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Today's Topics:

1. Re: A large bulb! (Myke Ashley-Cooper)
2. Master Gardeners (Leo A. Martin)
3. garlicky leek seed? (Diane Whitehead)
4. Re: garlicky leek seed? (J. Agoston)
5. Re: garlicky leek seed? (Jim McKenney)
6. Re: garlicky leek seed? (Theladygardens@aol.com)

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Message: 1
Date: Fri, 31 Jul 2009 19:50:45 -0400
From: "Myke Ashley-Cooper" <ashleycooper@embarqmail.com>
Subject: Re: [pbs] A large bulb!
To: "Pacific Bulb Society" <pbs@lists.ibiblio.org>
Message-ID: <10D4D958C98E44DF94A78B8D9B62E55E@mykenew>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Checking out eBay today, I came across this amazing offer for an
Amorphophallus titanum:

"THIS IS A BIG ONE - PROBABLY THE BIGGEST AMORPHOPHALLUS TUBER EVER OFFERED
ON EBAY!!!!
PLEASE REVIEW THE PICTURES.
THE CORM WEIGHS 38 lbs. 10 oz. IT HAS A DIAMETER OF 15" AND A
CIRCUMFERENCE OF 48"AND IS 10" HIGH."

The current 16th bid is $450!!! Click here to check it out.

------------------------------

Message: 2
Date: Fri, 31 Jul 2009 18:53:08 -0700 (PDT)
From: "Leo A. Martin" <leo@possi.org>
Subject: [pbs] Master Gardeners
To: pbs@lists.ibiblio.org
Message-ID: <86fc85dbfd93d7e61d925761b8b186f3.squirrel@http://www.possi.org/>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1

Disclosure: I'm not a master gardener but I know a lot of people who are.

It takes a lot of time to become one and I doubt many people can manage it
unless retired or supported by a spouse. I'm sure I would learn something
if I went through the program but not enough to make it worth all that
time. I'd rather spend the time tending the plants I know how to grow.
And, having friends in the landscaping business keeps me up on current
trends in irrigation systems, and other technology.

Output of any system is no better than the input. MG program quality seems
to vary around the USA. I have observed most MGs around the USA know basic
flower, shrub and vegetable gardening pretty well, as well as knowing
something about major themes in current gardening practice (drip
irrigation, composting, mulch, pest management.) And they learn about
their specific local gardening issues.

Our local Maricopa County, Arizona MG program turns out people who know
quite a bit about xerophytic plants and drip systems. They are evangelists
for low-water-use gardening, which is exactly what our region needs. (Our
five biggest-selling perennial landscape plants are bermuda grass, yellow
lantana, Barbara Karst bougainvillea, hibiscus bybrids, and the queen palm
Syagrus romanzoffiana. None of these are low-water-use plants in our
climate, and the palm rarely lives more than 5-7 years here.)

But not everybody can learn everything, especially in a two-year program!
I don't know much about peonies other than they smell good, they attract
ants, they looked great in my grandma's garden in Milwaukee, and don't
bother with them in Phoenix.

Leo Martin
Phoenix Arizona USA

------------------------------

Message: 3
Date: Fri, 31 Jul 2009 21:29:54 -0700
From: Diane Whitehead <voltaire@islandnet.com>
Subject: [pbs] garlicky leek seed?
To: Pacific Bulb Society <pbs@lists.ibiblio.org>
Message-ID: <652AE603-845E-4E4E-A4A1-3A60076CA734@islandnet.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed; delsp=yes

I grow two kinds of garlic, or I should say, of all the kinds of
garlic I have bought to plant over the years, two persist.

One is a genuine garlic, with snaky stems and heads of bulbils.

The other, I think, is a type of leek. It has sharp-edged hard
bulbils attached to the big bulb by white "threads". Some of these
break off and remain in the soil, so I have it growing forever
wherever I have planted it. I have begun digging it as I normally do
at this time, as the leaves are dry. It is also in flower - a ball of
pale pink flowers - and it suddenly occurred to me that perhaps it
would produce seeds. I don't know how long would be needed for this.
I wouldn't want to leave the bulbs in the ground until the rains
start, as they might not keep till next summer if they don't dry off
properly.

Does anyone else leave theirs to go to seed, and does it take very
long for it to ripen?

Diane Whitehead
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
maritime zone 8, cool Mediterranean climate
mild rainy winters, mild dry summers

------------------------------

Message: 4
Date: Sat, 1 Aug 2009 09:13:07 +0200
From: "J. Agoston" <agoston.janos123@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [pbs] garlicky leek seed?
To: Pacific Bulb Society <pbs@lists.ibiblio.org>
Message-ID:
<3b9284cd0908010013k1e2d20e9x2abceddc1d9e25b6@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

Dear Diane,

We are also growing garlic. In Z5a they can stay all year long in the
ground, they survive, severe winters too. I personally find that if they
grow 2 years in the ground we have bigger heads of bulbs. The technology
says garlic shuld be planted in september or october, but when we leave them
in the ground (~25-30 cm deep) they start to regrow roots in august. Our
soil is clay and we irrigate the garden weekly. So there is no chance for
the bulbs to dry out. Unfortunately we harvested the bulbs so I have
experience from only 2 seasons for staying in soil.

