Changing seasons + rare plants
Max Withers (Mon, 21 Feb 2011 21:10:29 PST)
A wet fall and atypically warm and dry January have caused unusual behavior
here in the SF bay area as well, although my sample sizes are very small. My
sole Fritillaria recurva just sent out a leaf a maybe a week ago. Meanwhile
they are blooming (beautifully!) a mere 40 miles away:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ericinsf/5440521094/
F. eastwoodiae also just leafed out here, but there is no sign yet of
Erythronium 'White Beauty' (I have so few, it's possible I lost them all).
The oddest thing is a single Asiatic lily, cv. unknown, of a group of 3
I received as a (potted, flowering) gift, that started leafing out in Nov.
and budded in Dec. -- well before our unseasonably warm weather:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/badthings/5414048917/
It still hasn't flowered.
On another topic, I wanted to note a somewhat confusing article in the LA
Times about a call for enhanced regulation of the trade in rare plants.
Excuse me if this was discussed here before, but I just noticed it:
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jan/…
The equally confusing Nature article referred to is here (for subscribers):
http://nature.com/nature/journal/…
The argument about Brighamia insignis is nonsensical -- if ex-situ
conservation is the only chance of a species's survival, shouldn't that be
encouraged? I'll avoid further pontification, but I did think it interesting
that Nature saw fit to publish this.
Max Withers
Oakland CA
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Message: 3
Date: Sun, 20 Feb 2011 17:27:18 -0800
From: "Robin Hansen" <hansennursery@coosnet.com>
To: "Pacific Bulb Society" <pbs@lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: Re: [pbs] Changing seasons
Message-ID: <5EADC8B9DBB04445AD22EB6457DB6D0E@homed4aec9b2d8>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Some other signs of spring ---
Trillium kuryabayashii in full bloom, Erythronium 'Pagoda' in bud, blooming
always well before E. tuolumnense, all the Ipheions of course - actually
they're later than usual. These are in an unheated, shaded poly house.
Scoliopus (hallii or bigelovii) is finished and the other is beginning to
bloom. Can anyone give me a simple way to tell them apart? The one just
finished has well-spotted leaves, the other doesn't seem to as much, but
whenever I've been around them, clouds of flies depart. Now if they would
just set seed!
Cyclamen pseudibericum is beginning to bloom and repandum,et al. I think
I'll just call them "repandum complex" for now. Do I hear cries of "Oh,
horrors -can't she figure it out!"?
Well, no, my undisciplined mind seems to veer off into other things...
It has been alternately freezing and raining at night, but the English
violets in my mother's lawn are blooming. Her daffodils are in bud. Mine
aren't there yet.
Even one or two pots of little Scilla bifolia are beginning to flower, and
the Synthyris from up on the Umpqua River in south central Oregon is in full
bloom.
I can't repot fast enough now to be ready for spring plant sales and
there's still lots of seed to sow.
We have turned the corner into the approach to spring - and oh, how welcome
it is!
Robin Hansen
Hansen Nursery
Southwestern Oregon, USA