I looked thru my blog and I found a pic of the agapanthus in bloom that I got from Ellen's nursery (fourth post down on Jan 2, 2009). It is right against a street curb, and in the photo some rather rambunctious Gladiolus papilio leaves are flopping over the tather small growing agapanthus, though I really thinned out the glads last fall and again this spring. Its growing again, better than ever, but has not yet bloomed. I also have another summer growing agapanthus, much larger, that I collected as a small non blooming plant not far from Pretoria (near Bronkhorstspruit) in the early 90's. I think it is A. caulescens, and it usually blooms each year, though I have had to step up its pot size a few times. I dry it off and keep it in a cool hallway for the winter, though it tends to resprout earlier (March) than I would like. It currently has four spikes on it, which should open in a few weeks. I've not tried it outdoors, but when it flowers it does set seed, so maybe I will grow some extras and try them outside. I don't think it needs anything special to flower, other than a dry and reasonably cool period. I also am growing a few others, A coddii (from refrigerated seed ex Kirstenbosch), some Headbourne hybrids from exchange seed, a small/mini growing apparently evergreen type from a local nursery (reluctant to bloom again thus far), and a couple from Brent and Becky's which did not bloom their first year, but might this year or next. All of these are in pots, all but the mini one are deciduous and dried off for winter storage. I have a bunch of underpotted long suffering crinums I got from ebay as a mix a few years ago, I have no idea what they are, though I'm guessing x powellii, so now I am inspired to plant them out from all these recent posts. I really can't give them the premium sunny spots in their pots, but I can give them great sun in the slope garden at school, especially as it is doubling in size thanks to my industrious AP bio students, who have recently perfected the art of ripping/rolling up turf, and myself (though I really felt my age last Fri as I planted in the -very-hot sun after classes were over). Digging deep holes, however, is not fun, since when they last did construction in that part of the school apparently the crew dumped a lot of gravel, grey sand/grit (for making concrete?), occasional large rocks, and various plastic bottles and cups (yep, styrofoam and clear plastic bottles are evidently not biodegradable, at least on a reasonable time scale), and metal objects under the turf. Guess I'll bring them in and have the kids plant them next week before school lets out. Ernie DeMarie Tuckahoe NY Z6/7 plantblog: http://geraniosgarden.blogspot.com/ -----Original Message----- From: Ellen Hornig <hornig@earthlink.net> To: Pacific Bulb Society <pbs@lists.ibiblio.org> Sent: Fri, Jun 4, 2010 8:25 pm Subject: Re: [pbs] was: Re: Crinum in MO; now: Agapanthus in Connecticut It (Seneca Hill Perennials) isn't quite my former nursery, because we'll ertainly be selling for the next year (write me at <hornig@earthlink.net> to be ut on the mailing list - limited selection, rudimentary packing, icro-wholesale only, i.e. 6s and 12s and a 1-flat minimum). After that, I hink, probably not. But on to agapanthus. Because of our wonderful snow cover here in Oswego NY, I row several A. campanulatus hybrids, plus the species A. campanulatus ssp atens, in the open garden without protection. All the plants I grow bloom reely. The cultivars include A. campanulatus 'Mooreanus' (what we sold as old Wayside Gardens clone" for years, until Wesley Whiteside, our original ource, unearthed a Wayside catalog from the 60s and discovered it was riginally distributed as 'Mooreanus', which is described elsewhere as a election of A. campanulatus ssp patens), Agapanthus 'Prolific White' (probably campanulatus hybrid, and the name is misapplied because it already belongs, I elieve, to an A. africanus selection), A. 'Prolific Blue' (same heritage, same omenclatural problem), and A. 'Bressingham Blue'. I would describe all of them s "thriving" rather than merely surviving. This year David Salman sent me lants of a hardy white campanulatus type that I look forward to trying (sorry - oo lazy to run down the hill to check the name, but I believe he got it from rrowhead Alpines, and it's on the High Country Gardens website). On a related (sort of) note, Ed Bowen's marvelous eucomis hybrid 'Rhode Island ed' (E. 'Sparkling Burgundy' x E. pallidiflora ssp pole-evansii, with the atter as pod parent) survived last winter in the open garden (3/3), much to my urprise. I'll be interested to see how it performs in the longer run. It's a orgeous plant. I just sowed a bunch of seeds from it (selfed) - will be fun to ee what develops. Ellen ----Original Message----- From: pelarg@aol.com Sent: Jun 4, 2010 7:55 PM To: pbs@lists.ibiblio.org Subject: Re: [pbs] was: Re: Crinum in MO; now: Agapanthus in Connecticut An agapanthus from Ellen Hornig's former retail nursery, an old clone from ayside Gardens, likely a cultivar of A. campanulatus, has survived here in uckahoe NY for at least four years. It is much smaller than the evergreen onsters in California. It blooms reliably, is totally deciduous, and slowly he clump gets larger. Does not produce seed, thus far. Ernie DeMarie Where I am excitedly awaiting the opening of the first flowers on a Melianthus verwintered against a wall (got thru 2 winters so far) at my school in happaqua NY. Also happy to see Senecio coronatus from S Africa did not in fact ie out, its little leaves are emerging nearby from three plants. plantblog: http://geraniosgarden.blogspot.com/ Ellen Hornig eneca Hill Perennials 712 Co. Rt. 57 swego NY 13126 hone: 315-342-5915 ax: 315-342-5573 ww.senecahillperennials.com _______________________________________________ bs mailing list bs@lists.ibiblio.org ttp://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php ttp://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/