Fall bloom in the greenhouse (continued!) and hardy bulbs (new)
- To: s*@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU
- Subject: Fall bloom in the greenhouse (continued!) and hardy bulbs (new)
- From: J* S*
- Date: Sun, 21 Nov 1999 09:04:46 -0500
At yesterday's meeting of the Great Lakes Bulbs group, someone noticed
another fall bloom coming on in my greenhouse: in one pot of seedlings of
Cyclamen coum, planted in January 1998, there are flower buds. That is
the only pot of these seedlings out of about 4 pots which is showing flower
buds so far. C. hederifolium finished blooming outdoors here over a month
ago.
These cyclamen are sitting just a foot or two away from the pots of
blooming Moraea polystachya. There have been mutterings by some folks that
M. polystachya might just be hardy in this cold climate, so after these
seedlings have produced a good crop of offsets, I think I'll try a few
outdoors in my "hardiness test bed" with the Crocosmia, Sternbergia,
Lycoris chinensis, Gladiolus byzantinus, and Calochortus luteus 'Golden
Orb' etc.
The Lycoris species I'm growing -- LL. chinensis, longituba, and sprengeri
-- are woodland plants in China, according to Jim Waddick, while I have
them planted in the wide open spaces. I think I will get a few more of
them next year and plant them in my new shade garden beds. At any rate,
they certainly seem hardy here -- some have gone through two winters in the
ground, bloomed this past summer, and even set some seed (which I don't
know how to germinate!)
The Gladiolus and Calochortus are also in the open, but I think they belong
there. In any case, both groups of bulbs survived a nearly-normal winter
there last year and bloomed abundantly this past summer, setting seeds
which have been sent to the I.B.S. seed exchange. So I have added
Calochortus superbus and C. venustus to the test plantings. I plan to try
other potentially hardy Gladiolus species out there in the future,
including things like GG. imbricatus, saundersii, and oppositiflorus, if I
can get enough bulbs raised from seed. These glads are potential rock
garden plants, and the GG. saundersii and oppositiflorus are actually
alpines in South Africa, from the Drakensberg.
Regards to all,
Jim S.
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Jim Shields USDA Zone 5 Shields Gardens, Ltd.
P.O. Box 92 WWW: http://a1.com/daylily/
Westfield, IN 46074, USA Tel. +1-317-896-3925
