Remarks from the Weekly KAVB Flower Show - Lisse

[David Nicholson]

Alan McMurtrie's Irises- drool drool!

[Joakim B]

Very nice selection Luit
As always this brings nice colour to a nice day  
All the best
Joakim

[Lesley Cox]

'Aleksandr Pushkin' is an interesting one, well known and easily avalable in Russia.

Well it would be, wouldn't it?

[Lvandelft]

This week I can show some interesting entries.
Some Iris were send in
The Committee was able to see some slight differences between
some Iris.
One may question if it is useful to name plants which are hardly
to distinguish from each other.
I show three pictures and they are all named from left to right.

Iris Angel's Tears Iris Michael's Angel [from left]                                                       
Iris Lady Beatrix Stanley Iris Angel's Tears Iris Michael's Angel  [from left]                           
Iris Michael's Angel Iris Angel's Tears Iris Lady Beatrix Stanley [from left]

Then we saw a nice pot where a breeder showed some colours and forms
of Hyacinths he is using for his breeding programme.

Hyacinthus breeding mix

Another breeder showed some pots with double flowered plants.
Many years Hyacinths were bred to achieve nice full flower stalks,
but when the flowers are double there is almost no space for each flower.
Here are some where is space enough for each flower.
I reckon the developments will go on to achieve good formed flower stalks.

Hyacinthus double 1                                                           
Hyacinthus double 2

[Lvandelft]

In the second batch I show a variety of other entries:

Hippeastrum group  (Small flowered cultivars)
Narcissus lobularis                                                       
Pleione Iris                                                                 
Tropaeolum tricolor                                                         
Tulipa Close Up                                                             
Tulipa cretensis
Corydalis solida Apple Snow                                                                 
Corydalis solida Beth Evans                                                                 
Corydalis solida Dieter Schacht     

[Maggi Young]

Yes, I see what you mean about those Iris... they are VERY similar indeed.

I do not care for the double hyacinths but I DO like their colours.

The small flowered Hippeastrum cultivars are wonderful .... they would make good cut flowers too.... are they used for this purpose? We only very occasionally see the large Hippeastrum in the Florists' shops in Aberdeen.

[Lvandelft]

The small flowered Hippeastrum cultivars are wonderful .... they would make good cut flowers too.... are they used for this purpose? We only very occasionally see the large Hippeastrum in the Florists' shops in Aberdeen.

Maggi, many of these types are not as good for cut flowers as the large ones.
As you can see in the vase left of the picture all the flowers open at once.
And so do many of this type.
They are lovely indeed but somehow the trade does not pick them up.

[Maggi Young]

As you can see in the vase left of the picture all the flowers open at once.

Yes, I see that may be cosidered a disadvantage for a long lasting flower.... but for some occasions it is good to have something which gives maximum flower power at one time.... wedding flowers, for instance., when it is important to have a great display all on ONE day 

[Lesley Cox]

Nor do I like the modern, formal hyacinths but one of my Australian friends grows a number in the open garden and doesn't lift them. The following year their lovely colours and scent remain, but the flowers are displayed looser and a little smaller, making very pretty, informal clumps. Like this, they are well worth growing and I plan to try some this year (well, next).

[Jim McKenney]

Nor do I like the modern, formal hyacinths but one of my Australian friends grows a number in the open garden and doesn't lift them. The following year their lovely colours and scent remain, but the flowers are displayed looser and a little smaller, making very pretty, informal clumps. Like this, they are well worth growing and I plan to try some this year (well, next).

Leslie, when you go hyacinth buying, look for the modern Festival hyacinths. The ones I know are marketed as Festival White, Festival Blue and Festival Pink. They only form loose, informal spikes and several of them - no need to wait a year or two for the big guys to slow down. And this habit is genetic - these are not the same as the hyacinths marketed in the past as Cynthella hyacinths (which were simply small bulbs of standard varieties).

I've been collecting garden hyacinths in a small way for several years now: there have always been some in the garden, but lately I find myself very fond of them. The colors of modern hyacinths are sometimes marvelous, and the fragrance is reason enough to have them. They do well under our conditions and persist indefinitely.

