The ebay season begins....... ( includes ikariae/ woronowii comparisons)

[loes]

than he is really glad because he just don`t know(beginner)

[Martin Baxendale]

Rob, I was forwarded an email from the seller of 'Mrs Thompson' who says the bulb being sold is Mrs Thompson but that they used a photo of a different snowdrop because they couldn't take one of their 'Mrs Thompson' because of the snow. I believe the seller is genuine, though not sure about the advisability of using an incorrect photo, maybe better to use none at all.

What happens if the buyer is expecting the snowdrop in the picture?

Exactly!

[Anthony Darby]

Deception.

[Martin Baxendale]

I see 'Big Boy' is up to £70 on ebay. I'd love to have one to try using for breeding purposes, but not at that sort of price.   

[Martin Baxendale]

50 quid would have been my maximum for big boy (the starting bid!), and yes martin it would make a good breeding plant, i can imagine some nice giant flowered seedlings raised from this one!

rob

Hopefully, Rob. Depends how fertile it is as a pollen and seed parent. If it's a polyploid, which it might well be, the fertility will depend on exactly which form of polyploid, triploid, tetraploid, hexaploid...life's never simple!

[Martin Baxendale]

Re. using elwesii 'Big Boy' for breeding, a fellow forumist has kindly offered to send me pollen of 'Big Boy' when their bulb reaches flowering size next year, and recently another generously sent me pollen of 'Rosemary Burnham', which made me think of making an appeal on the forum for pollen.

So, if anyone reading this has elwesii 'Big Boy' flowering this year and is prepared to cut out some ripe anthers and mail them to me, please get in touch. I have some crosses in mind that I'd like to try using 'Big Boy' and the sooner I can  get started the better.

Not sure if I should just post this appeal here or start a new thread. Maybe I'll do both.

[Gerard Oud]

When the Big boys are BIG enough you can have one from me Martin, but at the moment they are just 4 to 5mm small Big Boy´s.

[Martin Baxendale]

So you managed to get a bulb of 'Big Boy' eventually last year, Gerard? That's great.   

[Martin Baxendale]

Sorry, Gerard, I forgot to say that if you can spare some anthers when they flower that'd be great. I'll take as many anthers as forumists offer, as you never know if you're going to get much pollen from them - especially if 'Big Boy' is a triploid, then the anthers might not contain much at all. I'll keep looking around for a reasonably priced bulb for myself as well, and I'll come back to you if I don't have any luck. Thanks very much for the offer.

[mark smyth]

Before anyone goes chopping Big Boy the resulting bulbils have a low survival rate. So say Wol and Sue.

[johnw]

Mark - Did Wol & Sue mention the success rate for Rosemary Burnham chipped? Or anyone else for that matter?

johnw

[KentGardener]

Mark - Did Wol & Sue mention the success rate for Rosemary Burnham chipped? Or anyone else for that matter?

johnw

Hi Jon

last year I spoke to a nursery owner I know near here.  He said that Rosemary was a difficult one to chip and he had extremely low success rates with it.

Regards

John

[Diane Whitehead]

A friend has chipped it but I don't know how many wee bulbs
are considered good.

[Alan_b]

A friend has chipped it but I don't know how many wee bulbs
are considered good.

It must depend on the natural rate of increase of the bulb by division and the number of years it takes a "wee bulb" to grow to flowering size.

So, for example, if bulb division follows a Fibonaci series and you start with one mature bulb after four years you should have five mature bulbs and three that will take another year to reach flowering size.  If it takes four years for a chipped bulb to reach flowering size then 8 or more flowering bubls would leave you a winner, maybe say 10 bulbs to make the effort worthwhile.  Of course, many of the rarer bulbs are slow to increase, slower than a Fibonaci series would suggest, whilst the vigorous bulbs are faster.  I have a Rosemay Burnham look-alike elwesii that has grown from a single bulb and an offset when I found it in 2005 to five or six shoots and two flowers this year.  In fact this is the first year I will get more than one flower from it.  Of course, this lack of vigour might have been equally manifest had I tried to chip it.

[Anthony Darby]

I must admit, my one attempt at chipping was a miserable failure. I tried 'Wendy's Gold' and from one bulb, I got, er............... one bulb.

That is a wonderful find Alan. Good as RB any day, and the fact that it is doing well with you, perhaps a better plant for the UK?