Dear Pamela, Where do you know from that your plant Albuca 'Augrabies Hills' is from "the northwest Cape near the southeastern Namibian border" as you state on the Albuca Wiki? There are in the usual gazetteers several Augrabies in "the northwest Cape near the southeastern Namibian border" such as Augrabies Falls, and Augrabies East & Augrabies West near Springbok but no Augrabies Hills. Is there perhaps an Augrabies Hills in the Eastern Cape? Roy Herold is absolutely right: "albuca seeds I collected in 2008 in Uniondale produced plants that are identical to A. Augrabies Hills." My wife Ute cultivates Albuca polyphylla since 35 years from many (more than 24) localities in the Eastern Cape and the eastern part of the Western Cape. Our first plants from Bathurst collected by R.D. Bayliss in DEC. 1977 are still alive in the Botanical Garden of Berlin, thus indeed rather hardy. Kind regards Dietrich Am 24.03.2012 20:27, schrieb Pamela Slate: > Nhu asked:>Do you grow it in full sun? > > I agree, Nhu, a very tough plant that suffered my neglect for several years after which I got serious about its horticulture and now it thrives. The plant lives in my shade/screen house that's actually an outdoor "room," framed and covered in 1/2-inch hardware cloth that house 12 concrete block planters that are each 25 inches high and filled with a special dirt mix. So the hardward cloth does provide a bit of shade all year but the entire top and west side are covered all summer with 50% shade cloth. It's such a rewarding plant, I don't care to risk its exposure to our extreme summer sun. > > And I do cover it with frost cloth for any temps below freezing. > > As for a species name, not at this time to my knowledge. > > Pamela > > Pamela Slate > P.O. Box 5316 > Carefree AZ 85377 > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.ibiblio.org > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/ ===================================================================== Not that this will clarify anything, but albuca seeds I collected in 2008 in Uniondale produced plants that are identical to A. Augrabies Hills. I believe I sent some of these seeds to the BX, but I don't know the number offhand. The interesting part is that Uniondale, at the eastern end of the Little Karoo, is about 1000 km away from the Augrabies area, and is a completely different climate/environment. This must either be a very adaptable albuca species, or what is in the trade really didn't come from the Augrabies area. --Roy NW of Boston Zone 7, formerly 6, formerly 5, where spring is a month early this year ========================================================================== Where do we stand with getting this plant a species name ? The Silent Seed ========================================================================== Wow Pam! That's a fantastic specimen. It is also a plant that can be found in many cactus and succulent nurseries around here (and I suspect elsewhere as well). Mine bloomed once this autumn and are starting to bloom again. It's a real tough plant. Do you grow yours in full sun? Nhu Berkeley, CA On Sat, Mar 24, 2012 at 9:58 AM, Pamela Slate<pslate22@yahoo.com> wrote: > Dear PBSers: > David Pilling has kindly added wiki photos of my plant known widely in the > Tucson nursery trade as Albuca 'Augrabies Hills'. It has flowered a full > two weeks before it did a year ago, due no doubt to our milder winter. The > flowers never fully open, are erect, corymbose and number 1-6 per stem. > ======================================================================== Dear PBSers: David Pilling has kindly added wiki photos of my plant known widely in the Tucson nursery trade as Albuca 'Augrabies Hills'. It has flowered a full two weeks before it did a year ago, due no doubt to our milder winter. The flowers never fully open, are erect, corymbose and number 1-6 per stem. http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/… If any of you has further information/comments about this plant, would appreciate hearing about it. Thanks, David, and Nhu also, for looking up those precise locations for Augrabies and Oograbies. Pamela Pamela Slate P.O. Box 5316 Carefree AZ 85377