Gethyllis

[Paul Cumbleton]

Hi Everyone,
Just to let you know that my latest Wisley Log, issued today, has a section showing some Gethyllis

Cheers

Paul

[santo2010]

Hy Paul,
Where can I find it?
Thanks!

[orpheos]

Paul they are wonderfull!!! thank you for sharing

@santo: http://www.srgc.org.uk/logs/index.php?log=wisley

[santo2010]

Thanks!!

[angie]

Paul, they are really lovely. Are they difficult to get to flower ?
You appolgise for your Wisley log being a bit late, no need to apologise its worth the waiting.

Angie 

[Surreylad]

Excellent log Paul, very nice display..

[Paul Cumbleton]

Hi Angie,
So far I have found that once they start flowering, they flower reliably every year. I have also found that despite the warnings you often see about watering them too much, they don't seem to mind pretty "standard" watering as long as the potting mix is well drained. I treat them pretty much the same as the rest of my South African bulbs.

Paul

[Hans J]

Angie + Paul ,

the problem with Gethyllis is not the cultivation  ...but where can we get those plants ( yes - they are really beautiful )
I know no source for seeds here in Europe 
The nurseries from South Africa sells also no seeds - only 1 or 2 year old seedlings - but makes no sense in my eyes ....this small plants are not adaptet for our growing cycle
and I'm not so happy about this (maybe wild dug ) big plants on Ebay.....

I would be very glad for a good source here in Europe with reliable prices and from seed grown Gethyllis !

In the book of Graham Duncan are a lot of pics and informations about cultivation !

Hans

[Paul Cumbleton]

Hi Hans,
Given the rarity of most species in cultivation it is unsurprising that there are no suppliers. You seem unhappy to import 1 or 2 year old seedlings, but that is how I got all mine - I got 10 species from Gordon Summerfield. These arrived in January 2007. They were not difficult to turn around to a northern growing cycle - I potted them immediately, watered them and after a while they started to grow. I then kept them in growth for 2 or 3 months before then drying them out again at the "normal" time in summer. I then started watering again in the September of 2007 and they came back up - now in our cycle. Doing this is a cheap and fairly easy way to get Gethyllis - Gordon's packets contained anywhere between 2 and 8 bulbs and cost just £6. This means many of them cost just 75 pence each. Compare that to the ridiculous prices charged on the web for adult bulbs!! The first ones flowered 2 years later in 2009 and more in 2010. There are still some which have not yet flowered but clearly grow bigger each year so they should do so soon.

This way of turning them round to our seasons works well for most of the true bulbs from South Africa. (With corms it is even easier -simply keep them dry when they arrive right through to September. Then plant and water them and up they come in our correct season).

Now I am beginning to get seed I will sow it and if successful I will be able to start distributing young bulbs in a couple of years time or so perhaps. If I keep on getting pods in future years I will also start distributing seed too as i will not always want to keep on sowing seed myself once I have a few more bulbs for myself.

Kind regards

Paul

[Hans J]

Hi Paul ,

You seems to me more successful with the small seedlings from Gordon than me .
I order from him also near every year – but in meantime I ask him now how old his plants . When I have start with my orders I have bought mostly Haemanthus ...and seeds from other bulb plants . I agree with you – his prices are really fair ( no problem) –but I would prefer to pay a little bit more and the bulbs are bigger .
When I sow my Amaryllids I try always not to disturb the seedling for 3 growing circles....thats much better in my eyes.
Gordon is more or less the only person who sells seeds from the winter rain area – so I’m really happy to buy from him.
I have also bought from Gordon sometimes Gethyllis ... until only leaves – but there is hope .
I love all this small bulb plants like Strumaria, Hessea , Gethyllis and more !

Good luck
Hans

[angie]

Hi Paul

Thanks for the advice. They are so lovely so worthwhile trying to grow. I have seen then on eBay, expensive but so is food shopping nowadays so I could easy miss shopping for one week, husband wouldn't even notice  but I never thought about these plants being dug up from the wild like Hans has mentioned.
All these lovely plants on eBay are so nice and so tempting.

Angie

[Ezeiza]

"but I never thought about these plants being dug up from the wild"

Angie, the argument rages nowadays and will more so in the future as plant species become more scarce. eBay is where a lot of wild plundered plants including bulbs are offered for sale. Some people have no idea, true, but a lot more does and just do not care: their hobby is above all principles of decency. Every time you pay for a wild plant you are giving a positive signal to those that can take them from the wild. They will not take just one and wait it to be sold. They take hundreds or thousands and in 90% of cases all of them dry off unsold.

The grotesque side of it is that the buyer in most occasions purchase this wild collected plant to obtain hybrids or just for the "pleasure" of having the rare one in his collection. This single plant will survive without producing any offspring until it becomes virused and die. So much stupidity put together.

[PeterT]

Which is why a responsible collector, whether or not they have stooped to buy wild material, will always aim to propagate and distribute their rarities, in order to undermine further trade in wild plants.
It should be noted too, that not every collection of wild plants involves the collector taking a whole populations of a plant.

[JoshY46013]

Several of the S. African distributors collect seed and go from there, I don't think all sellers plunder bulbs and like Peter said, sometimes only a bulb or two is collected and then propagated.

[PeterT]

Yes Josh, I believe  collections by Jim Archibald or Cameron McMaster, or even a passing tourist on occasion if they know enough to be sensable.
I believe however, that sometimes the scenario described by Alberto does take place, -that Albertos warnings are well founded.
I was caught out once, ten years ago, when I bought some plants. I have been a lot more carefull since.