[pbs] More Gladiolus
Mary Sue Ittner
msittner at mcn.org
Sun Mar 4 11:23:07 EST 2007
Hi,
I've finished
http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/SouthernAfricanGladiolusThree
Besides the new Gladiolus papilio that Roy Herbert added yesterday, there
is a new picture of Gladiolus orchidiflorus taken in Namaqualand. This is a
fragrant very intricate one that makes you appreciate beige nicely marked
flowers. Jim Robinett gave me one before he died and it flowered for me
once. No doubt it was not happy in my wetter winters.
New species from Cameron seen in habitat are Gladiolus permeabilis,
Gladiolus rudis, and Gladiolus subcaeruleus and there is another picture
added of Gladiolus priorii that I think was taken in his nursery. We had it
pictured already, but I really liked his picture with the blue sky and
clouds behind the red flowers.
Two more new habitat species added we saw in South Africa on our trip. The
first is Gladiolus speciosus seen in the western Cape near Darling in
September. This is another one of the Gladiolus alatus group, but is
strongly marked yellow on the back. And I think in my post yesterday I
mixed it up with the other one we saw that day. This is the one I think we
saw in the Babiana ringens habitat. I think we saw G. meliusculus earlier
in the day. The second one from our pictures is Gladiolus scullyi. This is
similar to Gladiolus venustus but G. venustus is found in more southern
areas of the winter rainfall area. G. scullyi is also fragrant and there
are other differences although in the overlapping areas the forms are
sometimes hard to tell apart. I think these I added are all G. scullyi.
South African members of our group should speak up if I got them wrong so I
can correct them.
Since there are 163 different species (and more added all the time) in
Southern Africa we are a long way from picturing them all. And I still
have one more page to add some new species to.
Jim, I think and this is definitely not more than a guess since South
Africa has a lot of daisies and I haven't tried to figure out how they are
different, that the daisy you asked about in the G. meliuculus picture
might have been an Arctotis instead of Ursinia. Once again someone else can
confirm. South Africa has the most amazing bulbs. I doubt you'll ever leave
Maryland and your wonderful garden, but some day you might want to visit.
There could be some of these Glads you could grow in your cold frame. They
aren't all tall. Maybe some of the latter blooming ones would work or some
from the summer rainfall areas.
Mary Sue
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