Author Topic: South African bulbose plants 2009 (Read 67059 times)

Michael J Campbell · « **Reply #375 on:** September 04, 2009, 09:10:25 PM »

They survived a lot of sharp frost last winter, the worst we have had for ten years,

Michael J Campbell · « **Reply #376 on:** September 04, 2009, 09:13:30 PM »

Mark,another rubbish gardening program on the TV.

Rogan · « **Reply #377 on:** September 09, 2009, 02:29:09 PM »

On my last camping trip to the Cape mountains the 'lawn' we were camped on turned out to be a Romulea species! Honestly, you could not step without stepping on Romulea - the baboons had another use for the bulbs - supper...

Lesley Cox · « **Reply #378 on:** September 09, 2009, 09:38:22 PM »

Isn't it Babiana that's called Baboon flower? Do they do the same to those?

Rogan · « **Reply #379 on:** September 10, 2009, 07:53:23 AM »

"Isn't it Babiana that's called Baboon flower? Do they do the same to those?"

They love them! Even here the vervet monkey's have learnt to depot my bulbs and eat them - I have to grow everything under chicken mesh!

fermi de Sousa · « **Reply #380 on:** September 11, 2009, 12:58:03 AM »

Quote from: Rogan on September 09, 2009, 02:29:09 PM

On my last camping trip to the Cape mountains the 'lawn' we were camped on turned out to be a Romulea species! Honestly, you could not step without stepping on Romulea - the baboons had another use for the bulbs - supper...

Rogan,
that looks like the species that is rampant through the countryside here in Southern Australia!

The native cockatoos have learnt to dig up the corms in the summer even though the ground is like concrete!

Here's a cluster of Babiana pygmaea in our rock garden, fortunately we don't have wild vervet monkeys and the cockies haven't discovered them yet!

At the Kyneton Spring Flower Show last weekend R & J McConnell won a ribbon for this pot of Lachenalia aloides,

cheers
fermi

Lesley Cox · « **Reply #381 on:** September 11, 2009, 04:10:27 AM »

Super potful Fermi.
Perhaps the cockatoos help to control the Romulea? Or are there just too many corms?
Personally, I would quite like a vervet monkey resident in the garden, even two

Darren · « **Reply #382 on:** September 11, 2009, 09:43:38 AM »

Massonia are just coming to life again.

M pustulata, M.jasminiflora (pustulate form) and M.jasminiflora Burdach 11282 which will have pink flowers in a few weeks. Ironically the earliest to flower (M.pygmaea) is usually the last to appear here.

Rogan · « **Reply #383 on:** September 11, 2009, 12:07:52 PM »

Fermi, I'll have to beg some pollen off your Babiana pygmaea next season so I can pollinate mine as I only have a single clone that never sets seed. I would love to grow more as this is a most exquisite plant.

Believe me Lesley, when the vervets pinch the fruit from your kitchen; eat all the flowers in your garden; tip up your pots of bulbs looking for grubs; tease the dogs and bound across your roof, you probably won't want them as much! However, I must admit they are very cute little animals and there is no end to their antics while at play.

Darren, massonias are very interesting plants indeed and I never tire of their exquisite leaf forms and colours or of their slightly oddball flowers. The same goes for allied genera such as Daubenya, Polyxena and others.

Darren · « **Reply #384 on:** September 11, 2009, 12:24:59 PM »

I'm with you on Massonia and its relatives Rogan. I have most of the described Polyxena and some of the closest Lachenalia such as L.pusilla. I'd obviously love to grow Daubenya but a UK nursery is currently offering D.zeyheri at £45 per bulb which just illustrates why I don't yet grow them! I did once bite the bullet and pay £12 each for the two colour forms of D aurea but the bulbs went mouldy shortly after arrival (I think they were out-of-season imports from RSA) and I could not keep them alive.

Happily - I just noticed signs of germination of D. aurea and D. marginata from Gordon Summerfields seed but it is a long haul from germination to flowers in this genus!

Calvin Becker · « **Reply #385 on:** September 11, 2009, 01:58:59 PM »

Quote from: Rogan on September 11, 2009, 12:07:52 PM

Believe me Lesley, when the vervets pinch the fruit from your kitchen; eat all the flowers in your garden; tip up your pots of bulbs looking for grubs; tease the dogs and bound across your roof, you probably won't want them as much!

Rogan, you obviously haven't trained your troop to behave well enough then!

arillady · « **Reply #386 on:** September 12, 2009, 10:17:20 AM »

Rogan those recent Romulea you posted are rampant around here. The cockatoos and galahs don't even touch the edges of the numbers that are here. There is one with extra long thin leaves that is a real tripper. Every time I dig I seem to find corms of them which I try to leave exposed for the birds to spy.

Lesley Cox · « **Reply #387 on:** September 12, 2009, 10:46:19 PM »

I'll have a couple of vervets trained by Calvin then.

(even our (Australian

) possums don't behave so badly as that. I saw something yesterday ineffably sad. A possum mother had been hit by a car and lay dead on the road. Her baby, about 6 inches long, had either crawled or been knocked from her pouch and it too was dead, a couple of metres away. I have no love for possums; they do so much garden damage and to the native bush, but I hate that many drivers, especially those of the country/farming community, deliberately aim for them on the roads.