Sternbergia 2011

[pehe]

No change for me then!

Well that depends which ones and where you grow them.

In the garden the general problem is our cold and wet summer. But some performs better than others.
Sternbergia lutea 'Autumn Gold' and angustifolia does not need a hot dry summer to flower well. But they flower more freely in a sunny site. Most Sternbergias really appreciate being placed close to a south facing wall. I have two clumps of sicula 'Dodona Gold', one 5 cm from the wall, it give 20-30 flowers every year while the other clump 80 cm from the wall have 2-4 flowers in average.

Sternbergias in pots under glass are different. Here you can give them a warm and dry dormancy, but they are greedy and the roots go deep. So a good feeding and deep pots are beneficial.

Poul

[Gerry Webster]

In the garden the general problem is our cold and wet summer. But some performs better than others.
Sternbergia lutea 'Autumn Gold' and angustifolia does not need a hot dry summer to flower well. But they flower more freely in a sunny site. Most Sternbergias really appreciate being placed close to a south facing wall. I have two clumps of sicula 'Dodona Gold', one 5 cm from the wall, it give 20-30 flowers every year while the other clump 80 cm from the wall have 2-4 flowers in average.

Sternbergias in pots under glass are different. Here you can give them a warm and dry dormancy, but they are greedy and the roots go deep. So a good feeding and deep pots are beneficial.

Poul

My experience is different Poul. Both my form of angustifolia (from Crete) & the John Marr form of sicula (from Dodona) need a very hot, dry bake to flower; neither is flowering this year though they are growing in a bulb frame. The only form of sicula flowering this year is 'Arcadian Sun' (pot grown) though the flowers are rather smaller than usual.

[tonyg]

Poul - Your Sternbergias are looking very good. After the rather cold summer I think flowering here is going to be poor.

Gerry - mine seem to do OK after cool UK summers.  Curiously they seem better when we get rain during July and August.  This year they are flowering nicely in the open garden.  The only real heat they got was in April and May plus a week in August!

[Gerry Webster]

Poul - Your Sternbergias are looking very good. After the rather cold summer I think flowering here is going to be poor.

Gerry - mine seem to do OK after cool UK summers.  Curiously they seem better when we get rain during July and August.  This year they are flowering nicely in the open garden.  The only real heat they got was in April and May plus a week in August!

Tony - the behaviour of plants defeats me!

[pehe]

Sternbergia lutea ex. Iran
Sternbergia sicula Bisceglie

Poul

[Melvyn Jope]

Two Sternbergia in flower now, the first S.greuteriana is now going over, the second S. minoica is just open today.

[udo]

Nice Sternbergia from all,
here my St.greuteriana, a very small form and
St.sicula with two flowers on a stem

[tonyg]

Here is a dull day shot of my  neglected sternbergia.  They are flowering much better than the ones I have looked after!

[bulborum]

Hello Melvin

Never heard from Sternbergia minoica
where is this one coming from

Roland

[Melvyn Jope]

Hello Roland,

I have taken another photo of the plant today, with a different colour background.

The species was named by Ravenna in 2001 and is from a place called Malampes in Southern Crete.
I visited the location in November 2004 and having spent some time looking at the very varied population reached the conclusion that it is probably a form of (or is synonymous with) Sternbergia sicula. That is not intended to be dismissive, I think its a very nice plant.

[bulborum]

Sternbergia sicula was my first thought
that's why I asked

Thanks for explaining

Roland

[Gerry Webster]

The most recent (2008) morphological analysis concludes that botanically they are all forms of Sternbergia lutea though it might be convenient to distinguish them for horticultural purposes.

[jshields]

The most recent (2008) morphological analysis concludes that botanically they are all forms of Sternbergia lutea though it might be convenient to distinguish them for horticultural purposes.

Has anyone looked at their DNA?  I'm much more comfortable with comparisons of DNA sequences (maybe because I'm a biochemist?)

Jim

[Hans J]

So far I know is Ben Zonneveld looking for material from Stern. minoica for DNA research:

http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=3188.0

[Gerry Webster]

The most recent (2008) morphological analysis concludes that botanically they are all forms of Sternbergia lutea though it might be convenient to distinguish them for horticultural purposes.

Has anyone looked at their DNA?  I'm much more comfortable with comparisons of DNA sequences (maybe because I'm a biochemist?)

Jim

The basis for classification depends upon what you regard as the purpose of classification. I'm comfortable with morphology because for part of my life I was an experimental & theoretical morphologist.

So far I know is Ben Zonneveld looking for material from Stern. minoica for DNA research:

http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=3188.0

I imagine that Zonnefeld's work on Sternbergia is like his work on Narcissus. This involved  measuring the quantity of DNA which he regards as a measure of genome size. He does not carry out DNA analysis or sequencing.