Bulb Log 45 - 07 Nov 07

[tonyg]

Another interesting edition!  The autumn colours seem especially good this year - or am I just taking more notice.  As the leaves fall at their appropriate season I am reminded that last year the colours were poor and it was well into December before they were all down.

When are you planning to heat the greenhouse for Cyclamen graecum?  It seems quite hardy.  I was once told that if grown outside it should be protected in summer with a pane of glass.  The extra heat helps with flowering.  Perhaps you should experiment with one brought indoors to a warm place (south facing windowsill, the airing cupboard or a shelf above the cooker?) during summer.

The Colchicum cupanii is in flower in the garden here now.

[David Nicholson]

Fascinating stuff as usual Ian. By the way re: Crocus sativus; result-David Nicholson 2  BD 1 (not taking into account climatic conditions) I had two flowers on mine, lots of leaf but only two flowers.

[mark smyth]

My badly neglected graecum ex Jacques ex discussion weekend 2006 flowered but with very small flowers

[Maggi Young]

Thanks once again to Len Rhind... .......an updated index, to include Log 44 is now online.

[annew]

Do any of the autumn crocuses have a perfume?

[Ian Y]

Sorry for not replying sooner to you all but I have been so busy working on powerpoint presentations and other things that I have not found time - I do read and enjoy all the posts but usually leave it to Maggi to reply.
Tony it has been a good colourful autumn but the gales and snow of last night ended it all - the ground is very bright now
You know I am a good Scot and will not be heating my glasshouse but may consider taking one into the house next summer to see if that helps.
Ok David 2-1 to you at this moment but I am claiming for extra time as I have another few pots of C. sativus and I have not given up hope of another flower or two yet.
Anne don't tell me you have never sniffed the autumn crocusses some have the most beautiful scent.
C laevigatus has a very strongl sweet scent for starters, kotschyanus also,.... as do many more.

[annew]

 :-[The few I have are mostly outside, and I haven't paid homage on my knees!

[mark smyth]

Anne pick some for a wee vase/egg cup

[Thomas Huber]

Anne, there are some more scented autumn-crocus:
longiflorus, speciosus Artabir, some hadriaticus!

[annew]

I will go and sniff! (when it stops raining.)

[Diane Whitehead]

The rounded trifoliate leaves of your arisaema may be
A. candidissimum.  Is that one that you planted?

[Maggi Young]

Yes, Diane, the leaves are of Arisaema candidissimum....not sure why Ian has had this block
I thought that they may be from a clump that we split..... have just remembered that... perhaps that is the reason we have had no flowers this year ( as I mentioned in the Aroid thread)... they may be upset after splitting and take time to settle down in their various new homes. This group have been in situ for a long time though and are only now seeing the light of day after a rhodo was cut back..... they might need a year more to make flowers again....

[Lvandelft]

Ian, I can understand that you are confused about Sternbergia sicula and lutea.
Last week we had the opportunity to study some different types at the weekly
flowershow at Lisse. Sjaak de Groot had dug up some plants after flowering.
For us was clear that all the 'sicula' have curled leaves at the end, which is not so
with S. lutea. I send some fotos so that you can make your own opinion.
By the way, your S. sicula seems to me a very good form.
Greetings
Luit

[Ian Y]

Luit thank you for these pictures it is very helpful to see as much material as possible - only then will we be able to decide what the differences are.
When I start to look at the naming of a group of plants I am often confused - the more I research into them the more confused I often get but then the light will come. I hope one day to see the light and understand what S. sicula really is.

Diane I do believe that you are right about it being  Arisaema candidissimum but it has been out of sight just clinging on to life under the rhododendron for at least ten years.
It is rearkable how long bulbs can survive under adverse conditions only to grow back when the conditions become favourable again.

[Diane Whitehead]

I had a backhoe in to do some work and an arisaema came up and
flowered where its track had compacted the soil.  I was puzzled until
I pulled some old maps and found that it was from seeds from Chadwell,
and had last shown itself above ground 12 years previously.  It has
been blooming every year since.