Miscellaneous spring bulbs 2012

[cohan]

Your late bloomers, and my earliest things are only up a couple of inches...lol Nice tulips!
I have seedlings of sprengeri to find a place to plant this year...

[bulborum]

I have seedlings of sprengeri to find a place to plant this year...

Here the first flower-buds from T. sprengeri are just visible
I love this late tulip
you don't expect tulip flowers so late

Also Tulipa Ice Cream just starts colouring
I still don't know if I like it
It is so ugly that maybe I like it

Roland

[Hoy]

Ice cream or lollipop? It is a sweet thing anyway

[cohan]

I guess too soon to say what 'Ice Cream' will look like.... Tulips are one of the few types of flowers that I don't mind seeing (some)outrageous foms on, (maybe because they are in old Dutch paintings!) although I'm not sure what I would do with them in the garden (probably nothing, unless I had a bed just for 'cottage garden' type flowers)...

[bulborum]

I will post in a few weeks a proper picture
less pale and as a real ice cream

Roland

[RickR]

Sometimes we garden according to necessity, and not in compliance with plant growth schedules: I decided I needed to rid this part of the garden of infesting Quack grass where Tulipa tarda was clearly not wanting to go dormant yet.  

            A pic taken of the tulips back on 24 April.
          

I was quite surprised (1 May) to see how much the new bulbs had already formed for the following year.  The flowers hardly had time to dry up, and next years sprouts were already well formed.

        

[cohan]

Always interesting to see what's going on with parts of plants we can't see!

[Hoy]

Sometimes we garden according to necessity, and not in compliance with plant growth schedules: I decided I needed to rid this part of the garden of infesting Quack grass where Tulipa tarda was clearly not wanting to go dormant yet.  
A pic taken of the tulips back on 24 April.
        
I was quite surprised (1 May) to see how much the new bulbs had already formed for the following year.  The flowers hardly had time to dry up, and next years sprouts were already well formed.

I've often seen it on the wild onion here (Allium vineale). They form new bulbs very early. I think they play safe and store energy for next year as quickly as they can in case the weather gets bad (drought for instance).

[RickR]

Just yesterday I cooked with our native wild Prairie onion, Allium stellatum (freshly dug), and my last Lilium davidii bulb held over in the fridge from last fall.   Too early for that allium to show new bulb growth.  It'll be a long time before it flowers in mid summer.  Trond, does Allium vineale  go dormant in summer?

[Hoy]

Just yesterday I cooked with our native wild Prairie onion, Allium stellatum (freshly dug), and my last Lilium davidii bulb held over in the fridge from last fall.   Too early for that allium to show new bulb growth.  It'll be a long time before it flowers in mid summer.  Trond, does Allium vineale  go dormant in summer?

Rick, did you have the heart to eat it
And yes, A vineale goes dormant in summer. That is, the leaves wilt but the stem with a few flowers and lots of bulbils stays for all summer more or less green. When I was a child we played with it pretending it was real onions for dinner but we were never allowed to eat them. My grandma said they were poisonous.

More pictures of Scilla liliohyacinthus. I think I'll have some spare bulbs later if anybody is interested.

[RickR]

Rick, did you have the heart to eat it

Of Course!  Many lilies, like L. davidii, are quite robust.  There is really no need to coddle them to get them to reproduce, and this species is very easy to clean if the bulbs are not too old.

And yes, A vineale goes dormant in summer. That is, the leaves wilt but the stem with a few flowers and lots of bulbils stays for all summer more or less green. When I was a child we played with it pretending it was real onions for dinner but we were never allowed to eat them. My grandma said they were poisonous.

I wonder if that is true

I'd take seed of that Scilla, Trond, if you get any...

[McDonough]

Crow Garlic, Allium vineale, is edible.  There are reports of a number of species of Allium, including regular garlic or Allium sativum, of having some toxicity when eaten in large quantities. Allium vineale is found as an invasive in approximately 1/2 of North America, and is listed on many States noxiopus weeds lists.  It is very invasive here, and considered very difficult to eradicate.  It will infest lawns, where eradication is nearly impossible.  Bad onion!

http://www.pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Allium+vineale
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allium_vineale
http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=ALVI&mapType=nativity&photoID=alvi_002_ahp.tif

[Hoy]

Rick, did you have the heart to eat it

Of Course!  Many lilies, like L. davidii, are quite robust.  There is really no need to coddle them to get them to reproduce, and this species is very easy to clean if the bulbs are not too old.

And yes, A vineale goes dormant in summer. That is, the leaves wilt but the stem with a few flowers and lots of bulbils stays for all summer more or less green. When I was a child we played with it pretending it was real onions for dinner but we were never allowed to eat them. My grandma said they were poisonous.

I wonder if that is true

I'd take seed of that Scilla, Trond, if you get any...

I have found out that she was wrong, indeed! She said it to teach us not to eat unknown plants in general and she probably had in mind another similar plant usually found farther south which actually is toxic.

Seed shouldn't be difficult to get. I'll keep you in mind (I hope!)

[cohan]

That's a very pretty Scilla, Trond, very lush
I don't know Allium vineale, but that reminds me of my childhood- we were told almost all berries were poisonous- except the obvious wild raspberries and strawberries.. gooseberries not poisononous but we were told they were usually full of worms so leave them alone... (still not sure about that!).. same idea- too hard to be sure what a bunch of kids are eating in the fields and bush!

[bulborum]

Well Tulipa Ice-cream is a disaster
when you have a lot of rain
hope next year they look better

Roland