Growers say we have 2 kinds of garlic, the autumn planting type and the
spring planting type. I do not agree, I've heared both is hardy here, the
spring planted ones grow less and the smaller bulbs are more marketable,
people don't like it becouse of its smell (I would say fragrance).

Could you please send pictures from both of your garlics, or make a page on
the wiki. Seed bearing garlic is new for me, and I think it is quite of an
interest for every Allium fan.

Bye,
Jan
Hungary

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Message: 5
Date: Sat, 1 Aug 2009 10:19:06 -0400
From: "Jim McKenney" <jimmckenney@jimmckenney.com>
Subject: Re: [pbs] garlicky leek seed?
To: "'Pacific Bulb Society'" <pbs@lists.ibiblio.org>
Message-ID: <000f01ca12b3$07ec19c0$2f01a8c0@Library>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1"

Diane?s seeding garlic is probably what local grocery stores sell as
elephant garlic, and most references say it is a form of leek (Allium
porrum). In other words, strictly speaking it is not a garlic. Or just as
likely it might be a survivor of an old planting of culinary leeks. Culinary
leeks and elephant garlic are both very ornamental in the garden. Elephant
garlic gets to be over six feet high and the developing inflorescence is
contained in a spathe with the shape of a Russian cathedral onion dome. It?s
an exciting sight in the late spring garden. Culinary leeks are worth
growing for their flowers, too: although they tend to be a dirty gray-white,
some have clearer, cleaner colors and are a ornamental as any of the Allium
sold as ornamental onions.

The question of what garlic itself is is a puzzle. Although it is given a
botanical name (Allium sativum ? that literally means cultivated garlic or
cultivated onion) there is no naturally occurring sexually reproducing
population which corresponds to what we know as garlic. It appears to exist
only in cultivation. Cultivated garlic does not produce viable seeds as far
as I know (and that is why Jan wrote ?Seed bearing garlic is new for me, and
I think it is quite of an interest for every Allium fan? ) and that makes it
hard to explain the diversity of cultivars now grown. Have they arisen by
somatic mutation of one original plant? The fact that garlics divide into
two general groups, the hard neck or rocambolle types and the soft neck
types, only complicates the picture and suggests that garlic originated at
least twice ? whatever its source.

The hard neck/rocambolle types are the ones which are typically grown in
harsh climates and are autumn planted. In mild climates, the soft neck sorts
are also autumn planted, but in harsh climates some do not perform well when
autumn planted and so they are sometimes planted in the spring. As Jan
points out, spring planted soft neck garlics do not produce large bulbs ?
one reason many gardeners in cold climate areas prefer the hard
neck/rocombolle types.

In our local grocery stores, the garlics usually sold are soft neck types.
These are the ones which are seen braided into decorative swags. Hard neck
garlics on the other hand seem only to be grown in home gardens locally.

Hard neck garlics are worth growing in the ornamental garden for their very
decorative, sinuously coiled scapes (which give them the name ophioscordum,
from the words for snake and garlic in Greek). These garlic scapes are
delicious chopped up and saut?ed in olive oil.

Jim McKenney
jimmckenney@jimmckenney.com
Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, 39.03871? North, 77.09829? West, USDA zone
7, where various unidentified clumping Allium are blooming prettily.
My Virtual Maryland Garden http://www.jimmckenney.com/
BLOG! http://mcwort.blogspot.com/

Webmaster Potomac Valley Chapter, NARGS
Editor PVC Bulletin http://www.pvcnargs.org/

Webmaster Potomac Lily Society http://www.potomaclilysociety.org/

------------------------------

Message: 6
Date: Sat, 1 Aug 2009 11:55:37 EDT
From: Theladygardens@aol.com
Subject: Re: [pbs] garlicky leek seed?
To: pbs@lists.ibiblio.org
Message-ID: <c21.533f74a8.37a5bf79@aol.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"

I ordered and grew several types of garlic this year. Much to my
surprise, most of them put out beautiful seed pods and after I pulled the garlic
out of the ground I laid them to dry with the seed bulbs suspended over
containers so I could gather any that fell.
I now have lots of wonderful plump seeds that I'd like to plant and see
what happens. I have kept the seeds for each variety separate and labeled.
Each variety of seeds looks different. The varieties I grew that produced
seeds are:
Kilarney Red -
Persian Star-
Nootka Rose
Romanian Red
Inchelian Red, not all of this variety produced seed heads, just a couple
My husband does keep 10 beehives in the garden so everything gets
pollinated.. All of this garlic was planted about 1 foot apart in a square with
each variety in a separate row. Has anyone planted garlic from seed before?
Carolyn Craft in Los Gatos CA, zone 9
**************A Good Credit Score is 700 or Above. See yours in just 2 easy
steps!
(http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/…
=JulystepsfooterNO115)

------------------------------

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End of pbs Digest, Vol 79, Issue 1
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