Damaged G. reginae-olgae bulb

[Melvyn Jope]

During July 2010 I sent a bulb of G.reginae-olgae Fotini to a friend in the post using a padded envelope. Following its delivery he contacted me to say that to his dismay the bulb had been squashed and looked in poor condition. We agreed that he would treat the damaged remains with sulphur and return it to me. On its arrival back to me it became apparent that the basal plate had gone but the rest, although in a poor state, had not started to rot.
I decided to cut the bulb as though preparing for twin scaling, placed it in methylated spirit before placing in a bag with vermiculite. After waiting a couple of months there was no sign of emerging growth from the scales but they were intact so I decided to place in a pot in my usual potting compost. There was no evidence of growth during last growing season but this weekend when I examined the content of the pot I found the five small bulbs as shown in the photograph.
Two lessons for me from this experience, never trust a padded envelope alone when sending bulbs through the post and the second lesson, never give up just because there is of sign of a basal plate. I learnt several years ago to keep all parts of a bulb when twinscaling but then mine are not usually squashed!
I hope my experience with Fotini might be useful if any of you have bulbs damaged by narcissus fly or anything else.

[Maggi Young]

Melvyn, I find these positive messages very helpful as well as hopeful and I expect others do,too.... thanks!

[Martin Baxendale]

It's becoming more and more obvious that you don't need part of the basal plate for bulbil formation. Years ago I'd have chucked away a bulb with the basal plate rotted away, but not now. Bulbils seem capable of forming on any part of the bulb tissue.

[Hagen Engelmann]

Melwyn, Martin

thanks for the hopeful informations. Here is a next good thing.

Last year I lost a GREEN SPLITTER. His basal plate was destroyed totally. But the was a little hope on the outside of the bulb. I posted a pic:

[Hagen Engelmann]

This year there were no leaves. Now I was looking for the bulb. Not the same good results like Melwyn`s FOTINI with 5 bulbils. But two are also better than nothing.

[Martin Baxendale]

Hagen, the other small bulbils which did not develop appear to still be there, but small and "dormant". It's possible that the two larger new bulbils became dominant, causing the smaller ones not to develop further. Perhaps if you now chop the bulb up into pieces with bulbils on each piece, the dormant ones may start to develop again?

[Maggi Young]

Hagen, the other small bulbils which did not develop appear to still be there, but small and "dormant". It's possible that the two larger new bulbils became dominant, causing the smaller ones not to develop further. Perhaps if you now chop the bulb up into pieces with bulbils on each piece, the dormant ones may start to develop again?

That's what I was going to ask, too. Seems worth a try?

[Hagen Engelmann]

OK Martin and Maggi
let us start the second part of the experiment .

[loes]

Hagen,
as I look at the 2010 and 2011 bulb I dont see much difference in the brown/rotted area of the basal plate.did you treat it before planting last year?
and as there were no leaves this year,how did the bulbils grow a bit,from the scale?

[Martin Baxendale]

Hagen,
as I look at the 2010 and 2011 bulb I dont see much difference in the brown/rotted area of the basal plate.did you treat it before planting last year?
and as there were no leaves this year,how did the bulbils grow a bit,from the scale?

The bulbils will draw nutrients from the bulb scale (or basal plate if attached there) to enable them to grow larger in the absence of a leaf. Sometimes when a bulb has been chipped, some or all of the chips will develop new bulbils which do not make leaves the first year after planting, but the bulbils will still continue to grow larger in the pot by drawing on stored energy in the chip.

[Hagen Engelmann]

Loes, no  I did nothing last year. I only put the bulb in a pot with a lot of vermiculite, like twinscales. The only power came from the scales. Now it is in the pot again, but i divided the bulbils from the mother.

[Ezeiza]

The bulbils develop from the basal plates or from its remnants. What we see is a disc but it is actually a cone. Bulbils in the photos that appear at the mother bulb sides actually arise from the upper tissues of the cone inside the bulb. We see a rotten disc but the cone is not rotten.

Otherwise we could chop a bulb like it were an onion and obtain handfuls of bulbils, something that never happens.

[Martin Baxendale]

The bulbils develop from the basal plates or from its remnants. What we see is a disc but it is actually a cone. Bulbils in the photos that appear at the mother bulb sides actually arise from the upper tissues of the cone inside the bulb. We see a rotten disc but the cone is not rotten.

Otherwise we could chop a bulb like it were an onion and obtain handfuls of bulbils, something that never happens.

Bulbils will develop on the broken-off top parts of lily scales, which I assume can't contain any basal plate tissue. Why could this not happen in other bulbs? I have had bulbils appear on small fragments of snowdrop scales and on rings of outer scales tissue cut across rather than down through bulbs. Are you sure that scale tissue with no basal plate can't possibly produce bulbils?

[rob krejzl]

....and Lachenalias, for example, can be propagated from leaf cuttings; another case where a base plate isn't required.

[arilnut]

Bulbils can form on a Eucomis leaf that has been cut off. Nature has many ways.

John B