South African Bulbs/Geophytes 2018

[fermi de Sousa]

This year Moraea marlothii has 3 flower stems!
cheers
fermi

[Maggi Young]

Gotta love  freckles!

[Paul Cumbleton]

10 years ago I deliberately crossed Brunsvigia bosmaniae with Brunsvigia orientalis. The long 10 year wait for first flowers was worth it! Below I show the flower head, an individual flower, and the hybrid with both its parents. In this instance, B. bosmaniae was the seed parent. I also did the reverse cross (B. orientalis as seed parent) but this has not flowered yet.

A small number of you have had bulbs of this cross from me - if any of yours have flowered I would be very interested to see the results, to see if there is much variation.

Paul

[Maggi Young]

Very pretty result from your long wait, Paul!

[PaulFlowers]

A rogue ixia hybrid that thinks it's in the Southern Hemisphere

[PaulFlowers]

First lachenaliA of the year!lachenalia corymbosa

[PaulFlowers]

The second Lachenalia and one of my favourites - the colour is indescribable. This is early but last year this one flowered on September 4th!

[David Nicholson]

Cracking pictures Paul. I don't suppose it's going to over-much worry the Horticultural world but I'm never going to change my labels on any of my Polyxena!

[bibliofloris]

Beautiful, Paul! Is the second one Lachenalia viridiflora, or some other green-flowered one?

I’d love to hear where and how you (and anyone else willing to share) grow yours. I’ve finally got a few bulbs to try (aloides var. vanzyliae, namaquensis, pustulata, & viridiflora, my favorite.) Since I don’t know anyone who grows these here, I’m reading up and sorting out whether to try them in a cold greenhouse with extra protection, or in my house. (It can get down to -12 degrees C here, but not for more than a day or two; -1 to -5 C is more typical for our cold days.)

It’s so nice to have you all to ask when I’m trying something new. I’m pretty good at research, but there’s a big difference between plants surviving and thriving.
Kelly

[David Nicholson]

Kelly, you should have a look at the Pacific Bulb Society Site. For Lachanalia see https://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/Lachenalia, a glean through that may produce names that might be useful for you to contact in your part of the World.

[PaulFlowers]

Kelly

The temperatures in winter don't sound too disimilar to those here in the central belt of Scotland but you will have a lot more winter light than we get in Scotland.

For me with summer temperatures dropping at night under 10 degrees c from the end of July onwards - it's easy to start them all in the garden as they wake up so I can make the most of the fresh air and sunlight but then as the first frosts approach I have to move them indoors. The natural light isn't strong enough so I've invested in LED light units which are great. outside the cold and dark  just kills them.

Over the years ive played with substrate and now I sit the bulbs in non clumping cat litter on top of free draining sandy gravel plus john innes number. 3

I water once a week only but keep seeedlings much damper and at edge of LED light pool

[bibliofloris]

Thanks for the suggestion, David! I love their reference pages, and should explore further.

Thanks, Paul — that gives me a much better idea of what to try first. I’m guessing you keep them fairly cool indoors, rather like a florist cyclamen? Fingers crossed I get anywhere near your beautiful results!

[angie]

Bought this Albuca spiralis last year. I just liked the spiral leaves not knowing if it would flower I asked the garden centre and they said no it’s the foliage you buy it for. Well they were wrong, very pretty flower I think.

Angie 

[angie]

Sorry Maggi , it’s been ages since I posted a picture and thought I had it the right way up
Angie

[fermi de Sousa]

More South African spring bulbs in flower here:
Moraea setifolia
Geissorhiza monanthos
Moraea bipartita
Babiana  vanzyliae
Tritonia securigera
cheers
fermi