[pbs] Spiloxene
Mary Sue Ittner
msittner at mcn.org
Sun Dec 5 11:42:59 EST 2004
Dear John,
I grow S. canaliculata and S. serrata. I am fond of them both. S. serrata
is smaller, but long blooming and quite charming in an understated way. I
have found the Spiloxenes difficult from their small seed. A couple of them
have germinated the first year and others in the second year, but not in
great numbers. I am grateful to Julian Slade who donated seed to IBSA for
two of the species I was able to get from seed to bloom.
We too have enjoyed seeing Spiloxene in the wild, even though we weren't
always sure of which species we were seeing. I don't think any of our
digitals of S. aquatica came out very well for the wiki, but Lauw took his
shoes off and waded in the water and he might have been more successful.
Andrew Harvie from Australia who is not on our list (alas) has crossed S.
capensis and canaliculata. He wrote on one of the Aussie lists they
"produced some fantastic colours from even darker pink to mixed orangy pink
flowers, also a yellow." He obviously knows how to grow them from seed.
Jim Duggan once wrote that S. serrata was one of his longest blooming bulbs
which is why I wanted to grow it. On my database from last year I noted my
two plants bloomed from February to April.
I've tried a couple of times to grow S. linearis from seed, but haven't had
any germination.
Gordon Summerfield has been collecting different forms of Spiloxene
capensis as he has found in the wild wide variation in color and markings.
Julian Slade awhile back on one of the Australian lists wrote that the
Australian botanists still considered their "Spiloxenes" Hypoxis. Is this
still so?
Does anyone grow Empodium? It looks like a fall blooming Spiloxene with
pleated leaves. I don't grow it and can't remember seeing it offered.
Mary Sue
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