Bulbs

Howdy All,

Not sure whether these are of any interest to people or not? Also not sure whether this is the right place to put it? If the moderators want to move it (or delete it), go right ahead!! ;D

I have these two in flower in my shadehouse at present.

Juno season has started again.
Here some pictures to show you the variability of iris rosenbachiana:
photo 1-2 = "Deep Purple"
3-4 = "Varzob"
5 = "Harangon"
6-7 = "Tovilj-Dara"
8-9 = unnamed selection from the wild

The little Narcissus providing a blaze of colour in the greenhouse at the moment.

Narcissus romieuxii ex JCA 805 'Julia Jane'. Not the real 'Julia Jane' I'm told so I have inserted 'ex' on my label. The original JJ was selected and named by the late, and much missed, Jim Archibald from a batch of seed collected in Morocco in 1963 and I can't be sure that my bulbs were vegetatively produced. Still look nice though.

Narcissus bulbocodium var. genuinus.

A few crocus in flower here.

Crocus angustifolus gold.
Crocus chrysanthus from sumbegli
Crocus fleisheri gulek pass
Crocus garagicus.
Crocus Korolkowii kiss of spring.
Crocus nevadensis
Crocus sieberi Bowles white
Crocus sieberi Gothenburg form.
Crocus sieberi subsp atticus.
Crocus chrysanthus.

I grow many of my bulbs in containers, in a cold greenhouse. Most of the bulbs in my collection are winter growing species from the winter rainfall area of the Cape, South Africa and Chile. This year I decided to add some new genus to my collections, mainly, gladiolus species ( mostly purchased from Telos Rare Bulbs and others, from seed). Here are a few images of showing the diversity of corm shapes, and some shots of how I research the specific requirements in the literature, just in case one species requires loam, or loathes lime or acid soil.

A banner year for Nerine sarniensis, I am going to share a few shots of what my collection looked like after I decided to pick each cultivar so that I could document each name, in a photo. Later, I decided to arrange them all by color.

Sharing some bulbous Oxalis species in bloom right now, in the greenhouse. Mainly, a nice pot of Oxalis lutea, and easy to grow species which tends to put on a nice show every few years. It's funny, because I have a love/hate relationship with the genus. My passion with bulbous Oxalis began after the late Michael Vassar gave a presentation at the Huntington Botanical Garden in 2000. He gave me some bulbs, and I was hooked. The genus is incredibly diverse, and collectable.

Late autumn bulbs are not happy here due to lack of sun - the sun is too low in the sky. But some do well.
My first autumn bulb this year is a Crocus that I, as usual, has lost name of.
But here it is:

I found the name I think! It has to be Crocus kotschyanus cappadocicus.
The second picture is taken this afternoon.

Having tried Sternbergia lutea a few times here with no success, I would like to ask what is the coldest zone in which it is found to be hardy? Are there other species that might be hardier?

Fine enough here this afternoon for a pic of a large N.romieuxii ?---frilled edge--looking a bit dirty after a heavy period of rain during the night.

Cheers Dave.