Send pbs mailing list submissions to
pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net

To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/…
or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to
pbs-request@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net

You can reach the person managing the list at
pbs-owner@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net

When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
than "Re: Contents of pbs digest..."
List-Post:<mailto:pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net
List-Archive:<http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php
Today's Topics:

1. Another try for Phyllobolus resurgens (Carl Frederick)
2. Membership renewal (Arnold Trachtenberg)
3. Re: Snowmelt bulbs (Lee Poulsen)
4. Re: Spray Painting Plastic Flower Pots (Glattstein) (A C)
5. Re: Snowmelt bulbs (Jane McGary)
6. Re: Snowmelt bulbs (Jan Jeddeloh)
7. Re: Spray Painting Plastic Flower Pots (Glattstein)
(Judy Glattstein)
8. Snowmelt bulbs (Lee Poulsen)
9. Re: Snowmelt bulbs (Tecophilaea) (Lee Poulsen)

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Carl Frederick <carlfrederick@comcast.net>
To: pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net
Cc:
Bcc:
Date: Wed, 16 Feb 2022 07:47:58 -0800
Subject: [pbs] Another try for Phyllobolus resurgens
Seems that this species doesn’t want attention.

-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image0.jpeg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 981128 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <
http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/pipermail/pbs/…

-------------- next part --------------

Sent from my iPhone

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Arnold Trachtenberg <arnold140@verizon.net>
To: "pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net" <pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net>
Cc:
Bcc:
Date: Wed, 16 Feb 2022 17:01:00 +0000 (UTC)
Subject: [pbs] Membership renewal
We are in the process of preparing to mail out post card reminders for
membership renewal.
If you have already renewed thanks so much. If you feel you will not be
renewing let me know via private email and I will not mail a card.

Messages to Arnold140@verizon.net

Thanks for all the continued support.
ArnoldTreasurer, PBS

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Lee Poulsen <wpoulsen@pacbell.net>
To: Pacific Bulb Society <pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net>
Cc:
Bcc:
Date: Wed, 16 Feb 2022 14:11:33 -0800
Subject: Re: [pbs] Snowmelt bulbs
I don’t have an answer to Jane’s question below, but instead another
question. Why is it that some high altitude bulbs can adapt so well to low
altitudes and quite different climates? Tecophilaea cyanocrocus grows at
3000m/10,000ft in the Andes of Chile. I suspect that they are covered with
snow during the winter. And yet they grow fantastically easily for me here
at basically 1/10 of that altitude in a mediterranean climate where we
never get snow and only rare does it ever go below freezing. And here they
act just like Cape bulbs from the southwestern Cape of South Africa. In
fact, I keep them with my other South African Cape bulbs and grow them and
store them during summer dormancy along with them, such as Lachenalia. They
come out of dormancy all on their own once it gets cool and the winter
rains start to fall. And they multiply easily without any special care.
Each of my pots in the photos I hopefully successfully attached all started
from one bulb from different sources. If I didn’t know their natural
habitat, I wouldn’t have guessed it from their behavior here.

The other question I have has to do with the different subspecies or
varieties of T. cyanocrocus. The “typical” intense blue one, sometime
called T. c. var. cyanocrocus, is considered the type variety, and the two
other color forms, var. leichtlinii and var. violacea, are considered to be
mere color variations. However, my experience is that the leichtlinii
variety is far more vigorous in every way to the pure blue variety. It
grows more strongly, reproduces more quickly, and blooms far more
frequently and vigorously than the pure blue one (or the violet one). You
can see that in the photos as well which were taken at the same time where
the pots are at opposite ends of the bench they’re on. (The violet ones
hadn’t started blooming yet.) They are treated identically all year round.
It kind of makes me think the leichtlinii variety is the typical species
and the other two varieties were color mutations. The photos in the two
articles I’ve seen showing two different populations in their natural
habitat are hard to discern, but they don’t seem to be mostly the intense
blue form. But maybe the leichtlinii variety also happens to be the most
adapted to low elevation southern California conditions and that’s why they
do so much better for me?

--Lee Poulsen
Pasadena, California, USA - USDA Zone 10a
Latitude 34°N, Altitude 1150 ft/350 m

pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net> wrote:

bulb-lawn plants here too. In contrast, such snowmelt plants as Galanthus
platyphyllus, Fritillaria latifolia, Rhodophiala rhodolirion, and Lloydia
serotina have defeated many lowland growers, including me. If any readers
who don't live in high latitudes or altitudes succeed with these, I'd like
to learn how! What are your comments on geophytes that emerge under the lip
of the snowbank and flower before they are overgrown by grasses and tall
perennials?

