Bulb status in Las Vegas, NV I went out for a hike today to red rock canyon conservationa area. Calochortus flexuosus, C. striata and blue dicks are starting reappear after winter dormancy. Last week, I was also in Beatty, NV (West of Death Valley). The Calochortus flexuosus were starting to come up there even though it thunder-snowed on us, a little. The mojave recieved high amounts of snow this winter and las vegas had a wetter than average december. The Wildflower season is looking to be a good one so far. The first wildflowers were seen last week (Thamnosma montanum). Happy bulbing! On Sun, Feb 1, 2009 at 4:48 PM, Mary Sue Ittner <msittner@mcn.org> wrote: > Dear All, > > People subscribed to this group so we could talk about bulbs in the broader > sense and growing them and I'd like to get us back on topic before we have > a mass exodus. > > It seems like there have been a lot of weather extremes in the last few > years and I'm interested in knowing how people are coping. There have been > droughts, floods, colder than usual weather, warmer than usual weather. Are > people losing plants or finding some grow better? > > I live in coastal northern California, but on a ridge in the mixed > evergreen forest and usually we have rain and a lot of it between sometime > in October and November and May with it dry the rest of the year. The > months with the most rain are December, January, and February and after > that it tapers off. Storms usually start north and move south, but this > year they aren't getting to us. And the tropical storms from the south > aren't coming far enough north either. We've lived here 20 years and it has > never been as dry this time of the year as it is this year and we are in > the first stages of voluntary water conservation. This is leaving everyone > very worried as last year it stopped raining in February and we had bad > fires in the summer. > > In addition to the drier weather we had unseasonably warm days for part of > January as well. It has been beautiful if you don't think about how it is > supposed to be. What this has meant for my garden is that things are > blooming much earlier than usual. I am getting a sense of what it must be > like in Southern California most years. Normally I don't have to water my > too large collections of pots in winter, at least not those that get rained > on, but not this year. We collect water from the roof, so I'm using that > for now. It doesn't take much rain to fill our water barrels so am keeping > my fingers crossed that before I've exhausted my supply it will rain again. > > Yesterday I did a survey and there were blooms in more than 100 pots with > spikes in others. That's a bit unusual for January and there are quite a > few things blooming in the ground as well. All three varieties of > Tecophilaea are blooming. Some years they don't even come up until January. > I've a lot of Romulea in bloom: R. crocea, R. sabulosa, R. luteoflora, R. > flava, R. kamisensis, R. kombergensis, Romulea bulbocodium, R. monticola > and something that has been well eaten (tag says R. subfistulosa alas since > it is one of the more spectacular ones.) And there was a Galaxia that > bloomed that I missed. I have several species of Cyclamen blooming in pots > and in the ground and Narcissus both places as well. Ixia rapunculoides is > falling over in more than one place and there are Crocus blooming in pots > and in the ground. A few early Lachenalias are finishing and others taking > their place. The Massonias are about done except for Massonia depressa. > Oxalis in bloom are all my different obtusas, Oxalis purpurea forms, O. > versicolor, O. depressa. Gladiolus caeruleus has been booming for some time > and other Gladiolus like alatus have well formed spikes. The Veltheimias > seems to have sent up more spikes than usual, but aren't quite open. I've > had quite a few Babiana species in bloom for awhile, but two new species > started blooming today. Leucojum aestivum which doesn't bloom consistently > at the same time each year is blooming now. In the greenhouse a couple of > Haemanthus are just about done, but I have several Cyrtanthus in bloom, one > Phaedranassa, Canarina, and Tropaeolum tricolor in bloom. There is another > Trop species that got away from me before I could train it properly and it > is growing all over the top of the greenhouse. I'll have to use binoculars > to see the flowers. For the first year in years Tropaeolum brachycercas (at > least one) showed up. I wonder if I have missed it in the past and not > watered enough since that first shoot was so tiny and thin. And all my > yellow Ipheion-Nothoscordum-Tristagmas, whatever we are calling them, are > blooming this year. One pot had remained dormant for many years. There is > also a white Nothoscordum unidentified, but not the bad one, that has been > blooming well. As for my natives I have these in bloom: Erythronium > multiscapodium, Cardamine californica, Triteleia clementina, Scoliopus > bigelovii, Calochortus uniflorus. It looks like a long blooming year for > Spiloxene serrata that started blooming in December and was flowering > today. And there is the first Scilla and a Hycinthoides blooming too and > the first of my Delphiniums. > > Some of the flowers don't seem to be lasting as long as they usually do and > some Oxalis have already gone dormant. I don't know if this will lead to a > shorter season and if that will impact the blooming season next year or if > since there has been more light they will been doing the necessary growing > and it won't make any difference. > > Any reports from other parts of the world of successes and plants lost to > the weather? > > Mary Sue > > > > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.ibiblio.org > http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/ >