[pbs] Ferraria--PBS TOW
Mary Sue Ittner
msittner at mcn.org
Tue Dec 21 14:15:10 EST 2004
Dear Jim S. and all,
The Ferraria uncinata from me is really just F. crispa, but a nice smelling
one. I had trusted my IBS seed source and was thrown off by the smell since
it is not supposed to smell good, but Julian told me it was crispa and as I
struggled through the key I could see he was correct.
I never ever got it to bloom in a pot. Like you it just offset like mad. I
tried to turn it into a summer grower since someone from Seattle on the IBS
list said that worked for him, but had no luck. So I planted it out, first
in a raised bed and then in the ground. Under those conditions it bloomed
and some years for months and months, but it also offset madly, especially
in the raised bed so blooming did not discourage that. And in a bed they
migrated so it was easy for them to end up next to something smaller they
could over power. But the long bloom, the vanilla-like smell, and the
intriguing flowers made me reluctant to toss them so they went in the
ground. The one from the BX courtesy of Diana that blooms for you never
bloomed for me in a container either so it has been planted out.
I'd really be interested in hearing from those people who bloom these
successfully in a container. My F. crispa ssp. nortierii blooms in a
container (sown in fall 98, it bloomed spring 2001 for the first time). I
suspect some of the others are too young to bloom, but F. schaeferi I
obtained from Telos a year ago had robust looking leaves, but no flowers.
I'm hoping it will bloom this year.
I hadn't thought of F. crispa being a weed, but I think Lee might be
correct, at least in Southern California areas with little frost. Where it
is colder in a cold year, ones in growth would surely die. Perhaps not ones
sitting the year out under ground however.
Mary Sue
More information about the pbs
mailing list