South African Bulbs/Geophytes 2019

[arisaema]

Gladiolus meliusculus
cheers
fermi

That's a very lovely shade of orange, too! I've noticed one thing over the years, whatever genus, if it's yellow flowered it just does not sell... (But if it's the leaves that are yellow, people buy it like crazy!)

[Paul Cumbleton]

Is South Africa low in orange flowers?

Hi Diane, While not having an abundance of orange colours (as far as the bulbs are concerned) there are some good ones. For me, Spiloxene is probably the best genus for really orange flowers.

Paul

[Gerdk]

Paul, Are these Spiloxene outside all year long?
They are marvellous!

Gerd

[Paul Cumbleton]

Paul, Are these Spiloxene outside all year long?
Gerd

Hi Gerd,
The Spiloxene are part of an experiment I am doing trying various of the winter-growing South African bulbs out of doors. The experiment is new, they have been there just one year so far (planted autumn 2018). They survived -6C last winter and have just started to emerge again this autumn. I do have another planting of them on my crevice garden and they have been there for 3 years so far without problems. I have also tried planting some in grass to see if they will naturalise there, but again only one year so far. Many of the South African Bulbs are proving hardier than we imagined and I have written an article about this for 'The Plant Review' (previously called 'The Plantsman' magazine) which should be in the December issue.

Paul

[fermi de Sousa]

Hi Diane,
although there are orange ixia species this is hybrid which arose in our garden (possibly a cross between a cerise hybrid and one of the orange Ixia maculata types in the area)
cheers
fermi

[Gerdk]

Thank you Paul! I guess these species are too tender for my region (7b).

Gerd

[fermi de Sousa]

Tritonia securigera is another orange flower for Diane 
cheers
fermi

[Diane Whitehead]

Thanks, all.  I will have to select some of those for my next seed order to Silverhill.

Diane

[fermi de Sousa]

One more, Diane!
Tritonia crocata
cheers
fermi

[David Nicholson]

Polyxena longituba (Lachenalia-but not on my label!)

[PaulFlowers]

Dipcadi serotinum - beautiful in its own weird way

[Paul Cumbleton]

Massonia mimetica  was first described in 2013 from the Northern Cape, Kamiesberg. This is the first time of flowering for me and I think it is one of the more attractive species with cinnamon coloured leaves and pale yellow flowers with attractive red markings on the petal bases.

Paul

[P. Kohn]

Just spotted David Nicholson's picture of Polyxena longituba. It looks suspiciously similar to what we have grown as Lachenalia corymbosa which is flowering just now for the first time. The seed was from the SRGC distibution in 2017. Has anyone else grown this - if so would they agree with the attribution ? I notice that Polyxena corymbosa is a synonym. Pictures of corymbosa seem to differ from our plant except for the one from Kew. Help please.

[Paul Cumbleton]

..... Has anyone else grown this - if so would they agree with the attribution ?

Yes, David's plant I would agree is Polyxena longituba (now called Lachenalia longituba, though like David I will not be changing my Polyxena labels anytime soon!). The Polyxenas have been passed around with incorrect names attached for quite a long time now.

Paul

[David Nicholson]

Just spotted David Nicholson's picture of Polyxena longituba. It looks suspiciously similar to what we have grown as Lachenalia corymbosa which is flowering just now for the first time. The seed was from the SRGC distibution in 2017. Has anyone else grown this - if so would they agree with the attribution ? I notice that Polyxena corymbosa is a synonym. Pictures of corymbosa seem to differ from our plant except for the one from Kew. Help please.

The best picture I can find of Polyxena (Lachenalia) corymbosa is one example grown by Tatsuo Y. in Japan. This he showed in the 2017 version of this thread on November 19 2017, copied below:-