March 2012 in the Southern Hemisphere

[Anthony Darby]

Curiously, my third edition of James Lee's "Introduction to Botany" (MDCCLXXV1) calls Colchicum "meadow saffron" and Amaryllis "lily daffodil". The misnomer meadow saffron for colchicum seems to be repeated in all older my flower books (Hutchinson; Clapham, Tutin and Warburg; Step; Bentham & Hooker). They all refer to it as autumn crocus and naked ladies (the latter not in B & H, but they note that it is named after Colchis on the Black sea), but Step also calls it naked boys! Amaryllis belladona wouldn't have had an olde English folklore name, but I have always known it as the Jersey lily. I suppose names would be transposed as people spread and attached familiar names to new plants, just like the name robin ap;ied to robin-like birds the world over. Captain Cook coined the name "cabbage tree" or "cabbage palm" for the nikau palm (Rhoplostylis sapida) because the fat, cabbage-like leaf bud was edible and eaten as a vegetable. European settlers transposed the name to the more common Cordyline australis, which was also edible, but only cabbage-like if you shut your eyes and looked the other way.

[Anthony Darby]

Must check out the local botanic gardens and see if they grow Quercus coccifera (kermes oak - pictured on page 43 of January's "The Rock Garden" no. 128).

[Maggi Young]

Must check out the local botanic gardens and see if they grow Quercus coccifera (kermes oak - pictured on page 43 of January's "The Rock Garden" no. 128).

Hmmm.... you mean the one captioned in error  in the journal as Quercus robur.........

[Hoy]

Really?  I know Amaryllis belladonna as Naked Ladies, not Colchicums.

Quite so. Colchicums are Naked Virgins

[Anthony Darby]

Driving past clumps of Amaryllis belladonna, I can see why they could be called naked ladies. Colchicum nudiflorum is not very lady-like in leaf.

Must check out the local botanic gardens and see if they grow Quercus coccifera (kermes oak - pictured on page 43 of January's "The Rock Garden" no. 128).

Hmmm.... you mean the one captioned in error  in the journal as Quercus robur.........

That's the one, and what reminded me. I grew it from seed collected near Barcelona and they survived the winter of 2009-10 outside. The leaves are even more holly-like than Quercus ilex, but are usually only a couple of centimetres long.

[Lesley Cox]

This little Eucomis has been close for days and finally a couple of flowers are open. Dreadful picture, sorry, I'll try another when a few more are open. The height of the tallest of 3 stems is just 10cms from tip of the top knot to the pot surface so a real dwarf, with the name of 'Tiny Pink Rubies.'

[Lesley Cox]

I think I saw somewhere that Eucomis can be propagated from leaf cuttings. Would someone expound on that please?

[Paul T]

Lesley,

That is brilliant.  Is it an NZ breeding, or from overseas?  I must look out for it and see whether it is here in Aus.  VERY nice!

Yes, leaves can be used to propagate Eucomis.  I'm sure I've seen instructions posted somewhere, but goodness knows which list it was on.  My brain doesn't work too well at times at present.    I would have thought it was here on these forums, but I'm guessing as you haven't seen it that it must have been on one of the mailing lists.  Sorry I am not sure where.

A quick look online though produced these....
http://mrbrownthumb.blogspot.com.au/2007/08/how-to-propagate-eucomis-bulbs-leaf.html
http://gardenofeaden.blogspot.com.au/2009/06/how-to-propagate-and-grow-eucomis-from.html

The first in particular runs through step by step.  My google search was leaf cuttings eucomis and these were some of the first.  Lots of others to look at as well if wanted.

I've been meaning to try this myself...... I might do so one of these decades.

[Maggi Young]

Yes, we've had this before.... Arnold gave this link  http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/Eucomis  from this forum thread
http://www.srgc.org.uk/forum/index.php?topic=7429.msg213590#msg213590

and  there's this, too 
http://apps.rhs.org.uk/advicesearch/Profile.aspx?pid=104

[Tim Ingram]

Lesley - leaf cuttings work very well with Eucomis - I've always taken them from strong fully expanded leaves, not too late in the season, and cut into sections like you would Streptocarpus, about an inch or so long. With the stronger species you quite often get several new bulbs developing across the base of the leaf. I imagine that lovely little 'Tiny Pink Rubies' might only give one or two. They develop the new bulbils during summer and autumn, before the leaf sections die down in winter and then nice new shoots develop in the spring to be potted up. It is fascinating to propagate plants in this way.

[Lesley Cox]

Thanks everyone for this information and the references. It's probably too late now but I'll try a few anyway. I bought the bulbs from a Christchurch mail order nursery when they were catalogued online, so they must have had them late in the normal Eucomis season. I bought some gladiolus corms too (the Dame Edna kind) and they too have either not flowered or are flowering now, very late, healthy though so next season should be better. Also bought a dark red Zantedeschia, almost ready to photograph and some Arisaema flavum ssp. abbreviatum which flowered and the seed is going orange now.

Oddly, a number of my Arisaema species have only just come through, even with a damp summer, and it's usually drought that makes them late. Candidissimum and ringens were in flower two weeks ago and I noticed nepenthoides and elephas have recently made leaves but are not going to flower. I can't imagine why they are so late, literally months.

Paul, I don't know if the Eucomis is a NZ production or not. I may be able to find out though. Terry Hatch near Auckland certainly does Eucomis and a friend near Warkworth also has produced som larger forms almost the colour of choc cosmos, very very dark red, and with dark red stems and whirly bits on top, better than any commercial forms I've seen. I have a couple of his cast-offs and they're very good indeed.

[Paul T]

Lesley,

What colour are the flowers on those dark forms?  If you can do some pollinating and set some seed, please think of me.  I very much want to get some dark flowered Eucomis.... I've been crossing my pinkest flowered large types with vandermerwei this year to see whether I can impart some of that lovely dark flower colour of the species to the larger ones.  Got to find the space to sow the seed of course, but they tend to be very shy in seed production I've found, so there won't be much seed in the pods I am guessing.... most tend to be aborted I've found in the past.

This summer has just done the strangest things to all sorts of plants.  Hoop petticoat daffs with leaves up a month ago (many months early in some varieties), early autumn colour formation in some things.... first Galanthus reginae-olgae has already opened a flower here as well.

[Lesley Cox]

The flowers are pretty much the same shade and depth of colour as th TPR above Paul, much bigger plants and flower heads of course. I've not had any seed from them. I don't know what plants Theo has used as parents but his best are being named I think. As I said, I have the cast-offs.

[fleurbleue]

For you Lesley http://bulbsociety.org/GALLERY_OF_THE_WORLDS_BULBS/GRAPHICS/Eucomis/Eucomis_leafcutting/Eucomis_leafcutting.html (and the others friends indead    )

[Paul T]

Lesley,

I've pretty much found that they only set seed if hand pollinated.  Quite literally.  I take a finger and transfer the pollen by hand.