South African Bulbs/Geophytes 2019

[GordonT]

Anthony, I believe the colour difference may have something to do with temperature and light during growth.

The late Dr Carl Withner described a similar issue with the genus Sophronitis, particularly Sophronitis coccinea. The red pigment is an anthocyanin, and its production is dependent on available sugars. When warm bright temperatures persist throughout the day, plants utilise most of the sugars they produce, just to maintain growth. With warm, bright days are followed by cool evenings, the plants have a sugar surplus that they can afford to use in producing anthocyanin pigments. 

The varied colour concentration in your flowers may be due to this sort of thing having happened, cooler and brighter when the richly coloured flowers developed.

[ArnoldT]

Gordon:

Wow, Carl Withner.

I was an undergraduate at Brooklyn College and had the chance to meet him on a couple of occasions.

He was a Prof there and ran the greenhouse top of the science building.

Always enjoyed his conversations.

[Tomte]

Nerine masoniorum is flowering here for nearly a month now.
This little beauty took many years to flower at all and had the first flower only last year, but now is seems to be taking off.. I grow it in my gritty standard bulb mix in a pot outside and keep it bone-dry in winter in a cooler place in the house.
A little past its best now, but still nice.
If anyone from within Germany would like some seeds (as they are thick and fleshy and should be sown immediately, and international letters not containing only documents have gotten pretty expensive recently), please PM me.. A few seeds should certainly develop.

[jshields]

I think many flower species show a sensitivity of the intensity of their orange and red flower colors to the amount of light they are exposed too.  Production of red anthocyanin pigments in foliage and stems is a protective response to high levels of light and UV striking the plants.

It affects me here when I buy a nice rich red flowered Clivia plant in Southern California and it turns out to be barely red-orange when it later blooms here in Indiana.

Jim

[fermi de Sousa]

Romulea tetragona has bright flowers and the exteriors are feathered like some forms of crocus!
cheers
fermi

[fermi de Sousa]

Bulbinella latifolia ssp doleritica - I'm resorting to covering the plant every time frost is predicted to protect the flowers!
cheers
fermi

[Maggi Young]

Bulbinella latifolia ssp doleritica - I'm resorting to covering the plant every time frost is predicted to protect the flowers!
cheers
fermi

Worth the  effort though, fermi!  How  much frost  could  they take, do you  think?

[fermi de Sousa]

Hi Maggi,
the plant itself can take it as low as -7^oC but the flower stem is susceptible to temperatures below -4^oC I think.
Other Bulbinellas like Bulbinella eburnifolia eburniflora [thanks to Erle for the correction] seem imperious to the cold
cheers
fermi

[fermi de Sousa]

Bulbinella floribunda is also in flower and B. robusta and B. cauda-felis aren't far behind
cheers
fermi

[Maggi Young]

I really  like these  Bulbinellas -  thanks  for  showing them, fermi

[fermi de Sousa]

The sweetly scented Babiana odorata grown from Silverhill Seeds many years ago.
The final pic is a hybrid which has arisen from this species crossing with Babiana pygmaea
cheers
fermi

[fermi de Sousa]

Moraea tripetala in flower now
cheers
fermi

[Rimmer de Vries]

 Brunsvigia striata (B. minor) in bloom now.

[Diane Whitehead]

I've grown about a dozen species of Tritonia from Silverhill seed, and think this is T laxifolia even though I have it marked in a different bed on my garden map.  It is flowering now, in late summer, and the little yellow strips on the lower tepals are distinctive.

[fermi de Sousa]

Hesperantha latifolia with interloper!
I presume the larger one is a hybrid perhaps with H. pauciflora which we also grow
cheers
fermi