Hyacinthella

Jane McGary janemcgary@earthlink.net
Sat, 17 Mar 2012 09:48:23 PDT
Mary Sue Ittner wrote

>I added photos to the wiki of a bulb I got from Jane McGary when she
>was still selling them of Hyacinthella lazulina. I've added some
>photos to the wiki, but I am hoping someone can confirm that this is
>really what it is. It doesn't look quite like some of the other
>photos I found on the Internet that show a much darker color and
>flowers closer together. But then as my photos show, it looks
>different at different stages. I am assuming that Jane grew it from
>seed from a reliable source.
>http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/…

I'm sorry if I mixed this up in my shipment! This is not Hyacinthella 
lazulina, which has more numerous, smaller, much darker flowers. In 
fact, unless I am misunderstanding the size of the plant in the 
photos, this isn't a Hyacinthella at all. It looks more like a plant 
I also grow, Hyacinthus orientalis subsp. chionophilus. Mary Sue, if 
it is sweetly fragrant, it is the Hyacinthus. I might have had the 
two adjacent in the sorting area and may have reached into the wrong 
bag when filling your order. You can take the photos off the wiki, 
please. I'll see if I have a photo of the real thing. I did get a 
lovely photo of Hyacinthella heldreichii yesterday and must get back 
to posting photos on the wiki.

I have a number of species of Hyacinthella (Hyacinthaceae), all of 
which are very small plants. As far as I know, the only one that has 
been in commerce is H. dalmatica 'Grandiflora'; it is pictured on the 
wiki, I believe. I think 'Grandiflora' may be a polyploid selection, 
because I also have the typical H. dalmatica, grown from 
wild-collected seed, and it is a smaller inflorescence with narrower, 
thinner leaves; also, 'Grandiflora' has never set seed here. Other 
than 'Grandiflora', which I bought as a bulb many years ago, and the 
species H. dalmatica (from a Czech seed list), all my Hyacinthella 
species come from seed from the Archibalds.

Some Hyacinthella species are easy to grow, but others seem more 
difficult to maintain. The scape elongates as the flowers mature, so 
they are most attractive early in the flowering period. They seldom 
increase by offsets. H. lazulina is one of the best growers here.

Jane McGary
Portland, Oregon, USA




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