Latest Bulb Log 2016

[Tristan_He]

Beautiful Ian. Crocus nudiflorus has very special memories for me, as we saw thousands in flower on our honeymoon to the French Pyrenees in September 2006. I have a few in the garden but the flowers are so short-lived here due to the wind and rain - and particularly so this year. 

[brianw]

Interesting that you have Colchicum x agrippinum and speciosum album flowering at the same time. Down here the former went over around 3 weeks ago but the latter is just starting to flower. This is typical from memory here, although the weather each year will presumably influence individual bulbs differently.

[Ian Y]

Beautiful Ian. Crocus nudiflorus has very special memories for me, as we saw thousands in flower on our honeymoon to the French Pyrenees in September 2006. I have a few in the garden but the flowers are so short-lived here due to the wind and rain - and particularly so this year.

Because the flowers are so fragile and easily knocked over is why we should enjoy them when they come first come out - my other thought is should we be growing them through other low growing plants or turf that would support their fragile tubes.

Interesting that you have Colchicum x agrippinum and speciosum album flowering at the same time. Down here the former went over around 3 weeks ago but the latter is just starting to flower. This is typical from memory here, although the weather each year will presumably influence individual bulbs differently.

Brian that is the case here also but we nearly always have an overlap plus I would say that C. speciosum forms are a bit later into flower this season.

[Robert]

Ian,

I enjoyed the next-to-the-last photograph of Crocus nudiflorus (on its side) in Bulblog #39. Except for the Crocus, and most likely all the other plants in the scene, it looked every much like a natural scene from the Northern Sierra Nevada Mountains in California. In the high elevation forests I often see the light-dark contrast of "white" granite rocks, the dark of the forest duff covered with pine needles, and small plants grow in the duff and among the rocks. It is all very beautiful. I often attempt to recreate such scenes in our gardens. You have done so masterfully! Thank you for sharing and inspiring.   

[Ian Y]

Thank you for your feed back Robert, as you know well it has become my aim to mimic nature in the garden and I am so pleased to read your comments.

[ian mcdonald]

Hello Ian, The Bulb Book, by Martyn Rix and Roger Phillips has some excellent photos. showing bulbs in their native habitats. It is interesting to see how many bulbous plants grow in bare stony ground and not in manicured lawns and borders.

[Robert]

Ian,

Thank you for reposting the photograph. It is great to see how an assemblage of different species (and other components) can still be used to create naturalistic garden scenes. 

[Ian Y]

Autumn flowering Crocus and Colchicum feature again in this weeks Bulb Log.


http://www.srgc.org.uk/logs/logdir/2016Oct051475662326BULB_LOG_4016.pdf

[Tristan_He]

Nice bulbs as always Ian. Do you think the epithet 'autumn' is necessary for colchicums given that most of them seem to flower in autumn? With Crocus the default assumption seems to be generally that they are spring flowering so presumably for Colchicum the reverse would apply?

Is it still ok to lift and divide colchicums? I have a nice clump of C. pannonicum(?) in some grass which would look very nice if split and dotted around.

Best, Tristan

[Ian Y]

Nice bulbs as always Ian. Do you think the epithet 'autumn' is necessary for colchicums given that most of them seem to flower in autumn? With Crocus the default assumption seems to be generally that they are spring flowering so presumably for Colchicum the reverse would apply?

Is it still ok to lift and divide colchicums? I have a nice clump of C. pannonicum(?) in some grass which would look very nice if split and dotted around.

Best, Tristan

I added Autumn to the colchicum name just to make the point that just as with Crocus there are also spring and Autumn flowering types - I will be happy when colchicum are not called crocus.
Yes you could divide your colchicum just lift them carefully as the roots will most likely have started to grow but will not have rached their full length yet. Often the best time is when you remember.

[Ian Y]

More autumn flowering bulbs make an appearance in this weeks Bulb Log.

http://www.srgc.org.uk/logs/logdir/2016Oct121476271075BULB_LOG_4116.pdf

[Robert]

Ian,

When I was 20 years old or so I was fortunate to have friends that gardened too. Back then I could frequently visit them and get a guided tour of their garden (everyone was more than happy to do so back then). I learned a lot on these visits.

Now I rarely get to visit gardening friends and their gardens except through the forum. It is a pleasure to visit your garden every week and see what you are up to. This still learn from these visits.    Thank you for sharing, even if it is the most mundane things like grinding up prunings (a few bulblogs ago).

[Ian Y]

Thank you Robert, It is a pleasure to have you share our garden via the weekly Bulb Log and Video Diary Supplement.

As it nears the end of the fourteenth year writing the Bulb Log has become a routine part of my life.  The self imposed responsibility to find pictures and content each week has resulted in me always carrying a camera with me in the garden so that I record the things that draw my attention.

Some weeks there are so many things in flower that I cannot possibly include all the images I take, it can easily be three hundred a week in peak seasons, other weeks I have to go out and really look in the garden to see what I can write on and share.
This week for instance the garden has been battered by wind and rain, there are leaves everywhere, the place looks a mess until you start to look carefully at the process of preparing for winter and the colours that brings to the garden.

[Ian Y]

The seasons play such a big part in our gardens -  Autumn brings a mix of chaos and colour in this weeks Bulb Log.


http://www.srgc.org.uk/logs/logdir/2016Oct191476874769BULB_LOG_4216.pdf

[Cfred72]

Ian, you show us beautiful foliage and beautiful bays. Very nice photos. We recognize the eyes of the artist.