Sparaxis, was What bulb is this?
Mary Sue Ittner (Sun, 29 Aug 2010 18:25:50 PDT)

Hi,

If you look at the photos on the Sparaxis wiki hybrid page you will
see that Sparaxis hybridizes very easily with many different color
combinations.
<http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/…>
And it grows very easily in New Zealand. Years ago when I visited
Terry Hatch he had a whole field of them and he was letting the bees
pollinate them and see what the result might be. I've saved seed from
open pollinated plants and grown it on and had the same experience
that John has that none of them are the same regardless of the what
the plant was like I saved the seed from. Like Terry Hatch I find the
color forms that nature produces fascinating. And what is interesting
is when I planted just one in a pot to try to isolate the forms and
just grow on ones I liked, I found a great difference in how much
they offset. Some offset rapidly and some much more slowly. Obviously
the ones that are commonly sold as a specific color form are the ones
that offset quickly as they are easy to propagate. I doubt that what
Ina is growing is a pure species even though it does look a lot like
Sparaxis bulbifera so I could be wrong. I was given some that look
very much like it that someone bought at a garden center. I'll use
the file so I won't have to describe where it is on the hybrid page.
It has been long lived and expanded by offsets and has hybrid vigor.
<http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/files/…>
They aren't floppy for me either (not like Ixia which falls over if
it rains while it is blooming), but they can expand dramatically by
corms and by seed so Ina if you don't like it, you probably would be
wise to remove it. I have occasionally seen it growing in the wild
where I live, but it hasn't seemed to last too long as it later years
I haven't seen it.

Mary Sue