January 2008 in the Southern Hemisphere

[Paul T]

Luit,

Thanks.  I'll make note of that.  I guess someone somewhere got the name wrong and it continued from there.  Thank you again!!

[Lvandelft]

Paul, I remember having seen it probably in the book about Salvias of Betsy Clebsch.
I saw the book in a shop but did not buy it.
However I know the problem of changing names, I struggled often with that in the trade of perennials.

[Paul T]

Howdy All,

Here's a couple of pics which highlight just how much light differences can make to flowers.......  They're both pics of two seedlings in a pot of Liliums ('Apricot Reflections' x 'African Queen') and show a clear yellow and a lovely apricot orange colour.  In the shaded version (taken in the evening of the 4th January with the shadow of the house in that area) the apricot flower is much stronger in colour, while in teh sunny version taken this morning (in the full sun obviously enough!!  ) the apricot is much more subtle.  Truth be told the colour of the apricot is somewhere in between, with it more distinct than the sunny one, but not as dark as the shady one.  I love both the flowers and will be isolating them as soon as they finish flowering and then potting them separately.  I think both are going to make stunning plants in the future when they clump up somewhat.  Thought you might like to see the difference in the pictures in the sun and shade though.

The other thing I particularly like with the apricot flower is that the anthers are much thicker, and decidedly darker than in the yellow flower.  When you look at the flowers in person it is very noticeable.  All in all I am very pleased with these two seedlings.  The seed originally came as a free addition to an order over a certain amount.  They were sown in 2003.  I am not in the ideal conditions (and don't look afte my plants carefully enough) to get Liliums to flower in 18 to 30 months unfortunately.  These really kicked on when I repotted them last year, and would have flowered last year if I had repotted them the year before!!  You live and learn!! 

And thanks again Luit. 

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Two very pure specimen Paul - great flowers !

[rob krejzl]

Paul,

since you're keen on 'improving' regale, try backcrossing one of these to sargentiae - you should get white trumpets with a yellow throat and a good dark back to the petals.

[Paul T]

Rob,

Who says I want to "improve" regale?  I just want a regale with the proper dark backing to the petals, unlike those we get here as regale in Aus.  I don't have sargentiae, nor have ever seen it... I'm assuming it must have a dark back, or else genetics that bring it through in offspring?

[rob krejzl]

Paul,

I'll send you some stem bulbils from my best example of the cross. It's only the second year of flowering, so I've not had a chance to see a properly mature inflorescence, but the flowers have good substance - opening a little green and fading to a strong white.

[Paul T]

Thanks Rob.  So it's one of those that produce stem bulbils too eh?  Certainly makes it easier to bulk up clumps of a clone.     So how dark does the outside of the petals end up?

[rob krejzl]

Red-brown rather than the purple-rose one can get. After yesterday's 35C temps it doesn't seem to have faded too much either.

[Paul T]

That's pretty impressive, as so often what colour there is fades rather quickly.  Great to  have stronger colour and better fade resistance!

We have the 35'C or so up here today (judging by how it is feelign outside this morning it is definitely going to be around that), while yesterday we were only having around 27'C or so.  Marcus H was saying yesterday that it was rather warm, and we were only on the phone around 9:30am.  Forecasting 36 and 37'C here last this week, but remains to be seen how accurate that is when we get closer.  The instability in Northern NSW could easily affect us down here as well by then, depending whether troughts form or not.

[Martin Baxendale]

The stem bulbil production will come from the L. sargentiae parent, won't it Rob. It's a good feature in a lily for bulking up a clone. But the problem with sargentiae in commerce is that it's prone to virus (well a bit more prone than usual - all lilies being a bit prone to virus) and virus is carried in the stem bulbils, so it's easy for nurserymen to build up and sell large quantities of virused bulbs from stem bulbils. When I was more into lilies, years ago, I never managed to get bulbs of sargentiae which were free from virus.

But it's a good parent for trumpet hybrids, Paul, as Rob says giving a good dark backing to the flowers. I wish you could still get some of the old Jan de Graff trumpet hybrids true to name - like Black Dragon and Green Dragon, or even the strains like Black Magic and Green Magic.

I just love big dark-backed white trumpets with brown pollen, and big green-white trumpets. What you get from the Dutch growers these days is a much reduced range, nothing like what Jan de Graff was producing in Oregon thirty or forty years ago.

Rob, if you know of any suppliers who still sell anything like those big Jan de Graff types Black Dragon and Green Dragon (or anything like a decent range of really good trumpets) I'd be very interested in contact details for a nursery and catalogue.

[mark smyth]

Great bulbs Paul and Fermi!

[rob krejzl]

Sargentiae seed is regularly available on the lists (at least in part thanks to Chen YI imports) Martin. Mine came (misnamed) via the Gillanders & I assume was seed grown. Thankfully, virus is much less troublesome here in Tassie than it used to be back in London, where even henryi had to be watched and my hair came out in clumps.

Mentioning the old De Graaff hybrids takes me back to the days when bulbs still came dipped in wax. I'm too long away from the UK to suggest any bulb suppliers, but you might try the RHS Lily group. Seed of the Black Dragon strain still figures regularly there so it is still around; I think you'd have to search hard for any of the other De Graaff's. Failing that what about something derived from the Baas Manor group?

[fermi de Sousa]

Thank you, Mark.
Here are a couple more of the South Africans that make our place home.
We've discussed this irid elsewhere and it is commonly used as a streetside planting because it is so tough: Dietes vegeta (syn. iridiflora)





Despite it being "common" it is a very welcome burst of pristine white with a touch of colour at a very hot time of year.
At least a month ago I posted pics of Moraea gracilenta and there are still blooms appearing each day towards evening.


Not a great pic, but it shows that it's still producing flowers even as the seedpods ripen. next to it is a kniphofia grown from seed from Denver Botanic Gardens (via NARGS Seedex) as K.porphyrantha; it stays small enough to let it remain in the rock garden.

cheers fermi

[Paul T]

Fermi,

Is that also D. irioides or is that something else again?  Nice little Moraea.