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: A C <acar12@earthlink.net>
To: <pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net>
Cc:
Bcc:
Date: Wed, 16 Feb 2022 14:50:52 -0800
Subject: Re: [pbs] Spray Painting Plastic Flower Pots (Glattstein)
I doubt that any paint will stay on a super-flexible surface if you flex it
very much. But I often use Rust-Oleum "Universal Bonding Primer" before
top-coating on unusual surfaces. For instance, it will reliably adhere to
galvanized metal, which most paints will not. Some hardware stores carry
it, but you may have to place a special order, or get it online.

Alan

Date: Sun, 13 Feb 2022 10:06:52 -0500
From: Judy Glattstein <jgglatt@gmail.com>
To: pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net
Subject: [pbs] Spray Painting Plastic Flower Pots
Message-ID: <f471a78e-9f49-b22a-0bc2-4ab318850025@gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed

I have spray painted plastic containers. Best technique is to set up a
spray booth with large opened corrugated cardboard box shielding three
sides. Container to be sprayed is inverted on an upside down bucket -
that's for convenience to get the to-be-sprayed containers up off the
ground. Spray first with a primer for better adhesion, then color for
second and third coats. Goes very quickly. Just choose a calm, not
breezy day.

Spray the containers white and that should alleviate the over-heating /
getting too dry issues. Won't eliminate, but should help.

Judy in New Jersey where it is snowing. Forecast has changed from
"ending by 9:00 a.m." to "over by 3:00 p.m."

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Jane McGary <janemcgary@earthlink.net>
To: pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net
Cc:
Bcc:
Date: Wed, 16 Feb 2022 15:03:20 -0800
Subject: Re: [pbs] Snowmelt bulbs
In answer to Lee's first question, plants that are dormant below snow
cover in winter are not necessarily very cold. Probably at 3000 m in the
Andes, they don't go into winter very moist, either. The sites for
Tecophilaea cyanocrocus (which was believed extinct in the wild for many
years) are not publicly recorded, so I don't know just how they grow,
but I read the report of the rediscovery in the Chilean botanical
journal "Gayana," and they sound like a typical Mediterranean-climate
snowmelt corm, such as one can see, for example, high in the mountains
of Crete. Compare Crocus sieberi from the latter area, which is also a
very adaptable species. (Some snowmelt crocuses are not; I barely
maintain C. alatavicus.)

The same report in "Gayana" says that "subsp. leichtlinii" with a lot of
white in the throat is the most common form seen in the rediscovered
populations. Tecophilaea violacea is listed in Chilean field guides as a
separate species, not a color form, and it is said to have a different
distribution. Very likely the intense blue form was selected by
European/British growers when wild-collected material was being
imported. During our recent PBS board meeting, Jan Jeddeloh showed a
nice pot grown from seed, and they had a lot of white in them. I've kept
the all-blue forms going, but I started with imported bulbs from a Dutch
supplier some years ago. For comparison with Lee's present flowering, my
plants have not emerged yet this winter. I grow them in an unheated but
covered situation where a few degrees of frost are common in midwinter.
Where I used to live, I had a solarium on the house and tried
Tecophilaea there, but the plants became stretched and floppy; they
looked much better when I moved them to unheated frames.

Jane McGary, Portland, Oregon, USA

On 2/16/2022 2:11 PM, Lee Poulsen via pbs wrote:

question. Why is it that some high altitude bulbs can adapt so well to low
altitudes and quite different climates? Tecophilaea cyanocrocus grows at
3000m/10,000ft in the Andes of Chile. I suspect that they are covered with
snow during the winter. And yet they grow fantastically easily for me here
at basically 1/10 of that altitude in a mediterranean climate where we
never get snow and only rare does it ever go below freezing. And here they
act just like Cape bulbs from the southwestern Cape of South Africa. In
fact, I keep them with my other South African Cape bulbs and grow them and
store them during summer dormancy along with them, such as Lachenalia. They
come out of dormancy all on their own once it gets cool and the winter
rains start to fall. And they multiply easily without any special care.
Each of my pots in the photos I hopefully successfully attached all started
from one bulb from different sources. If I didn’t know their natural
habitat, I wouldn’t have guessed it from their behavior here.

