South African Bulbs 2011

[Regelian]

Rafa,
the Ferraria is sublime.  What a great looking plant and a great picture of it. I take it, these are not at all frost hardy, as to say -15°C!  Happens rarely, here, but does happen.

thanks for sharing this one!

Jamie

[Diane Clement]

Davey, are you trotting out at night to sniff the Gladiolus? In my experience yes, the scent is wonderful, but at night only. Daytime, nothing at all! Most likely it's pollinated by night-flying insects.  

G tristis is one of the best scents of all.  I can smell it by day, although I have heard the night-scented moth pollination story before.  I don't keep it frost free, it will certainly go to -7C but that is in a pot where it can be kept fairly dry.  It is quite a prolific seeder and one year came up and flowered in the garden - don't know how it got there, but it didn't survive to the next year.

The picture is from 2009, Gladiolus tristis in the garden

[daveyp1970]

Davey, are you trotting out at night to sniff the Gladiolus? In my experience yes, the scent is wonderful, but at night only. Daytime, nothing at all! Most likely it's pollinated by night-flying insects.

Yes Lesley it was about 6 in the evening.I agree Diane the scent is up there as one of the best.

[daveyp1970]

 

Ray, Davey's frosts are real frosts not the slight frosts you have in Australia and we have in mild South America.

Alberto - Davey's worst winter frosts are like November or March/April in Nova Scotia. I think we have the real frost.  Oz has out May frosts - if and when they ever happen.  Now the Albertans may counter and it all ends when the last forumist in Antarctica replies!

johnw

[ArnoldT]

Babiana rubrocyanea.

Any secret to getting the flowers to fully open?

[bulborum]

Is there somebody growing Babiana rubrocyanea
from wild collected seeds
I still have the idea
that all plants are from a single collection
they all look so similar
or are they in the nature almost identical

Arnold yours are early
I have to wait one or two weeks
I will post a picture to compare

Roland

[Rafa]

Here is Gladiolus involutus, from Gordon Summerfield nursery.

[PeterT]

That is lovely Raffa, how tall is it?

[Rafa]

it is arround 50cm high

[Darren]

Very nice Rafa!

re: Babiana rubrocyanea; Arnold - high temperatures and sunshine should persuade it to open. However, like Roland, I have doubts about much of the material in cultivation.

I'm pretty sure that all those I've seen are either virused, poor narrow-petaled forms, or hybrids with another species such as plicata.

This is a picture of the real thing in habitat near Darling. There is a purple cast to the blue part of the flower due to the photography but you can see it has a lovely bowl shaped flower with broad overlapping petals. Every flower at this site had been badly chewed by insects - this was the best one!

[Darren]

Some from my greenhouse today.

Moraeas tripetala, atropunctata and a stray in a pot of villosa, which looks likely to be a hybrid. (villosa x aristata?)

Freesia xanthospila

three slightly differing forms of Gladiolus gracilis from the same packet of seed.

One of the few named winter growing Gladiolus hybrids is 'Christabel'

[Maggi Young]

Merciful heavens Darren, what a range of plants you grow.  A treat to see them.

[Rafa]

wow!, M. atropunctata is superb

[Darren]

Thank you! And you have not even seen the cacti & mesembs....  Too many plants and never enough time

Atropunctata in one of my favourites but sadly I never get seed as my plants are all one clone, slowly increasing from a single corm which came from Mike Salmon. . However - I do now have some small seedlings from Gordon Summerfield seed. It needs to be watched in winter - the lower sheathing bract on the leaves gets botrytis very easily once it dries out, and must be peeled off before it can infect the green tissue.

The reverse of the flower is also nice - a speckly warm brown colour.

[daveyp1970]

Some from my greenhouse today.
three slightly differing forms of Gladiolus gracilis from the same packet of seed.
One of the few named winter growing Gladiolus hybrids is 'Christabel'

Stunning Darren lovely forms of G.gracilis.