South African bulbose plants 2009

[Hristo]

The warm weather has gone now but the 'Windowsill Season' has started here with Moraea polystachya.
I've always started these in October but this year started them earlier and the end result seems to be
faster to flower and more flowers!

[daveyp1970]

Hristo stunning,Moraea is a genus that i intend to to collect more of,can i ask everybody at what temp do they find there african corms and bulbs seed germinate best at,i am after fine tuning what i do and would like some advice please.

[Ragged Robin]

Wow that's gorgeous, Hristo, I love the paler colour and I always thought the flower was much bigger   

[Hristo]

Hi Davey, cheers, the early start has improved their flowering!
Last year we had a mild and wet autumn here and seed sown in pots outside in September had germinated by the middle of October.
This year the hot summer weather extended into autumn, stopped last week and has become wet and cold, no SA germinations yet.
So mild and wet would seem to be a winner, no real surprise as the species we are growing are winter rainfall bulbs.
Other growers will probably have much more specific advice to give, we grow too many species from seed to provide too many
different sowing regimens.

What species do you grow Davey?

Hi RR and thanks. I think these flowers are normally distrubuted in terms of size, the allied genus of Dietes has flowers of a similar structure but are somewhat larger. Some of the opening flowers are darker, there is a range in the pot as these are seed grown rather than being derrived from offsets.

[David Nicholson]

Hristo stunning,Moraea is a genus that i intend to to collect more of,can i ask everybody at what temp do they find there african corms and bulbs seed germinate best at,i am after fine tuning what i do and would like some advice please.

Hi Davey,

I'm with Chris on this one. My South African winter growers from seed get no special treatment. I usually sow in September in a gritty/sandy JI2 mix, cover them with grit, and leave them in an open frame until germination. When (if!) they germinate they go into the greenhouse. Some I win,some I loose

[Paul T]

I collected seed recently of my "dwarf form" (i.e grows to about 18 inches) of M. polystachya.  I've promised some of a couple of people, but have plenty to spare for seed exchange etc.

[Darren]

Davey,

Like David (& Chris) I sow my winter growers in late august or early september and leave them exposed to the ambient temps outdoors ( moisture, warm days and cool nights are the key!). I'm about to bring in the ungerminated pots now though as there is a possibility of frost . They will be safer under cold glass.
 
Darren.

[Darren]

Some of my pics from this weekend:

Gladiolus carmineus. This autumn flowering gladiolus is great but a good flowering means no flowers next year as it seems to set the corms right back. The Goldblatt & Manning monograph confirms this behaviour is normal for the species.

Then the much less spectacular Ornithogalum osmynellum at all of 8cm in height. Lovely curly leaves though!

[Darren]

Massonia in various stages of flowering. Attractive even in bud:

Two forms of M.pygmaea ssp kamiesbergensis in flower

Two forms of M jasminiflora in bud

M.pustulata in bud

[daveyp1970]

Thank you everybody for your advice and luckily this is exactly what i am doing but to make sure i asked the question.
Darren love the Gladiolus carmineus mine are one year old corms at the moment and can't wait untill they flower, is it a variable species?,do any other gladiolus stop flowering after they flower in a good year?

[Darren]

Hi Davey,
               G. carmineus has not really been very variable with me, though some individuals have flowers which face upwards rather than sideways.
I can't really answer your other question. Certainly this is the only one I grow which does this and I think it is because the corms which produce flower stems do not produce proper leaves (except the tiny sheathing leaves on the stem). Incidentally - the autumn flowering Narcissus viridiflorus does this too.  With the Gladiolus it seems that the photosynthetic tissue available cannot produce seed and also fuel a flowering size corm. It takes mine 2-3 years to reach flowering again but often they actually just don't produce new 'corms' at all - just the tiny cormlets on the basal plate, the rest having died off. Thankfully it will produce lots of seed so I always have new stock growing on. It is worth persevering with and good luck with yours.

Darren.

[Lesley Cox]

That would explain why I had no flowers on G. carmineus this year when there were many last. I didn't know about that characteristic. I've only had seed once, perhaps 3 years ago but it as very wet when they flowered last year. Oddly, while they have flowered in April (autumn here) they have also flowered, in different years, in July (mid winter) and September.

[Lesley Cox]

The Massonias are super Darren. I'm afraid I'll have to invest in a small greenhouse as there is just not enough warmth for these little South African bulbs in our winter. The flowers don't develop fully and the leaves are frosted a bit as well.

[Paul T]

Darren,

That silvery leaf pustulated form of jasminiflora is stunning!!  Never seen anything like it in a jasminiflora before.  I love the pustulata and am used to it having those leaves, but not the jasminiflora.  The pygaea look like pretty plants as well (another I've not grown).  Thanks so much for sharing the pics.

[fermi de Sousa]

This is the first time this babiana has flowered for; it's B. ringens which Lesley mentioned earlier. it has this peculiar perch for the sunbirds which pollinate it!




cheers
fermi