Acis/Leucojum 2017

[johnralphcarpenter]

It seeds itself around between paving slabs on our patio.

[johnw]

Brian  - I tried Acis autumnale in the garden many times and they were invariably winter-killed the very first year.  Ken has tried them in his garden and they've all failed.  I gave up and settled on potted ones near an azalea bed in part sun; to our great surprise it self-sowed under a very prostrate azalea and now has made a sizeable clump which has wintered for at least 10-12 years.  It's just about to flower, part sun and a rather peaty ericaceous soil, not what I'd have expected to be a suitable site.  Oddly I've never seen other volunteers about.

Perhaps I should move the potted ones away from the volunteer and collect selfed seed.

john

[sokol]

After diner i've sweeped the greenhouse's floor and checking pots, i've seen the first sign of life. Acis are already in buds, will water tomorrow morning. Very early season, looks like the switch between summer and autumn gonna be quick.

It is the same here and they appeared rather fast, 10 days after repotting, when there was no sign of life.

Here I think they were triggered by a long dry and hot period finished by cooler weather and rainfall.

[Hannelore]

Here you can see the two places, where I grow Acis autumnalis in the garden. They're seedlings, sowed in January 2016 and planted out about one year ago. Until the flowers showed I had a brown plasic ring around the place in order not to disturb them. Now I placed flat stones around.

These started flowering about four weeks ago and you can only see the rest.

This place is underneath a Prunus cerasifera bush, aside a Paeonia tenuifolia and Phuopsis stylosa which estimate the dry place as well.

Hannelore

[johnralphcarpenter]

Don't they need full sun so as to not become etiolated?

[Hannelore]

Don't they need full sun so as to not become etiolated?

They have sun for about half a day (I pruned the Prunus up to a height of about 1 m). The leaves look as green as the grass on the other side and the Phuopsis. I'll see.
Thank you for the problem to watch.

Hannelore

[sokol]

I have repotted all my Acis autumnalis, most bulbs had roots in July despite a long dry period. Today I had the first flower of plants sown 2 years ago. They are in light shadow all day long plunged in a sand bed. Also Acis rosea did flower there and stayed green till now. Both are unprotected outside throughout the whole year.

[johnralphcarpenter]

Acis autumnalis var. dispathaceus.

[fermi de Sousa]

Leucojum aestivum 'Gravetye Giant' starting to flowering in our garden.
I think "summer snowflake" is such a ridiculous name when it's still winter here
cheers
fermi

[sokol]

Hi Fermi,

that looks like Leucojum vernalis and the flowering time fits better.

[fermi de Sousa]

that looks like Leucojum vernalis and the flowering time fits better.

Hi sokol,
it's definitely L. aestivum 'Gravetye Giant'. The ordinary L. aestivum is also in flower - I should get a pic of the two together for comparison
I've grown L. vernalis and they don't like my climate   though Otto does well with it in the Dandenongs.

cheers
fermi

[Hans J]

Hi all ,

here are two pics of Acis ionica
Grown from seeds from my trip in year 2010 on Kephallonia

The location where I have found was interesting :
They have grown near a pass inside the island – the altitude was 650 m !

This is very unusul – because all other locations of Acis ionica which I have seen on Zakinthos / Kephallonia was always in lower altitude
Zakinthos : 70 m
Kephallonia 5 m ( sea side )

In the first description of  Acis ionica (BAREKA, KAMARI &  PHITOSis ) written :
"Habitat and ecology. – Open, calcareous, stony and rocky places, hill slopes generally not far
away from the coastline and often facing the sea, usually in phrygana or low macchia communities,
at an altitude of 3-350(-450) m"

So it seems I have found a really new population from higher altitude …

Have fun
Hans

[Rick R.]

I was given more than a dozen bulbs of Gravetye Giant and I planted them all over in different places.  This is the only one that still survived after two years, and it has continued well.  I suspect I am at the border of cold hardiness for it.  Anyway, I show it just to confirm that Fermi's does look like Gravetye Giant.  BTW, it is giant!