BX 184
Mary Sue Ittner (Thu, 25 Sep 2008 17:54:31 PDT)

Hi,

I wanted to comment on two of my offerings to this BX.
#14 is a species I grew from Harry Hay seed. I started the seed March 2005
and several bloomed for the first time in April of this year. I'm growing
these in my greenhouse in a very large container since the bulbs were
getting big. Hopefully they won't remain dormant like happens to me with
other South American bulbs in the Alliaceae. The seed was labeled
Nothoscordum ostenii, but that species is yellow. Anyone have any idea what
species they can be? I was busy when they bloomed and didn't carry them
out of the greenhouse for better pictures and didn't photograph the leaves
either. Perhaps I can do that when they start in growth again. I wanted to
show potential customers what the flowers looked like since I thought they
were really very pretty and seeing the dreaded name Nothoscordum and
learning it was white might scare some people off. It's not the one that is
weedy and seems to multiply as you look at it and requires destroying the
soil it was growing in to be sure you got all the offsets (and the one that
often turns up in seed exchanges as other things like Tulbaghia).
http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/files/…
http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/files/…

#19 is Geissorhiza radians. Dell has no doubt accidentally changed the name
when he posted what I wrote him to the group since I checked my text and it
said radians, not radiata. So if people requested it thinking it was a new
species, it is not. Geissorhiza radians however has to be one of the most
beautiful corms in the world. It's common name is wine cups and it is
stunning, especially when there are a lot of them blooming together in a
pot or the wild. The seed however is tiny and I haven't found them
especially easy to grow from seed. They like abundant water while growing
and a dry summer.

Mary Sue