Hello All,
David’s photo of cyclamineus species makes me envious – we have to obtain bulbs of this one from the South Island each year as it flowers once only for us! However I was able to take the attached photo yesterday of a clump of red cups – Cameo Flush, its Dad Creag Dubh and Loch Loyal. These were late planted on our return from the World Convention in mid May. We had debated whether to plant early before going overseas as we were still in drought conditions and the soil temps were still very high. On the other hand we believed that the bulbs would be sprouting in the storage boxes if left till mid May. So we planted early apart from a few let overs. The results prove that early planting is undesirable, especially when the soil is very dry and warm. Quite a few losses and some very ugly foliage. On the other hand, as the photo shows the late planted ones are in good order! Indded I have picked a couple from them for showing! Guy Wilson is purported to have said “always plant a few of each variety in clumps somewhere – they may like that better than being molly coddled in beds!”
More next week.
Cheers,
Peter