Connoisseur Collection

[mark smyth]

Actually one group, Trena, that cant see the south-ish because of a fence, look west

[Lvandelft]

Luit, does your friend look after his land alone or does he employ staff? If alone he has more energy than I have!

David it's a lonely job. Strange hands would give more trouble with mixing varieties.
He comes twice a day for controlling for ill or wrong plants, or heading off overripe tulipflowers.

[Armin]

Luit,
many thanks for the multiple exciting impressions.

T.lanata is a very beautiful species. Equipped with a strong stem with a beautiful red flower.
Certainly ideal to withstand hale and windy storms.
Does anybody have experience growing it?

Btw - Mr. Connoisseur must have "a chronical, very strong bulb fever" infection- is my diagnosis. 
That decease is very common amoung gardeners and botanists, right? 
Any chance to win his expertise more for the forum? 
With his experience he could remedy a lot of "bulb killers".

[Gerdk]

He comes twice a day for controlling for ill or wrong plants, or heading off overripe tulipflowers.

Luit,
I hope you don't think these are  simple-minded questions:

Means ' heading off ' the take-off of the seed capsules?
Does this help to receive larger and better flowering bulbs?
Only with tulips?

Gerd

[Carlo]

Gerd,

I suspect Luit is talking about "dead-heading" when he refers to "heading-off". This is the removal of the spent flower BEFORE seed capsules are formed. It helps because it diverts energy from the production of seed and capsule back into the bulb to strengthen it for the next season.

[Lvandelft]

Any chance to win his expertise more for the forum? 
With his experience he could remedy a lot of "bulb killers".

He wouldn't have time for it.
He not even has a PC.   
But when difficult questions raise, he always is willing to explain to me.

[Lvandelft]

Means ' heading off ' the take-off of the seed capsules?
Does this help to receive larger and better flowering bulbs?
Only with tulips?
Gerd

Gerd,

I suspect Luit is talking about "dead-heading" when he refers to "heading-off". This is the removal of the spent flower BEFORE seed capsules are formed. It helps because it diverts energy from the production of seed and capsule back into the bulb to strengthen it for the next season.

Carlo this is partly true, but the first reason is to avoid falling pollen on the leaves.
The leaves will get brown at places where pollen contact (so-called 'Fire'), and die off earlier and
 plants without leaves will not grow very good.

[Lvandelft]

Some more pictures:

Narcissus DIV 2 Wahkeena  Oregon Tr. '93

and some old Narcissi:

Narcissus DIV  4 Double Campernelle
Narcissus DIV 3 Sophie's Choice H.Kü. '06

Tulipa fosteriana Group Golden Eagle
Tulipa fosteriana Group Lyon
Tulipa fosteriana Group Spring Pearl
Tulipa fosteriana Group Sylvia van Lennep 1
Tulipa fosteriana Group Sylvia van Lennep 2
Tulipa fosteriana Group Yellow Empress
Tulipa fosteriana Hybr. Humoresque

[Boyed]

Luit,

I would say dead-heading is done to avoid falling rather petals than pollen on the leaves. It's true, on wet days, especially after rain leaves are attacked with grey mould, which seriously effects on the quality of the replacement bulbs.

[Lvandelft]

Luit,

I would say dead-heading is done to avoid falling rather petals than pollen on the leaves. It's true, on wet days, especially after rain leaves are attacked with grey mould, which seriously effects on the quality of the replacement bulbs.

That will be o.k.
I was just thinking when I was a young boy and had to do this work all day long and for weeks continuing,
    I was told when cutting you should keep the flowers upright.
I always thought that is because of the pollen falling out.

[Boyed]

Interesting Luit, when cutting I keep the flowers heads down or up depending on my mood. But I have been told that when you hand a flower bouquet to a woman you should keep the flowers up-right.

Additionally about dead-heading - it is very useful for getting bigger replacement bulbs when harvesting (you certainly know). When I keep some samples to set seeds, the bulbs become considerably small comparing with the ones, which were dead-headed.

[annew]

Thank you for the view of the field, Luit - as I thought, it looks wonderful.

[Gerdk]

Thank you alltogether for explanation.
Excuse me for beeing so stubborn, but:

Should I dead-head all bulbous plants in order to receive more and better flowers the next season?
What's about the lesion at the flower stalk - the plant needs energy to close the open sore?

Gerd

[Susan Band]

Gerd,
I dead head all the bulbs, you just take off the flower, not the whole stalk, it usually wants to snap off easily at this point.
If the bed is too big I take a mini hedge cutter to do the job. Last year I was neglegent in this duty and as a result the Erythroniums, especially revolutum were not nearly so big, the dry spring last year didn't help either. The Tulip sprengeri bulbs are nealy 3 times as big if you take off the flowers, I don't know if the flowering is better the next year. I know some of the serious show people also do this, meaning you don't get a chance of obtaining the seed from some off the good forms
Susan

[Lvandelft]

This time I start with a tulip Zhirair showed today in the topic Tulipa:
Tulipa greigii Group Melodie d' Amour

Tulipa greigii Group Bella Vista
Tulipa greigii Group Mother Theresa 2
Tulipa greigii Group Mother Theresa 1
Tulipa greigii Hybr. Early Star Worldfl. ‘95 1                 
Tulipa greigii Hybr. Early Star Worldfl. ‘95 2
Tulipa greigii Hybr. Towa               


and again some Oldies of Narcissus:

Narcissus DIV  1 Golden Spur  R.A.Sc. '04
Narcissus DIV  4 Argent G.J. v.d.K '04
Narcissus DIV  4 Richard Bennet  Br. Gard. '97