Was: Scilla peruviana, now Hardy Eucomis
Ellen Hornig (Wed, 20 Aug 2008 05:27:15 PDT)

Like Jim, I find E. bicolor qiute hardy here - it has even reseeded. I've
had a lot of fun selecting the most heavily pigmented seedlings and working
with them - they're glorious things, with spotted leaves and heavily marked
stems. They even have spots on their "topknots" and seedpods (which are
large, fleshy affairs), so that although they emerge very late they're
interesting for a long time thereafter.

My best grower/bloomer is the E. comosa I imported years ago from Cape Bulb
and Seed as 'Peace Candles'. I didn't expect it to be hardy here, but it's
*super*-hardy: it grows anywhere, multiplies well, and blooms reliably, with
long, long inflorescences of white flowers w/purple stamens. It also
tolerates salt - I have a lovely patch by the road that gets salted annually
by the snow-plow/salter/sanders. Its only problem is a tendency to flop
unless grown lean.

E. montana hangs on here. E. vandermerwei has made it through 2 winters but
is definitely going downhill. My assorted purple-leaved seedlings
(pallidiflora hybrids? not clear what they are - not comosa), which
generally resemble 'Oakhurst', are doing pretty well - some are hardier than
others, but they're sorting themselves out over time.

I recently got some small plants of a stunning cross between E. 'Sparkling
Burgundy' and E. pallidiflora ssp pole-evansii - reddish leaves and a
massive club-shaped inflorescence - can't wait to get those up to size. The
mother plant is just spectacular.

Kelly, are you really overwintering pole-evansii outside? I'm going to set
some of those out this year and see how it goes.

Ellen

Ellen Hornig
Seneca Hill Perennials
3712 County Route 57
Oswego NY 13126 USA
http://www.senecahillperennials.com/
----- Original Message -----
From: "Kelly Irvin" <kellso@irvincentral.com>
To: "Pacific Bulb Society" <pbs@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Wednesday, August 20, 2008 6:31 AM
Subject: Re: [pbs] Was: Scilla peruviana, now Hardy Eucomis