Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
Bulbs => Bulbs General => Topic started by: Hans J on November 27, 2007, 12:26:37 PM
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Hi all 8)
Here some pics from today :
Massonia pustulata
This plants are sown by me 1998 .....
I hope they will find some other nice relatives soon ;)
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Curious wee plant, Hans. I assume that it is the leaves that give it such an unfortunate name.
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Got it in one, David......... there's often a clue.....er, I may have said THAT before!
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Massonia echinata is hardy but very slow. After 6 year my bulb decided to split into two but then it didnīt flower this year. I have it in sand on a hot raised bed with Cacti.
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Massonia echinata is hardy but very slow. After 6 year my bulb decided to split into two but then it didnīt flower this year. I have it in sand on a hot raised bed with Cacti.
Peter,
Would you please explain your hot raised bed (outside, any cover)?
Gerd
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Itīs a raised bed sloping to south. 40 cm well drained sand (0-8mm) covered with stones and grit. I donīt cover anything in the winter and I never water anything in the garden so in the summer it can get realy dry. Perfect for cacti and bulbs.
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Pictures from today. A normal november day. -6 last night and then it started to rain this morning.
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Peter,
fantastic pictures! How deep is the deppest temperature you have wintertimes? How many days in a row?
Heinz
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A normal winter it goes down to -25C but the record the last 5 years is -32C. The snowcover last for a few weeks and then it rains for a few days and then snow again...... But the winter to 2006 we had snow from november to april. I prefer bare ground, itīs much easier to digg when there is not to much snow.
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Hi Peter
The plant you show as Massonia echinata looks very much to me more like the summer-flowering form of Massonia jasminiflora. When does this one normally grow and flower for you?
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It flowers in June and stays green all summer.
Another very nice hardy bulb from South Africa is Moraea modesta. I grow it in the same conditions as the Massonia.
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Paul,
I grow Massonia jasminiflora (well as far as I know it is correctly named) but mine has none of the leaf markings at all. A favourite of mine as it flowers well but is nice and petite!!
Peter,
That Moraea is VERY nice. Interesting colours to it, and definitely a species I haven't come across before. Thanks for the pic.
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Peter,
very nice pictures and a good idea.
Which other species (cacti/bulbs) have you planted in that raised bed?
Wim
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Hi Peter,
If it flowers in June and is green all summer then it is definitely Massonia jasminiflora, in the summer-flowering form that comes from Lesotho (in the Black Mountains for example). This form often has pustulate leaves and is also very small - the smallest of all the Massonias. The way the leaves stick up in the air rather than lying flat on the ground is also very common in this form. It should be dormant in the winter, unlike all the other Massonias. We have this outside in a sandbed at Wisley, which we cover in winter to keep the rain off.
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Itīs a raised bed sloping to south. 40 cm well drained sand (0-8mm) covered with stones and grit. I donīt cover anything in the winter and I never water anything in the garden so in the summer it can get realy dry. Perfect for cacti and bulbs.
Peter,
Thank you for your notes. For me an inspiration to use a lot of sand in the beds I call 'raised' - also I should try to come a little bit more above groundlevel.
Superb results, beautiful frit!
Gerd
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Wim
In the bed with the Massonia jasminiflora (new name) I grow some different Penstemon, Eriogonum, Astragalus, Oxytropis, Talinum and other drought tolerant plants. Cacti: Echinocereus triglochidiatus and varieties, E. reichenbachii v. perbellus, E. coccineus, E. bailey, E. viridiflorus, Pediocactus simpsonii and varieties, Maihuenia poeppigii.
But I have many raised beds with many different habitats. I collect on almost everything.
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Nice plant Hans :o! It looks like an Haemanthus! Are Massonia relative to them?
Peter, i loved your Frit. glauca!
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No Michael ,
Haemanthus is Amaryllidaceae and Massonia is Hyacintaceae
their similar leaves show convergent developments- these plants grows in similar areas and it is an adaption for the climate ....
Be carefull .... ;)
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Hans,
You're right of course, I think I lumped them together in Amaryllidaceae in a posting earlier. I keep forgetting that the Massonias aren't.... although superficially they do resemble them to a great degree. Sorry if my posting contributed to mininformation. :(
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Paul ,
No problem :D
Normaly I prefer not to collect too many genera .....but in this case with Massonia I MUST make an exception ( one more ) ::)
This is the problem in these modern times with internet et all .....everday new ideas ,
always interestings pics makes new temptations.....
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Thanks Peter :)
I will try to make something like that also.
But it might not work; with the very wet winters (and wet summers actually too :( ) we get here.
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That is the point with a welldrained raised bed, to get a drier habitat. I have a wet climate, 1300mm rain/year and always when I donīt want it. This year it has rained almost every day from the middle of June. Itīs still raining but mixed with snow.
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I really like the Massonia pustulata. Can it take any frost? I have a almost frostfree greenhouse and I would like to try it there.
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I haven't been game to test it myself, but my understanding is that the Massonia do not like having their leaves freeze.
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Peter ,
I grow my Massonia pustulata in my greenhouse ( together with cacti )
the minimum temperature is 5° C
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Peter,
They will take some frost but not for a long period. Inthe wild many of the species have temperatures a bit below freezing overnight, but warming up again in the day so they are not frozen for long. At Wisley we have some planted out in our Landscaped Alpine House which is not heated at all. So far they have been OK down to about minus 5 centigrade for short periods
Paul
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MM. depressa and pustulata are hardy here to about -4 or 5C but usually not for more than two or three days at a time without thaw in between. Sometimes the leaves get frosted off but the bulbs survive. They're in a very well-drained and gravelly raised bed.