varieties of T. cyanocrocus. The “typical” intense blue one, sometime
called T. c. var. cyanocrocus, is considered the type variety, and the two
other color forms, var. leichtlinii and var. violacea, are considered to be
mere color variations. However, my experience is that the leichtlinii
variety is far more vigorous in every way to the pure blue variety. It
grows more strongly, reproduces more quickly, and blooms far more
frequently and vigorously than the pure blue one (or the violet one). You
can see that in the photos as well which were taken at the same time where
the pots are at opposite ends of the bench they’re on. (The violet ones
hadn’t started blooming yet.) They are treated identically all year round.
It kind of makes me think the leichtlinii variety is the typical species
and the other two varieties were color mutations. The photos in the two
articles I’ve seen showing two different populations in their natural
habitat are hard to discern, but they don’t seem to be mostly the intense
blue form. But maybe the leichtlinii variety also happens to be the most
adapted to low elevation southern California conditions and that’s why they
do so much better for me?

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Jan Jeddeloh <janjeddeloh@gmail.com>
To: Pacific Bulb Society <pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net>
Cc:
Bcc:
Date: Wed, 16 Feb 2022 14:57:47 -0800
Subject: Re: [pbs] Snowmelt bulbs
Check out this article for a discussion of Tecophilaea cyanocrocus and
its’ color forms.
https://alpinegardensociety.net/plants/…
<
https://alpinegardensociety.net/plants/…>
Go to page 108 for the article. Basically you’re correct that the
leichtlinii variety is the typical species.

I see Jane beat me to a post. She’s sadly right that most of my
tecophilia are of this form. I of course covet the fully deep blue form,
not that the leichtlinii form is anything to sneeze at. Does anyone know a
commercial source of reliably dark blue forms? I’d keep them separate and
hand pollinate them.

Lee, do yours reproduce vegetatively?

Jan

pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net> wrote:

question. Why is it that some high altitude bulbs can adapt so well to low
altitudes and quite different climates? Tecophilaea cyanocrocus grows at
3000m/10,000ft in the Andes of Chile. I suspect that they are covered with
snow during the winter. And yet they grow fantastically easily for me here
at basically 1/10 of that altitude in a mediterranean climate where we
never get snow and only rare does it ever go below freezing. And here they
act just like Cape bulbs from the southwestern Cape of South Africa. In
fact, I keep them with my other South African Cape bulbs and grow them and
store them during summer dormancy along with them, such as Lachenalia. They
come out of dormancy all on their own once it gets cool and the winter
rains start to fall. And they multiply easily without any special care.
Each of my pots in the photos I hopefully successfully attached all started
from one bulb from different sources. If I didn’t know their natural
habitat, I wouldn’t have guessed it from their behavior here.

varieties of T. cyanocrocus. The “typical” intense blue one, sometime
called T. c. var. cyanocrocus, is considered the type variety, and the two
other color forms, var. leichtlinii and var. violacea, are considered to be
mere color variations. However, my experience is that the leichtlinii
variety is far more vigorous in every way to the pure blue variety. It
grows more strongly, reproduces more quickly, and blooms far more
frequently and vigorously than the pure blue one (or the violet one). You
can see that in the photos as well which were taken at the same time where
the pots are at opposite ends of the bench they’re on. (The violet ones
hadn’t started blooming yet.) They are treated identically all year round.
It kind of makes me think the leichtlinii variety is the typical species
and the other two varieties were color mutations. The photos in the two
articles I’ve seen showing two different populations in their natural
habitat are hard to discern, but they don’t seem to be mostly the intense
blue form. But maybe the leichtlinii variety also happens to be the most
adapted to low elevation southern California conditions and that’s why they
do so much better for me?

pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net> wrote:

bulb-lawn plants here too. In contrast, such snowmelt plants as Galanthus
platyphyllus, Fritillaria latifolia, Rhodophiala rhodolirion, and Lloydia
serotina have defeated many lowland growers, including me. If any readers
who don't live in high latitudes or altitudes succeed with these, I'd like
to learn how! What are your comments on geophytes that emerge under the lip
of the snowbank and flower before they are overgrown by grasses and tall
perennials?

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Judy Glattstein <jgglatt@gmail.com>
To: pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net
Cc:
Bcc:
Date: Wed, 16 Feb 2022 17:59:13 -0500
Subject: Re: [pbs] Spray Painting Plastic Flower Pots (Glattstein)
I use Rustoleum plastic primer and paint to embellish Tidy Cat kitty
litter tubs, the yellow with printing that hold 35 pounds of litter
kind. Use them to hold kindling etc for our wood burning stove. Going on
3 years and they still look good.

