South African Bulbs 2014

[Tasmanian Taffy]

Many thanks for the information Maggi,
exactly what I needed to know.
Cheers John.

[Maggi Young]

My pleasure to help - there is a wealth of information on the PBS site  for  these  - access to the PBS Wiki is free but membership is not very expensive and they have a good newsletter, a terrific bulb exchange - I have never used it myself, but I've seen some super things offered there over the years so I am confident to recommend it.
Folks you'll know from this forum, like Arnold Trachtenberg and David Pilling are very involved in the PBS - it's especially good for South African and South American bulbs, I think.

[fermi de Sousa]

John,
Maggi has saved me the trouble
I usually follow that method for germinating moraea species. But I should say that I got this species as corms originally and since then they pop up where ever the seed gets - after heavy rain they appeared 6 or 7 metres away from the parent plants! They were washed down a "dry creek bed" which wasn't dry after 2" (500mm) of rain! I wouldn't be without it but I try to collect as much of the seed as I can!
cheers
fermi

[Tasmanian Taffy]

Thanks again Maggie,
but living here in Tasmania with our plant police its almost impossible to get anything other than seed imported so as good as the PBS might be I am still restricted as to what I can import even with seeds. It has got that hard here now that some of the mail order nurseries in Victoria and New South Wales will not or can not send plants to other States within Australia because of the quarantine restrictions.
Cheers John.

[Tasmanian Taffy]

Thanks for the information Fermi, Moraea Polystachya is one of the varieties of Moraea seed that I have sent for.
Cheers John.

[SJW]

Lachenalia purpureo-caerulea. Similar to L. pustulata/pallida but not as strong growing (with me, anyway)

[fermi de Sousa]

Here's a link to Mike Mace's site with pics of his Moraea hybrids - some real stunners!
http://growingcoolplants.blogspot.com.au/search?updated-min=2014-01-01T00:00:00-08:00&updated-max=2015-01-01T00:00:00-08:00&max-results=21
cheers
fermi

[ArnoldT]

At the end of Lachenalia season.  the warm weather wrecks havoc with flowers.  Some last only a day or two.

Lachenalia nervosa
Lachenalia liliiflora  Note spelling as per Duncan with two I's
An unknown possibly a more compact Lachenalia  liliiflora

[SJW]

My last Lachenalia to flower - young plants of L. peersii, not the showiest species but with a strong scent reminiscent of Dianthus.

[Jean-Patrick AGIER]

I've come across a flower of Dietes grandiflora in one of the glass houses at Lyon BG.
Here it is
JP

[Anthony Darby]

Grows in many of the council flower beds round us, along with iridioides. I have the latter flowering from seed sown in the gravel at the front of the house in 2011. Alas, unlike grandiflora, the flowers only last a day. There are also D. bicolor in a flower bed not far from my house. I'll check it for seeds.

[fermi de Sousa]

I bought this Strumaria salteri a few eyars ago and it's now in flower,
cheers
fermi

[majallison]

I've been very pleased with this Ixia viridiflora 'Owl's Acre strain', a definite (& rather fabulous) turquoise colour, rather than the skimmed milk shades I've had before; also many more flowers in each spike. I think this was 3 years to flowering from seed, the people who selected it are sweetpea specialists in Lincolnshire...

[CactusFanDan]

Bulbine inamarxiae in flower today.

The leaves... They're a bit messy, but I only just got this plant, so it'll need some work.


Ammocharis coranica awaking from dormancy.


Gethyllis gregoriana seedlings.

[Michael J Campbell]

Moraea lurida.