished up for this season. It flowers just as the old leaf on
each bulb is yellowing off. Until you clean off the senescent leaves, a
clump looks a bit tacky, even though it is blooming.

Best wishes,
Jim Shields
in central Indiana (USA), where the ice storm went north of us and the
heavy rains went south of us and the heavy fog has yet to materialize today.

*************************************************
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