Sternbergia autumn 2012

[pehe]

Tony, what a nice Sternbergia corner you have in your glass house!
Gerry and Melvyn, a very interesting greuteriana. I like these tiny flowers.
Kris, nice to see lutea flowering in your garden!

Poul

[pontus]

A bit of sun and warmth was all my sternbergias needed to finally get going here!

My best clump of sternbergia lutea ssp angustifolia has 38 flowers as I write. This clump has been in the same spot for almost 5 years in full sun and slightly clayish poor soil in full sun. The bulbs must be extremely crowded, but the ground is so hard and they are growing in between ground tiles which makes these bulbs hard to dig up. However, they dont seem to mind being crowded, and flower much more profusely than the bulbs I devided in june, dry stored over summer and then replanted...

also attatched is a slow growing but very nice form from greece with large flattened flowers and strange looking bulbs that are almost like a fattened small pear in shape. I wish this form cold make a nice clump like my angustifolias!

and finally, one of my favourites also just opened, the fabulous sternbergia clusiana, what a beauty!

Pontus

[Gerry Webster]

Pontus - very nice Sternbergias. It would be helpful if you identified the plants in the photos.

[pontus]

yes, i just noticed that my labels did not transfer when i exported the images to a new file for uploading on the forum, so here are the names :

First 2 images : sternbergia lutea ssp angustifolia
2nd 2 : sternbergia clusiana
next 2 : sternbergia lutea ex greece
last image : sternbergia lutea ssp angustifolia clump

[Maren]

Hi,
I've just seen some Sternbergia lutea bulbs for sale at a garden centre. One or two were in flower in the packet.
Surely, these must be last year's bulbs that are being sold at the wrong time? What do you think?

[mark smyth]

Maren they are always in garden centres at this time of year

[Maren]

Mark, my point is, if they are normally flowering around this time, should one not expect to buy them when they are dormant in the summer before they start making any growth? I wouldn't expect to buy tulip bulbs in April.

[pehe]

Pontus, nice Sternbergias! Great to see clusiana in flower, a species which have not flowered for me yet.

A few more is flowering now:

Sternbergia greuteriana ex Karpathos
Sternbergia sicula Bisceglie
Sterbergia lutea ex Iran

Poul

[krisderaeymaeker]

Great show Pontus and Poul!
Green to envy , here not much happens ....

[pontus]

thanks Kris and Poul, yes, its nice to have clusiana in flower. Its a shame that its so slow growing and does not really ever form any offsets!

I agree with you Maren, that sternbergias should only be sold from the end of june to perhaps the end of august at the latest, during their proper dormancy period, for planting in late summer and proper flowering at the right time.

But this is always a problem....maybe the dutch suppliers or garden centres do not want to spend extra shipping costs by having sternbergias sent separetely from all other bulbs....but i am always astounded to see autumn crocus and colchicum, as well as sternbergias being sold in october/november in garden centres, as you say, flowering in the bags, and in quite poor shape. Even some mail order companies only start sending out sternbergias in late august/early september, and autumn crocus by mid september, with long shoots, when these should be planted by mid august for best establishment.

i find that even "cold stored" autumn flowering bulbs planted late never do as well at least in their first season with me as autumn bulbs dry stored and planted at the correct time...

[Maren]

Thank you, Pontus, I'm glad we are thinking along the same lines.

[Paul T]

Maren,

They do the same here..... selling them with flowers already starting.  Same with Nerines, autumn crocus species etc as well.

[hadacekf]

Sternbergia sicula  still flowering.

[Oron Peri]

This is such a rarity, i don't think a photo has ever been seen on the net before.
Sternbergia schubertii HKEP9819
Collected by E. Pasche & H. Kerndorf at Locus classicus back in 1998.
It has a tiny sessile flower smaller even than S. colchiciflora.

[Melvyn Jope]

Oron many thanks for showing Sterbergia schubertii, I have never seen an image of this interesting plant before.