South African bulbose plants 2009

[cohan]

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

great stuff, darren--love every one!

[Paul T]

Gorgeous, Fermi.  I still have yet to flower this.  I've grown it from seed many years ago but have one remaining large bulb that refuses to flower.  I must start more from seed again one of these years as I so want to see it in person and the rate my "mature" one is going that is never going to happen.    Thanks for the great pics.

[Darren]

Paul - oddly enough this is the first year I've noticed the leaves on this jasminiflora to be so silvery. I grow two clones of this pustulate form, which have been apparently identical until this year. I wonder if the unusually bright weather we have had this autumn has highlighted the difference? As you might predict - this silvery one is solitary whilst the one with a more green background (not illustrated) has bulked up to 5 now. Glad you liked the pictures.

[angie]

Darren

You have made me jealous, love the Massonia pictures

Angie

[arillady]

What a strange babiana Fermi - strange but stunning.
Great to see the Massonias Darren - I have a few seedlings coming along.

[daveyp1970]

Fermi stunning babiana i have seed and awaiting for them to germinate,i love the idea it has evolved a perch for a bird so it can pollinate it,mother nature is incredible.

[Paul T]

Darren,

Do you mean that your Massonias are actually offseting?  I've never had a Massonia do that.  I was starting to assume that they just never did.  If you end up with seed from the silvery one and can spare a couple I would be interested in trading.

[Hristo]

Darren,

Love that Ornithogalum, yellow flowers, curious leaves, very different from the many native european species we have here!
Fermi, I shall join in with the general appreciation of your Babiana, have a few species growing from seed here but a few years to go
before there are any flowers, so thhanks for the tease!!

[Darren]

Paul,

Very occasionally I get offsets yes. I have one M.echinata which offsets fairly freely. I've had no offsets on pustulata or pygmaea. One pustulate leaf clone of M. jasminiflora and one bulb (the best colour !) of the pink M.jasminiflora have both offsetted once and exhibited the same symptoms:


No apparent growth several weeks after it should have appeared.

Panic stricken excavation on my part.

Notice that new shoots (one primary and several secondary) are emerging through the sides of the bulb rather than from the top.

Crowded potful of several sets of leaves for the rest of the season.

On going dormant it is evident that there are now several separate bulbs.

Potted up - one bulb at full size but all the offsets are also flowering size if a little smaller.

Result: pustulate form now 5 flowering size bulbs. Pink form now 7 flowering size bulbs from one last year.

I can only imagine that the main growing point has been damaged somehow and that this has awoken latent buds. I've never had the guts to try chopping a bulb up but this suggests it might work. I've a load of spares from a M. aff. echinata collection I might try chopping next year!

I hope to get seed from the silvery M.jasminiflora and will send some if successful. Can't guarantee it won't have crossed with the usual form so you might need to do some selection.

[Hans J]

Paul + Darren ,

One of my M.pustulata has startet in last year with a offset .....in this year are near two same sized bulbs in the pot .

[Lesley Cox]

Darren,

Do you mean that your Massonias are actually offseting?  I've never had a Massonia do that.  I was starting to assume that they just never did. 

Didn't someone somewhere show a Massonia species which had made a good clump of several bulbs? It could have been Michael Campbell.

[Lesley Cox]

I am very happy with the large potful of Babiana ringens which arrived in the post on Friday. Maybe I said this on the SH topic? I bought it from someone in Auckland, on TradeMe, the local version of Ebay. Ordered on Wed, arrived Fri. Not bad. When (if) it flowers I'm hoping the local bellbirds might take to the perching thinggy. It may need more warmth than I can supply, to flower. Have to start thinking of that glasshouse. Do I need it more than I need another 50cm of topsoil? Probably not. (That's cubic metres, not centimetres!)

[Alessandro.marinello]

 today in flower Polyxena ensifolia

[Paul T]

Darren,

Thanks for all the info on the offsetting process.  I wouldn't mind some of mine doing that at times.  So how pink is the pink flowered one?  I have white, pink and mauve ones, but the non-whites are pale shadings of white (if you know what I mean).  They're definitely not white, but they are still very pale pastels.  I received a plant recently of Massoia pustulata with good leaves and it supposedly has pink flowers with white tips.  I haven't seen it in flower as yet, as I received it with the seedhead just starting to split open with no signs of flower colours obviously enough.  It will be interesting to see what it's seedlings will flower like.  It had quite a few seeds within the seedhead, but I can't believe how many seeds set on my jasminifloras..... it is an amazing amount for such a small statured plant, and not like they're miniscule seeds either.  O just love this genus, as I am sure that many of you are well and truly aware of by now (sorry!) .

[Paul T]

OK, time to bore you all with some pics.....

Here's a selection of some of the Ixias I have flowering here at the moment.  The mass of pink one is a species I think, at least it seeds perfectly true unless it outcrosses, and it has been around here forever.    The orange is Ixia curta, purchased a few years back as Ixia maculata but apparently slightly different to that one.  Is only about 20cm tall and I just love it's smaller stature and gorgeous colour.....

Please click on the pics for a larger version.