Judy

On 2/16/2022 5:50 PM, A C via pbs wrote:

it

to

--
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
https://www.avast.com/antivirus/

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Lee Poulsen <wpoulsen@pacbell.net>
To: Pacific Bulb Society <pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net>
Cc:
Bcc:
Date: Wed, 16 Feb 2022 18:07:08 -0800
Subject: [pbs] Snowmelt bulbs
I’m going to try sending the two photos again.

--Lee Poulsen
Pasadena, California, USA - USDA Zone 10a
Latitude 34°N, Altitude 1150 ft/350 m

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Lee Poulsen <wpoulsen@pacbell.net>
To: Pacific Bulb Society <pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net>
Cc:
Bcc:
Date: Wed, 16 Feb 2022 19:55:21 -0800
Subject: Re: [pbs] Snowmelt bulbs (Tecophilaea)
Jane, you’re not confusing Tecophilaea violiflora, which I also grow, with
T. cyancocrocus var. violacea, are you? They are two very different plants.
The T. c. var. violacea looks and grows exactly like the other two color
forms and you can’t tell the difference until they flower. There is a
cultivar called ’Storm Cloud’ that is a cross between var. leichtlinii and
var. violacea that looks just like var. leichtlinii except that instead of
a pale blue edge has a lavender edge. The var. violacea has a purple color
every bit as intense as the blue variety. T. violiflora is a much smaller
plant with a smaller flower that isn’t as intensely colored as the T.
cyanocrocus flowers are and mine are more of a blue-violet color too.

My pot of var. violacea hadn’t started blooming yet when I took the two
photos. Also, I only have one pot of it. I used to have just as many as the
other two varieties but a couple of summers ago, mice found most of the
violacea pots and ate every single corm in them except for one pot that
they missed. They also ate all the corms of my pot of ’Storm Cloud’. Now I
keep mousetraps in with my pots in my summer dormancy storage area. That
seems to have worked.

I wonder if the solid blue without white coloring is due more to the
growing conditions and weather and/or climate that they grow in while in
active growth before they flower. The white in my all-blue forms seems
variable from winter to winter, sometimes having quite a bit, while other
winters having very little. One really cold winter, they were essentially
all blue with no white. I sourced my bulbs from all over, from here in the
US, from England, and from New Zealand. After a couple of years, they all
seem to have the same amount of white in them in any given winter. The last
president of IBS contacted me when he had someone write an article on
Tecophilaea for Herbertia and he was looking all over for photos of the
solid blue form. He didn’t like any of mine, and kept insisting that the
true form was a solid blue with no white especially the white lines. He
finally found someone who had a photo of what he was looking for.

The thing to keep in mind is that the blue form with white is still the
intense blue, but with some white in the center and sometimes some white
rays extending out towards the outer part of the petals. But it’s not
nearly as much white as in the leichtlinii form in which only the outer
third of each petal is blue, and the leichtlinii blue is not the intense
blue of the blue form. It’s what I would call a “sky blue” or a “baby
blue”. It’s much paler, whereas the blue form is what I would call a “pure
blue” or “solid blue” or the blue of an RGB display that is only showing
the blue pixels lit up (at full intensity).

The ones in the pots shown all grew vegetatively from one bulb each. (Some
I’ve had long enough that they now fill two pots as well as some I’ve
traded away.) I’ve recently grown some from seeds but they aren’t blooming
yet. I can’t always seem to get seeds to germinate some years. And I think
the baby bulbs don’t like to be kept as dry during summer as I keep the
full-sized bulbs, which I’ve never had any problems with, whereas some of
my seedling bulblets haven’t made it alive until fall. I also have to hand
pollinate if I want seed set. I pretty much never get seeds unless I hand
pollinate, which in my case is I have a very small horsehair paintbrush and
I just twirl it into the center of one flower then twirl it into the center
of the next flower of a different pot, and I keep doing that until I’ve
“twirled” all the flowers of that variety.

--Lee Poulsen
Pasadena, California, USA - USDA Zone 10a
Latitude 34°N, Altitude 1150 ft/350 m

pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net> wrote:

species, not a color form, and it is said to have a different distribution.

growers when wild-collected material was being imported. During our recent
PBS board meeting, Jan Jeddeloh showed a nice pot grown from seed, and they
had a lot of white in them. I've kept the all-blue forms going, but I
started with imported bulbs from a Dutch supplier some years ago.

_______________________________________________
pbs mailing list
pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net
http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/…
Unsubscribe: <mailto:pbs-unsubscribe@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net>