Sternbergia autumn 2012

[pehe]

They are in a mesh basket as used in ponds Gerry.
Lifted in Spring after the leaves have wilted and kept dry until just 3 weeks ago when I planted them back... so I'm afraid I'm giving nature a hand...  ... but it works !

Very nice sight, Luc!
I especially like the very short leaves. In my experience that is only possible when they are kept dry for a long time exactly as you do. You often see naked lutea flowers in the hot mediterranean countries. But when you not live there it's allowed giving nature a hand 

In my garden Sternbergia lutea is only showing leaves, flower will come later. But my early form of S. sicula has just started flowering in the open garden (along with Colchicum montanum). Both stay there all year round without any winter protection.

Poul

[Brian Ellis]

They are in a mesh basket as used in ponds Gerry.
Lifted in Spring after the leaves have wilted and kept dry until just 3 weeks ago when I planted them back... so I'm afraid I'm giving nature a hand...  ... but it works !

What an excellent idea Luc, more use for pond baskets, I'm glad I have a few left to use for this next year!

[Pauli]

Hello,

my earliest and in my climate most free-flowering type of Sternbergia sicula. The plants originates from Corfu, near the monastery on the top of Pantokrator, the highest peak on the island.

[pehe]

Wow! What a sight.
They are certainly free-flowering. Are they placed against a wall or a similar warm place?
The ones I got from you years ago are growing very well and flowers reliable every year, but not as much as yours. I grow mine in pots under glass. There is no sign of them yet. Based on your good result I think it is worth trying them in the open garden.

Poul

[Pauli]

Hello Poul,

meanwhile they grow on several places in the garden and they do well everywhere. Under glass the show no sign of growth (first water last weekend) but they grow and increase better in the open garden. Any place sunny place with good drainage suits them. And I feed them well....

Your selections are also under glass and still not above ground!

[Gerry Webster]

Very impressive Herbert.

To my eyes your plants seem to confirm the recent claim by Gage & Wilkin that there is no real difference between S. sicula & S. lutea The leaves of your plants look like those of S.sicula as traditionally recognised (central stripe) whereas the flower shape looks close to that of supposedly  'typical' S. lutea.

[Pauli]

Gerry, 

I agree at least partly with you.

But on a trip to Pelopennes in Autumn I found the types growing separately, not mixed. In higher places always sicula types, which seemed to be more abundant, at least when we were there.
sicula is said to haver pointed petal tips and this is what the Corfu plants has. In my opinion Dodona Gold is of the same type!

Flowering period is no sign of difference here - it depends on the clone.
Also the amount of leave growth at flowering time is variable - I think, the more water they get in summer, the longer are the leaves at flowering time.

[Gerry Webster]

Here is the first paper by Gage & Wikins for anyone who is interested. The second paper (on phylogenetics)  is too large to post but I can email it.

[Melvyn Jope]

As someone that still considers Sternbergia grueteriana from Crete to be distinct from S.lutea and S.sicula I think the source of the plant material used in the study is of particular importance ie was it material of known wild provenance? The material available in the UK and often exhibited at AGS shows as S.grueteriana is, I think, really S.sicula.
None of my Sternbergia sp in pots or in the garden are showing signs of flowering yet.

[Gerry Webster]

Sternbergia sicula 'Arcadian Sun'         

From a 1966 collection at 300m in the Peloponnese by Herbert & Molly Crook (C 529).

After the miserable summer it looks as though plants in a frame bed will not flower. Those in pots seem much better.

[pehe]

Gerry, this pot looks great!
As I saw your pot of Arcadian Sun, I went out to check mine for flowers. There was a single flower, but it looked suspicious, as if it has start to wither before the flower was fully developed. I was sure that something was wrong, so I lifted it. One bulb was totally rotten, and the flowering one was half eaten by a Narcissus flue grub . I cleaned up the damaged bulb as an offset was forming and planted them all in a fresh compost, hoping for a good growing season, so they could recover well.

Poul

[Gerry Webster]

Poul - I'm sorry to hear this. A few years ago I too lost some Sternbergias to Narcissus fly. I hadn't realised they were susceptible to attack but I guess any member of the Amaryllidaceae  is vulnerable.

[Pauli]

Hello,

my Sternbergia sicula "Pantokrator" a week later with more leaves
My collection of luteas, between a street and a south facing wall
two collected types of Sternbergia from Crete, both not sicula - the big one close to lutea but bigger than usual!

[Tim Ingram]

Reading this thread with great interest because we have never had Sternbergia sicula flower well outside on a raised bed until this year, and the summer has not been especially hot and dry. Maybe it is also to do with how long the plants have been established or how deep the bulbs have gone? We did have a very long warm and dry spring. I hope we might get this flowering more regularly from now on. (By the way it grows alongside Asphodelus acaulis which also tends to be very leafy when flowering, and maybe I should grow both in something like deep sand?).

[Gerry Webster]

Reading this thread with great interest because we have never had Sternbergia sicula flower well outside on a raised bed until this year, and the summer has not been especially hot and dry. Maybe it is also to do with how long the plants have been established or how deep the bulbs have gone? ............

Tim - I don't think the length of time plants have been established or depth of planting are major factors here. I have 4 clones of S.sicula: from the Peloponnese, Corfu, Apulia & Dodona (not 'Dodona Gold') They are grown in a S-facing frame bed (i.e., under glass) & the Dodona plant has been in there 17 years, the others about 5 years. Under these conditionas none  flower freely or regularly. All are much better in pots.  My own experience suggests that a really hot & dry summer is a requirement for regular flowering - even in a hot summer the frame bed remains slightly moist at the level of the bulbs as I have recently discovered.  Previous entries in this thread suggest that clones differ considerably in how free flowering they are under the conditions in (relatively) northern gardens.