South African bulbose plants 2009

[Alessandro.marinello]

Here is a pic of one year seedlings.... with flowers !!
Lachenalia pusilla and Polyxena ensifolia 
Better than Colchicum or Lilium to get flowers 

Fred
I cannot believe that Lachenalia pusilla it has only a year

[fermi de Sousa]

Not my own plants! This was exhibited by Lois Lucas, one of our members, at the local Ferny Creek Hort Soc Show, a pot of Rhodohypoxis baueri "Stella"


It was beaten into second place by Lois' pot of Pleione formosanum!
cheers
fermi

[Paul T]

Fermi,

The Rhodophypoxis are bursting into colour here at the moment too.  Just in normal pots though.... nothing as fancy as that.  one think I am noticing this year that I haven't before is that most of the flower stems have 2 buds/flowers on them, so I am guessing that they're really happy here at the moment. 

[Darren]

A great potful that and I can admire the achievement, but I have a confession to make; I find Rhodohypoxis rather unattractive.  Something to do with the flower symetry being disrupted by having no clear 'eye'. This is weird when you consider some of the other strange stuff I grow.

[Paul T]

Darren,

I know what you mean.  I don't find them unattractive, but I understand what you mean by the lack of eye.  it does look rather "wrong" as there are the 3 central petals and the 3 outer petals, but they don't all sit where they traditionally should set in a "normal" flower.    Still hasn't put me off them.  I only have a few, but would love to track down a collection of so many of the named ones.  I basically at present have a couple of different whites, a mid pink, and a dark pink.  Names for a couple, but escape me right at this moment.  Are doing much better for me now that I found out that they prefer lots and lots of water while in growth.  I now sit the pots in a tray of water while in growth, and they are flourishing for it. 

[Lesley Cox]

The more they're watered, the longer they'll flower.

You only need a red, Paul, to add to what you already have. White, pink, red, that's about it, though there's a decent white tipped with pink ('Pictus.') So look for 'Albrighton,' 'Knockdolian Red' or 'Great Scott,' as good reds. The last has smaller flowers but they're very intense. There are lots of others including many introduced recently but to remember about Rhododhypoxis is that they're very unstable and "new" varieties are no better than the old tried and true, and are likely to change/lose colour over a couple of years.

The more recent hybrids between Rhodohypoxis and Hypoxis (x Rhodoxis) do have a little yellow eye.

[Paul T]

Lesley,

OK, my "dark pink" is a red then.... one of them is 'Albrighton'.  I just love the colour.

Seems strange to cross Hypoxis and Rhodohypoxis given how different they can be.  I think I can recall seeing pics of one of the hybrids somewhere before.

[Lesley Cox]

Mark in Ireland posted a pink pic sometime in the last year. I have two, a white and a pink called 'Hebron Pink.' I like them but given the choice of only one, I'd go for Rhodohypoxis rather then the hybrid.

[johnw]

In 1995 Vera Peck gave me seed of Babiana thunbergii.  It has grown in a pot since then, gotten transplanted regularly, comes up far too early, gets spiders mites before it is ready to go outside and has never shown a single flower.  The bulbs are healthy enough.  Would anyone care to give some cultural advice otherwise it is getting turfed very shortly?

Ditto Watsonia beatricis.

johnw 

[Darren]

John - the thing with Babiana is they like really deep planting and I don't think they like too much disturbance. Suggest planting well down in a deep pot and just renewing the top part of the compost instead of fully repotting. Good luck!

[johnw]

Darren  - Thanks for the tip. I'll give them a second chance in a deep pot without too much disruption in the moving process.

johnw

[Hans J]

Today some pics from my flowering Massonia 

M.pygmea ssp. Kamiesbergensis
M.pygmea ex Kamiesberg 1
M.pygmea ex Kamiesberg 2

Hans

[David Nicholson]

Beautiful Hans.

[Darren]

Those are great Hans, I only hope my seedlings of the 'hairy' form look as good as that when they are mature!

[Ragged Robin]

Very intriguing Hans, the threesome is delightful