[Lesley Cox]

Thanks Jim, I'll keep an eye out for those.

[Lvandelft]

Lesley,
Jim means multi-flowering hyacinths like the French Roman Hyacinthus which were available in “our old” days.
I think you will remember those. These new hybrids resemble the old-fashioned type.
These bulbs of  'Festival' hyacinths are very reliable and give 10 to 20  stems.
I'll make a picture when I see them.

Just the names Jim mentioned, are the other way around: White Festival, etc.

[Lvandelft]

This week I start with a picture of an Arum wich smells reasonable.

Arum creticum 

Some close-ups of Hippeastrum out of the Hippeastrum Group I showed last week.                                   
             
Hippeastrum Rebecca                                 
Hippeastrum Santa Rosa                     
Hippeastrum Santiago                       

Hyacinthus Yellow Creation

There was some discussion about multiflowering Hyacinths.
Yesterday there was an entry with several seedlings

Hyacinthus Fairy Type Seedlings                 

Scilla hohenackeri                                 

The next plant was probably shown for the first time ever in Holland:

Tropaeolum azureum 1                       
Tropaeolum azureum 2                 

And a nice pot with Corydalis (amateur entry..  )

Corydalis solida ssp. solida George Baker   

 

[ranunculus]

Lovely images (as always), Luit!

[Jim McKenney]

Lesley,
Jim means multi-flowering hyacinths like the French Roman Hyacinthus which were available in “our old” days.
I think you will remember those. These new hybrids resemble the old-fashioned type.
These bulbs of  'Festival' hyacinths are very reliable and give 10 to 20  stems.
I'll make a picture when I see them.

Just the names Jim mentioned, are the other way around: White Festival, etc.

Luit, thanks for the remarks about the names of the Festival hyacinths. The dealer from whom I obtained my bulbs lists them as I did, Festival Blue, Festival White and Festival Pink. However, I checked two other American bulb catalogs, and they give the names as you do.

Your comments answer a question I had when I first saw these names: Festival Blue sounds as if it might be a name for any blue flowered Festival hyacinth, and I wondered if bulbs supplied under this name might in fact have other registered names but were too scarce to be marketed individually. Thanks to your remarks I now know that 'Blue Festival' is the name of a particular clone.

Now on to what I meant: I did mean the "cynthella" hyacinths. For those of you who do not know the term, these were simply very small bulbs of standard hyacinths; they produced smaller, less dense spikes of bloom. If you have ever seen run down hyacinths in old gardens, you have an idea of what they were like.  The cynthella hyacinths were not multiflowering.

What the Festival hyacinths and the old French Roman hyacinths have in common is that they are multiflowering (i.e. multiple scapes arise from one bulb). However, to my eyes, the Festival hyacinths resemble the cynthella hyacinths more than they do the old French Roman hyacinths. The old French Roman and Roman hyacinths had flowers widely spaced on the stalk; and the flowers were slender and with narrow tepals. The modern Festival hyacinths have comparatively full spikes of bloom.

So, to those who place primary importance on the multiflowering characteristic, the Festival hyacinths resemble the old French Roman hyacinths. But to those of us who primarily see the overall inflorescence, the Festival hyacinths suggest the cynthella hyacinths.

In my garden I have had for over forty years a blue flowered hyacinth (received as "Hyacinthus rommanus" [sic]) which is apparently one of the old French Roman or Roman hyacinths. It is intensely fragrant. The blue flowers are widely spaced on the stalk. This plant begins to sprout very early in the year, and in a bad winter the foliage is damaged. If you think modern garden hyacinths are beautiful, you will think this one is pathetic. But it is worth having for its fragrance.

My stock is badly run down and has not bloomed for several years. This year I moved it to the protected cold frame where is seems to be bulking up nicely. Perhaps next year I will be able to post a photo. I did place an image of this plant on the Pacific Bulb Society wiki years ago and it can be seen here:

http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/Hyacinthus

Can anyone tell me if the cultivar 'Borah' is still in commerce?