Gleni said:As promised. Lots of blooms are up for Freesia laxa. The only common name I can find for it is FALSE FREESIA.

• Freesia (Freesia laxa subsp. laxa)
• Uploaded by Gleni

I love this!

So nice to see daffs now! Paul, those are outstanding!

Love the false freesia Glen!

@CarolineScott, Caroline, sorry to hear that daffs don't always do well for you in your zone.I guess if they are 3 metres under snow at the wrong time, they would struggle.Is that the case?If so, the later emerging ones would be the way to go.I had snow on my daffs when I had the cherry orchard in Tasmania, but it wasn't a great deal, only about 30cms.Division 9, the poets are all mostly late emergers.All my daffs are bred from Irish (the best), English, Kiwi and Tasmanian cultivars.The American ones are more colourful, but not smooth enough for me.
My average winter temp is about 7 c (guess) and the lowest might be 3c (guess) and we have no frost here.I don't chill any daffodil bulbs, but do have a commercial size fridge for some liliums and used to use the fridge for blooms for showing, but that was a long way back.Daffs that do well overseas doesn't mean they will necessarily do well elsewhere.Daffs that don't get a good dry spell in summer, may rot.If you cut off the leaves after flowering without letting them die back naturally, they probably won't flower the following year.Just a few thoughts--I've never grown in a freezing temp zone.

Thanks for that vote of confidence Neal.In the Spring, I still love just a plain ole yellow daff, well, maybe not too plain.

This is such a beautiful little bulb, Geissorhiza aspera

It's beautiful, Paul. Spring flowering? There's no photo of it in the database - why don't you upload yours?

G'day Mika--have just requested it to be included in the data base--thanks for the prompt!
It sure is spring flowering and so easy to grow!

I already did a search here and I can't see it for sale either in England or in France. Pity!

You could get seed from Silverhill Seeds in South Africa, very easy to germinate, may flower in two years, Mika.They have a terrific catalogue.

Thanks, Paul - I'll investigate.

A couple more of my Hippie DRAMMY buds have opened. They are quite beautiful for something that tends to be mostly leafless during the colder months. Being a daylily addict, it is a new sensation seeing the same flower looking good for several days.
But I don't want to be seduced by hippies. The bulbs seem to be expensive and the daylily addiction is already not cheap.

That's a nice hippie!

I do wish we could grow hippies outside over winter here. Lovely!

A VERY nice hippie!

Sigh!! The hippie era, wonderful music, a time of revolution by gentle people with a social conscious.
--
And then there were Bluebells!
Front garden

I love bluebells - although in England there's quite a bit of controversy about Spanish bluebells (which I think yours are) which are endangering the less vigorous, old-fashioned English bluebells by cross-pollinating with them and crowding them out. Personally I think both are beautiful, although it would be a shame if we were to lose our traditional bluebells.

Beautiful photo Paul! I love the wallflower with the bluebells!

Mika, I've read English bluebells prefer milder summer temps that KY can offer but I've always wanted to try them. Spanish bluebells grow easily here, but I'd love the added benefit of fragrance. Do you know if the cross of the two is fragrant?

A delightful image of those beautiful bluebells, Paul.

Mika, I tried english bluebells under trees in the garden, but so far those few bulbs are far from making such an impressive statements as the bluebell woods in the UK. I'm not totally convinced they like my sandy soil and the numerous weeds

My gladiolas are just starting. I am unsure what this one is. I suspect it is the cultivar that is widespread and feral on the island. I dug up some bulbs last year and bought it into the garden. Surprisingly, the bulbs are not easy to dig up. I assume it is an old hybrid whose identity is lost in time and space.

When the feral ones start flowering I will confirm it is that one. It looks quite red from a distance.

I know this is not a bulb but I found it growing in amongst the stones of my garden path. It must be 4 years since I last grew portulacas.


I dug up some lovely purple freesias yesterday that are also feral in someone's lawn in an area at the top of the island. The bulbs were down quite a distance too. At least 5 inches in solid soil. Alas I forgot to photograph them before I started digging.

These came in a packet for my 65th birthday a couple of months ago...

The three bulbs were labelled:

Arabs Eye, Black Pearl Lily.

I cannot find anything in the database to associate them with. Any ideas?

They are very pretty.



Added later: the database picture and identification after the wonderful people following told me where to go.

I googled it and judging from the search results it seems Ornithogalum arabicum often is sold in Australia as Arabs Eye or Black Pearl Lily. I can't say for sure if that is what you really have from the photo, but they do look similar.