[pbs] Babianas and cold tolerance
Tony Avent
tony at plantdelights.com
Tue Jan 22 18:03:55 EST 2008
Mary Sue, etal:
We've also tried to see how many babianas that we could kill. In spring
2004, we planted the species below. Only B. mucronata and B. vanzylae
are still alive, but none have flowered. We've had mild winter since
then, only dipping to 12 degrees F, and we offer no winter protection.
Other suggestions of species to try are most appreciated.
Babiana mucronata No
Babiana odorata Yes
Babiana patersoniae No
Babiana ringens No
Babiana sambucina No
Babiana stricta var. regia No
Babiana vanzylae Yes
Tony Avent
Plant Delights Nursery @
Juniper Level Botanic Garden
9241 Sauls Road
Raleigh, North Carolina 27603 USA
Minimum Winter Temps 0-5 F
Maximum Summer Temps 95-105F
USDA Hardiness Zone 7b
email tony at plantdelights.com
website http://www.plantdelights.com
phone 919 772-4794
fax 919 772-4752
"I consider every plant hardy until I have killed it myself...at least three times" - Avent
Mary Sue Ittner wrote:
> Dear Brent, Joe, and all,
>
> Thanks Joe for alerting us to the article in Nature and Brent for sharing
> the information about your experience with Babiana ringens. If I recall,
> when Babiana was the topic of the week in April the general consensus was
> that it was not hardy and attempts to grow it in colder climates had not
> been successful. Babiana ringens is a coastal species so you would expect
> that it would be less hardy than some of the species growing at higher
> elevations that would experience colder temperatures on a regular basis.
> Your story for me illustrates a couple of points. One is that where you
> plant is important as is the planting medium. Plants in the ground are much
> more likely to sustain cold temperatures than those in pots. Babianas tend
> to relocate deep in the ground where the corms would have some protection
> from the elements. And because many of the species produce multiple
> cormlets around the main corm, even if a plant was wiped out because of the
> cold, some of the cormlets could remain and in later years plants you
> thought you had lost could reappear. When we had an unusually cold December
> (I think it was 2000) many of my South African bulbs in a raised bed turned
> to mush. Some put out new leaves the very same year. Others I thought I had
> lost returned in subsequent years. The propensity to produce cormlets also
> protects species from predation. One assumes that the Baboons for which
> this species is named would miss some of the smaller cormlets. On African
> Hill at the UC Botanical Garden, Berkeley, California, I understand the
> gophers in the past redistributed and relocated some of the Babiana
> cormlets. That and all those new cormlets create quite a display in spring
> as illustrated by Liz Waterman's photo on the wiki.
> http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/files/Babiana/Babianas2_UCBot.jpg
>
> Mary Sue
>
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