FANTASTIC AFRICAN BULB SEED LIST

[cohan]

good point, diane,
and the occasional non-performing packet of seed wouldnt worry me too much either, but to come up with a half dozen (maybe 8, 5 of which were one species, meaning most of the species had 0 germination) sprouts for a $50-60dollar seed order (at least 8-10species in a half dozen genera) seems a bit far in the other direction; and these were not woodies with complex germination reputations..
 i'd better be clear here, that is not silverhill i'm talking about.. from silverhill, 3 of us tried two species of eriospermum, and not one sprout..

[Calvin Becker]

Cohan, I've sent some wild-collected seed of Eriospermum abyssinicum to the seed exchange if you want to keep a look out for it.

[cohan]

thanks, calvin;
btw, after a couple of last collecting forays during some nice interim weather, i prob have all the seed i will, and will be sending stuff off, soon..

[Paul T]

I had to go and look up Eriospermum as I was unfamiliar with it.  Amazing looking plant.  Never seen anything arranged quite like that before, either above or below ground.  Must be interesting to grow it with those "plumes" of leaves.  Being an arid climate plant I am assuming that it would work quite well in a dry glasshouse over summer?  Looks positively fascinating!!

[mark smyth]

back to the seeds being sold ... has anyone been in contact with the seller?

[cohan]

I had to go and look up Eriospermum as I was unfamiliar with it.  Amazing looking plant.  Never seen anything arranged quite like that before, either above or below ground.  Must be interesting to grow it with those "plumes" of leaves.  Being an arid climate plant I am assuming that it would work quite well in a dry glasshouse over summer?  Looks positively fascinating!!

thats what i think! but hard to get hold of here!  a couple of american sources, who dont ship to canada, probably some in europe/britain, also tricky, and seed has not worked out so far
managed to get two plants--one via friends in u.s., tiny tiny tuber i managed to kill, and another from europe which grew nicely last year, kept its one tiny leaf nearly a full year; this year it aborted the leaf it started at end of august, and hasnt retried yet...
wouldnt matter too much where you kept them in the dry season, though they can pop up leaves unexpectedly out of season, a friend in florida has the same one as me (dregei) and it seems to have its seasons reversed, maybe...

on another note--anyone have experiences dealing with the McMasters of African Bulbs? i've not ordered from them so far, but they seem good to deal with, and i see material from them on the pacific bulb society site...

[Rogan]

Here's what Silverhill Seeds has to say about them:

No they do not have permission to use any images of ours. They are such crooks!  Bid or buy has their website on a site called Silverhillseeds.com, which has absolutely nothing to do with us at all. And the worst of it is that one of the people who sells seeds on Bid or buy, actually buys the seeds from us!!!
 
If you go to Silverhillseeds.com you will see that the domain name is for sale. Rod calls these guys "pirates" - they find a business that is successful, and then they register a name that is similar and they they try to get you to buy it from them!  I won't buy it - I simply put a statement on my website stating that we have nothing to do with them as we often get complaints about them.  I suggest that you make a huge fuss about the images.

Please note that here we're discussing Bid or Buy, not the Mac Masters of African Bulbs who are honorable people.

[cohan]

Here's what Silverhill Seeds has to say about them:

No they do not have permission to use any images of ours. They are such crooks!  Bid or buy has their website on a site called Silverhillseeds.com, which has absolutely nothing to do with us at all. And the worst of it is that one of the people who sells seeds on Bid or buy, actually buys the seeds from us!!!
 
If you go to Silverhillseeds.com you will see that the domain name is for sale. Rod calls these guys "pirates" - they find a business that is successful, and then they register a name that is similar and they they try to get you to buy it from them!  I won't buy it - I simply put a statement on my website stating that we have nothing to do with them as we often get complaints about them.  I suggest that you make a huge fuss about the images.

Please note that here we're discussing Bid or Buy, not the Mac Masters of African Bulbs who are honorable people.

let me clarify further-- i think bid or buy is the whole site, the ebay equivalent, no? and the seed vendor is Seeds and All; so Silverhill is saying that Seeds and All is using images without permission, and reselling their seeds; but is the entire Bid or Buy site also dishonest? not that i'd have any other occasion to use them, but just to be clear..

[Darren]

I just popped down to look at my seed pots and can report that of 18 packets bought from Gordon Summerfield in January and stored at room temperature here before sowing in August, all bar 3 are showing excellent germination. This includes two Daubenya species. Also includes a Syringodea, two rare desert Tritonia and (yay!) Romuleas amoena and unifolia. I've NEVER had viable seed of R. amoena before and I trust Gordon to name them correctly.

All I need to do now is not kill them...

p.s. predictably- one of the no-shows is an Eriospermum, but I'm not giving up yet.

[cohan]

I just popped down to look at my seed pots and can report that of 18 packets bought from Gordon Summerfield in January and stored at room temperature here before sowing in August, all bar 3 are showing excellent germination. This includes two Daubenya species. Also includes a Syringodea, two rare desert Tritonia and (yay!) Romuleas amoena and unifolia. I've NEVER had viable seed of R. amoena before and I trust Gordon to name them correctly.

All I need to do now is not kill them...

p.s. predictably- one of the no-shows is an Eriospermum, but I'm not giving up yet.

thats a more than respectable result, congrats!