Soils and flower color
Diana Chapman (Tue, 12 May 2015 08:44:59 PDT)

Hi Jane:

I don't know about soil, but some of my bulbs definitely change color
from year to year, and I am certain it is not from stray seedlings
finding their way into the pots. Color intensity of Triteleia laxa
changes, but the most dramatic color differences have been in
Rhodophiala. I have a pot of R. chilensis grown from seed that were
clear red, and were identified as such when I got the seed from Flores
and Watson. The original bulbs are still with me, but this year and
last year they are yellow diffused with red throughout. There is no
sign of virus or any other problem. Oxalis flower color can change quite
a bit. At first I thought it was from seeding from adjacent pots
producing new colors, but I now see that they actually change, not just
in intensity, but also hue. The soil is not a factor here, I have them
in the same mix, but temperature varies from year to year, and that
could be a factor. Some colors seem to have 'evolved', changing
gradually each year until they hardly resemble the original picture I
have of them (Oxalis obtusa Peaches & Cream, is, unfortunately, one of
these).

Diana
Telos

Moving many mature plants from one garden to another three and
one-half years ago seems to have altered the flower color in some.
Soil in the first garden is very well drained. rocky, volcanic "shot
clay" with high iron and potassium levels. That in the new garden is
fairly heavy clay (also of volcanic origin but at lower elevation),
now well amended with organic matter, with none of the red color seen
in the former. Two species of Paeonia, both grown from wild-collected
seed in the mid-1990s, are particularly different. Paeonia
mlokosewitschii was cream with a pink flush, mostly from pink veins;
now it is clear pale yellow. Paeonia officinalis was a beautiful
blood-red; now I would call it rose-red, a less striking color.
Have you noticed other geophytes that vary in flower color in
different soils?

Jane McGary
Portland, Oregon, USA

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