Jim: All of the Acidanthera/Gladiolus that we've ever grown flowers very late here...early-mid October. Tony Avent Plant Delights Nursery @ Juniper Level Botanic Garden 9241 Sauls Road Raleigh, North Carolina 27603 USA Minimum Winter Temps 0-5 F Maximum Summer Temps 95-105F USDA Hardiness Zone 7b email tony@plantdelights.com website http://www.plantdelights.com/ phone 919 772-4794 fax 919 772-4752 "I consider every plant hardy until I have killed it myself...at least three times" - Avent Jim McKenney wrote: > Tony Avent asked: "G. murielae is marginal here and we will loose it in a > cold (below 10 > degrees F) winter. Do you have any idea where in the range the material > in the trade came from? Low or high elevations? I've often wondered if > there couldn't be material found with better winter hardiness." > > > > I don't know the answers to Tony's questions, but they remind me of > something I read recently. Somewhere recently I read that what we now call > Galdiolus murielae was introduced by a major bulb company in 1928. > > > > That does not sit well with me, although part of the answer may have to do > with just what you consider G. murielae to be. > > > > Already in the nineteenth century the plant then known as Acidanthera > bicolor was in cultivation, and for most of my life the commercial material > has been called Acidanthera bicolor murielae. > > > > There is another sort of evidence that there have been multiple > introductions. Most older books, in discussing these plants, mention that > they are very late blooming. Is that because writers were simply repeating > the experience reported by growers in comparatively cooler northwestern > Europe? Or is it because so many of the early American books were based on > experience on New England, where the summers are shorter? > > > > I've often wondered if the introduction and eventual popularity of stocks > under the name murielae was occasioned by an earlier bloom time. > > > > Jim McKenney > > jimmckenney@jimmckenney.com > > Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, USDA zone 7 > > My Virtual Maryland Garden http://www.jimmckenney.com/ > > > > Webmaster Potomac Valley Chapter, NARGS > > Editor PVC Bulletin http://www.pvcnargs.org/ > > > > Webmaster Potomac Lily Society http://www.potomaclilysociety.org/ > > > > > > > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.ibiblio.org > http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php > >