Hi Janet!
Mention of your holey greenhouse brings back memories of Sherleft and his nemesis, the Amazing Pard, the glorywhatsit, you, the UGO, Chumbucket, that spaceship - PROFOFPARD?, Watson (where has raydio been, anyway?) and the feline guard.

Also saw your interview featured here on cubits: very nice!

I see you have as your avatar photo, your pic with the giant dahlia (Dahlia imperialis). I wonder if Dahlianut has ever seen that!

Rick

Hi Rick!

Lol! Now I can't quite remember what those intials PROFOFPARD stand for! I'll have to look it up, maybe copy the lot while I can. What fun that was! I'll have to try contacting Robert, he drifted away from the other place as I did.

If dahlianut hasn't seen my Di, she will soon! It's still growing in the ground next to the south wall, I even got good sized buds last year. The frosts didn't arrive until mid December which is unusual, but boy did they arrive in style. We had 3 months of constant hard frosts, not as hard as you might get but many down to -8C night after night with days at freezing or barely above. It didn't improve much until at least mid April! That proves I can get buds, I doubt I would get flowers with our winters and the lateness of them unless I had it in a greenhouse then it's still unlikely, and I would need a chimney on a greenhouse to take the height! Fun to grow though.

OK, I have noticed that gloriowhatsit look alike! Can it be trusted? Does it flower every year for you? I might have to start bringing mine inside over winter to get flowers! Extremely nice!

Oh yes, that interview spotlight thing, watch out Nancy's about!

I had another nice cross of yours flower this year, looks like a species I don't remember the name of but it's gorgeous. I think I got the name off the label of the cross, some have nearly faded away. I'll dig it up from my folders another time.

Janet, after the winter we had, I feel pretty confident the Agapanthus would survive your winters just fine, as long as they have good drainage. Our average temperature for January was 24.8F (-4C), we had weeks of constant temps well below freezing. Oh, and I forgot to mention the Pineapple Lily seeds did well, they look like they will be blooming size next year!

Those Eucomis just keep doing well! I have some from seed but they need repotting. Others I have made lots of seed last year but I just don't know what I would do with them all so I left them, some have set themselves in other pots!

Our spring doesn't warm up like yours does though Neal, and summers are often a complete washout. This summer has been good, but today I don't think the temp has hardly risen above 12C, at midday that's what it was with rain. Two years ago it was the norm to have temps in summer from 12-16C, it rarely rose above that. Still it's worth a try if I ever develop that spot.

And warm up it surely did this spring- in June we started getting temps in the 90s, and have been consistently ever since- high humidity and heat index of 100-110F has kept me out of the garden most of the summer. My gardens look dreadful right now. The good thing is the tropicals have been really happy, 3 Brugs are blooming their hearts out and others are budding, and various aroids look better than they have in a few years.

I covet dahlia imperialis

Lilium speciosum var. gloriosoides grew from a small bought bulb. It was so small that, even for a species, I never dreamed it would produce a bud, but id did. I overwintered the bulb in the fridge, still in the pot it grew in, but apparently not dried out enough, because it rotted away. A major bummer.

I have a few seeds now from a special guy. I'm very excited to try 'em again.

The original had nice pincers...

what does one say when one has lost a Gloriowhatsits. I wonder if the pot had seen daylight it might have been better.
They have been available here and quite cheap too, now I'm tempted to see if I can get another to see if I can get flowers on both and get seeds. You're starting me off again Rick, and I was being so good!

I should bring in L. auratum, it's been getting belted by rain and I imagine the pots will be very wet, even though the drainage is very good it might not do them any good. The flowers on the other stem have opened now, they are drooping but would last better in the greenhouse and have a chance of getting seed. Insects have probably already done the job of pollination, the weather today will kill a lot of them!

I just dug up a pic of one of your crosses Rick, the same one which flowered last year, Lilium davidii x willmottiae and it's still in an 8" pot! Next year it will be it's turn to get a transplant.. most of the others are still in pots and doing OK, maybe better kept in pots than in the ground.

One of Connie's Asiatic 'species type'.

Another of two of the Lilium davidii x willmottiae

This I meant to get the name of the cross but haven't, I think the name is visible but I couldn't remember it. It's the one which reminds me of that species I don't rmember the name of. I guess I could look it up!

The colour hues don't quite show up, it is gorgeous in person!

i dream of gloriosoides blooming one day!the seeds are potted in a six-pack eski[very safely] in the garage window,..,i 'should 'employ a big security officer to stand next to them,because they are as rare as rocking h/s here. i would love some ciliatum as well,but all investigations so far have failed[it is a fine looking flower too].you cant have everything!-anthony,.,.,.,.-,.,..heres my davidii/willmottaieeee

My gosh, those are all so lovely!

I looked at last years pics, I have one with seedlings growing which is Lilium maculatum var. wilsonii so that's what the last one I posted is! Sown on 25th January 2008.

Hi there anthony Gloriosoides (sure!), how's the weather in Tassie? I'll bet you're warmer in winter there than we are in summer here at the moment! Hey your davidii/willmottaieeee is nice rich colour too, nice shape.

Here's my pot of seedlings last year on 25th March of Lilium maculatum var. wilsonii.

its a 'still gloomy day'-we had 4 inches of rain on tuesday,just enough to bend the 'show daffodils''-if i can manage to drag myself away from this computer,i will go and free up a box of 'greisbach' orienpet seedlings,that could easily be mistaken for a box of weeds,..,im ashamed i let it get so bad

Lol, we don't get that much in a day as a rule, had about 20mm over a day. We did get around 6" in the space of 3 days 2 or 3 years back, everywhere was flooding. I was scouring properties for sale in Tassie after two years of cold summers here, could have been jumping out the frying pan into the fire.

I feel better now, I did pot maculatum var. wilsonii into a much larger pot but didn't separate the bulbs, they have plenty of space.

I may as well post a pic of L. auratum here now I've started.. they are not looking too bad after the rain.

This was two days ago (before rain), I had propped both stems up against the Crocosmia (seed grown from Lucifer which disappeared), they were bending down near to the ground. I guess they were better up there than wiping their noses on the ground in the rain.

That's so gorgeous.

I've been going to ask, and keep forgetting. What are those raised red areas on the lilies called?

They are called papillae. I'm really hoping these will make seed, I have two stems and 5 flowers, hoping the rain hasn't affected seed set.

I looked at last years pics, I have one with seedlings growing which is Lilium maculatum var. wilsonii so that's what the last one I posted is! hurray Sown on 25th January 2008.

Yes Janet, definitely, you are right.
And to keep your records straight, the others are an open pollinated cross with Lilium davidii var. wilmottiae as the pod parent. Very nice, BTW. I remember your other pics from last year, too.

I have several good looking pods of known parentage on LDW this year. We'll see if the seed looks good too.

On the other hand, last fall, when I looked at the individual seeds of a cross of L. taliense x L. lijiangense, there seemed to be only 2 or 3 viable seeds in a pod with a lot of chaff. But I planted everything the following spring and 25 came up!

no janet,you would have been doing tasmania a favour,.,if you can produce a lilium like that,hell,i'll even help you look for a house.,.,.but make sure you load up with thousands of seeds,before you move.,.,.'actually,theres a 3 story house,just up from me,'bit of a yard,good for about a 1000 pots'.//.//.brilliant views..,.-anthony