Brunsvigia josephinae in bloom
Paul Licht (Mon, 14 Sep 2009 19:34:39 PDT)

Ken
The currently blooming 'josephine' in Berkeley looks very much like the
photo of it already posted on the PBS wiki. I just made some
measurements related to this discussion. The pedicle is 22" from the top
of the bulb and the open inflorescence measures about 22" X 34". This
years bloom is on a side bulb of the largest one that extends 22" above
the surface of the soil, and I would estimate that only about 1/3 more
is below the surface. They are football shaped. This plant has been in
our collection since 1990, but I haven't had time to look up what it was
like when we got it. We have several this size which have split. We
usually get one bloom from the combination each year but they can
definitely skip years.

Paul Licht, Director
Univ. California Botanical Garden
200 Centennial Drive
Berkeley, CA 94720
(510)-643-8999
http://botanicalgarden.berkeley.edu/

Ken wrote:

Hello Susan, Jim & Marie,

From above, the bulb appears oval shaped ... 11" x 9" and is slightly over 9" high from the soil surface. My understanding is these generally grow 1/2 to 2/3 about the soil, so overall height is probably in the 13 - 18" range. It is a large bulb but I suspect perhaps only moderately so for this species. The mother of this one was larger and I've seen a considerably larger bulb of this species (with at least one offset) at the UC Irvine Botanic Garden, which I suspect is probably blooming right now. If I can swing it, I may make a trip to UCI this coming weekend and will take some photos.

Anybody have photos from UC Berkeley's specimen this year ... or other Brunsvigias?

Ken

Ken, that bulb scared me! How big is it? Compared to the wall next to it, it looks really large!
...
5th year of bloom for this 15-year old bulb from seed. It seems fewer florets this year than last. Also, 2 of its sibling bulbs which bloomed for the first time last year seem to be sitting 2009 out. We've had a very dry year and I've provided no additional H2O. A 4th sibling bulb is sending up its first scape this year. Several other siblings have yet to bloom.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/amarguy/3917385121/

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