Remarks from the Weekly KAVB Flower Show - Lisse

[Lvandelft]

Hippeastrum Marilyn   
Hippeastrum Floris Hekker
Hippeastrum Barbados                                     
Hippeastrum Diva     

[Lvandelft]

Hippeastrum 2
Hippeastrum Double Dragon                                 
Hippeastrum Superstar                                     
Hippeastrum Jewel                                     
Hippeastrum Jewel cl.

[Lvandelft]

and a few other entries:
                               
Tropaeolum tricolor                                               
Narcissus hispanicus var. pinetorum                                                   
Narcissus asturiensis
Narcissus bulbocodium ssp. bulbocodium var. conspicuus     
                                     

[Boyed]

Luit,

What a splenadid hippeastrums!!! I got a great pleasure and lots of positive impression out of looking at the photos of these boxom hippeastrum cultivars! I grow some of them, fore instance, 'Jewel' with its exvisite shape.

Though in leterature it is recommended to plant hipeastrums small narrow pots, I grow them in big 5 to 7 litre pots providing their big bulbs with enough soil and nutrients. So every year they reward me with heavy blooming annually. Some cv-s, as 'Mont Blanc', bloom wtice in a year. I repot them ones in 4-5 years. During these period readily increasing varieties form nice clumps in big pots and bloom with groups (wonderful display). I never make them go dormant artificilally unless they want to do it themselves.

One of my colleagues from Yerevan grows them as galdiolus (planting the bulbs in spring outdoors and then harvesting them in October and storing dry untill next spring). They do quite well and grow huge bulbs. Now I want to practice this method myself with enough multiplied varieties.

[annew]

Very nice, Luit, if only I had so many N. asturiensis that I could cut a bunch!

[Lvandelft]

Zhirair, I'm glad you like my picture. Hipp. Jewel is one of my favourites too. Nice flowers and many on every bulb and so clear white!

Very nice, Luit, if only I had so many N. asturiensis that I could cut a bunch!

Patience Anne, just patience....
The most important virtue for a gardener 

[Ezeiza]

The advice of growing Hippeastrums in small pots is from the time little was understood of drainage  and water physics in a container and let's admit it, lots of books are simply copy and paste of previous ones.

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Outside polar circumstances are still dominating with very strong winds but nevertheless in the Show Hall very good quality was shown on Monday with many special Hippeastrum entries:

But first I want to show you what may happen in my own garden with our sandy soil when some digging had to be done for replanting on about ten sq. meters and replanting was not finished when the winterweather hit us again. This small area was totally windswept and the sand covered parts of the garden and partly a raised bed and after three days it looks so:

windswept garden

The Sahara in Holland, Luit ?

[Maggi Young]

The Sahara in Holland, Luit ?

Why not ?

 I just saw a mountain in Flanders
 http://www.vrvforum.be/forum/index.php?topic=984.msg40975#msg40975       

[Lvandelft]

The Sahara in Holland, Luit ?

Luc, the good thing is that I don't have to travel far to see a desert 
but the bad thing is that I have to search now for some very good plants ( like flowering narcissi and Callianthemum in bud etc. etc. )under the sand and it is still to cold ( for me) to do so right now. 

[Armin]

Luit,
maybe a strong hoover may help to remove the dry sand gently from the raised beds and you can find your covered buries?
But I'm afraid you will still need a shovel and a wheelbarrow for the path.

[Lesley Cox]

Luit, so many people love to check what's on show in Lisse. Don't ever think we don't appreciate your magnum opus.

I have been very frustrated this summer/autumn by the lack of Iris reticulata vars in our garden centres. I have some potted but lifted too early really, when I could still see them. Some I left until they'd died down and as a result couldn't find them at all even though they were carefully labelled. So when I have shopped to replace - no joy at all. I've been able to get 'Harmony,', Cantab' and a couple of others but not 'Natascha,' 'Violet Beauty' and some others. I'm told there will be a full range next year.

Having said that, all these come in from Holland and are chilled for 6 months either here or there then put on sale in the southern hemisphere so that if they survive the first year, it takes still a couple of years to bring them back up to full strength. Moreover, since I reticulata is a permitted species I can't understand why the same very few vars are imported each year and never the newer, different kinds. There's no reason why such as 'White Caucasus and many others can't be brought in by the wholesalers but do they? Never!.

[Lvandelft]

Luit, so many people love to check what's on show in Lisse. Don't ever think we don't appreciate your magnum opus.

Lesley, it makes me happy that you still like my reports,   but going to these weekly shows helps me to survive this terrible, endless winter weather. With forecasts telling us that it will continue with temps not above 5 - 7 degrees and frosts in the night, for at least a week or even longer. 

[Maggi Young]

Luit, our weather forecasters are threatening us with more bad weather  too - for most of the month, they say    I wonder if the exhibitors at Lisse understand how many people they are sustaining through the winter with their colourful displays?
We are used to learning from the displays all through the year- but this year the Winter Medicine from Lisse is really needed.

[Lesley Cox]

Maggi and Luit, the European weather sounds awful just now. Had we southerners travelling north in very few weeks now, better dig out our winter woollies?