What's blooming - Week of August 15, 2010

Mary Sue Ittner msittner@mcn.org
Wed, 17 Aug 2011 13:26:40 PDT
Hi,

I didn't report the new items from last week, 
Scadoxus membranaceus and Pelargonium longifolium.
http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/…
http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/…

This week I'm enjoying Milla biflora which just started:
http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/…
Eucomis bicolor and E. comosa
http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/…
and Zantedeschia 'Blaze' which has been enjoyable 
for quite awhile, with giant leaves this year and 
the flower color changing slightly as it matures. 
This plant is interesting with different light hitting it.
http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/…
Others blooming are Acis autumnalis, Allium 
flavum, Aristea ecklonii, more and more Cyclamen 
hederifolium and some others that I mentioned a couple of weeks ago.

Speaking of "weedy" species, I also found some 
Crocosmia blooming in my garden this week. It 
reminded me of what we have said before, that one 
person's weed is another person's treasure. 
Crocosmia × crocosmiiflora is blooming all along 
the road verges this year. We had a longer period 
of rainfall so better flowering this year. It 
spreads too well by stolons that plunk down new 
corms as they go. I tried to get rid of all I 
could find in my garden, not only because it 
spreads and soon takes over, but also because my 
garden is relatively shady and very dry in summer 
so it usually didn't bloom, just spread. Getting 
rid of it requires vigilance, especially in the 
areas where it doesn't bloom as you may not 
notice it until you have a large patch.

Another blooming plant is an Ornithogalum I grew 
from a dubiously named batch of seed from NARGS 
seed exchange. When Cameron McMaster visited me a 
couple of years ago upon seeing it, he advised me 
to get rid of it. It is true that it reseeds a 
bit into other pots, but it is relatively easy to 
pull out of those pots. It could be O. 
juncifolium but my plants don't have bulbs that 
sit above the surface like the ones pictured on 
the wiki from Pamela Slate, and the leaves aren't 
quite like the one identified as this species in 
the Eastern Cape. With occasional water this 
plant blooms for a very long time and stays almost evergreen so I'm keeping it.

Mary Sue

Mary Sue Ittner
California's North Coast
Wet mild winters with occasional frost
Dry mild summers 


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