Up, up and not away!

I've germinated several species of Rhodophiala under lights in my unheated garage with no problem at all - advena, elwesii, serotina, and rhodolirion (all seed from Jim and Jenny Archibald in Wales). Advena flowered this fall and the second generation of seedlings is up now. I grow them exactly like zephyranthes and habranthus - sow in moist potting mix, cover with grit, water in gently and place the entire pot in a zip-lock bag until germination begins. The next step is to experiment with outside growing. R. bifida and spathacea have flourished outside here for several years, but the other species have different needs, so may be more difficult to accomodate. Here's a link (which you probably have already) to some more detailed info regarding habitats of individual species. http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/Rhodophiala Would love some advice on wintering Proiphys; I got a large bulb last spring that produced gorgeous foliage this summer (I think it would be a great sub for Hosta in hot, humid climates like ours), and appears to be settling into dormancy right now. My instinct is to treat it like Eucharis amazonica, but that's just a hunch based on similar morphology. Not much info available on this one, at least in my experience. Here is a link that might be useful: Pacific bulb society (Rhodophiala)

At first, I think my husband didn't quite understand... but now, he's my enabler! Any time I exclaim over a rare bulb or a new variety that I don't have, he asks me how much and where should he send the funds, if we can afford it! I think he's almost as excited as I am when something special begins to open blooms! Last year, I couldn't imagine trading or giving up any of my bulbs, but now, I'm so crowded with pots of bulbs and plants that I have no choice! If I want to get anything new, I have to make space for it! I'm actually re-potting my duplicates so they're all in the same pots together, and I've stopped collecting some of the more common items I'd ordinarily get. Regular houseplants are out of the question... no room! I have one spider plant, but that's in a hanging basket, and one African Violet. As soon as it stops blooming, it's off to someone else who can make it bloom or has the room for it! I'm serious... this is one addiction I didn't count on getting or having, though I'm very glad I do! I love bulbs and their forgiving nature... as long as I don't over water or allow them to freeze, they keep on growing and blooming for me! And I can go away for a week and they don't even flinch. They almost thrive on neglect! Of course, they're all indoors, so I don't worry about the sun or winds drying them out. But yes... it's a disease... there is no cure, but who wants one?! I'm totally happy to keep collecting and growing and breeding Amaryllids! THIS is what I'll do in retirement!

Can't say I disagree with any of that. And if, by being in perhaps a bit too much of a hurry to explain myself, I gave the impression that any non-native plant is therefore a weed, well, I also didn't mean that! In my conception, weeds are annual, biennial or perennial plants which are here in N. America solely due to man's influence-primarily agriculture-and which depend upon the constant disturbance that is human civilization for their success. In this conception, a dandelion is a weed. Try to picture the fate of that species if today-right now-all human activity ceased: Sure, there'd be dandelions all over creation, and probably for years to come. But in time, the increasing height of whatever vegetation was left to take over would shade out the surface and make life impossible for dandelions. Maybe not the best example since seeds would still be around for quite some time, and whenever wind or fire cleared an area, dandelions could recolonize that spot. But even seeds don't last forever. In the complete absence of human activity, in time, dandelions would die out. Now I will readily admit, the existence today of so many non-native, exotic invasives all over the place will tend to distort this neat package. I don't believe common buckthorn, for one example, will ever be totally gone from the continent. It's just way too shade-tolerant. So there's that, and I do certainly consider common buckthorn to be a weed, as well as a scourge and a few other choice words I could sprinkle in here! Meanwhile, the 6 or 8 thousand Norway spruce I've planted up on my land in N. Wisconsin, along with other tree types....I do not consider weeds. So, somebody sure could poke holes in my definition. But again, in my conception-and it's not just "mine"-weeds are associated with agriculture...not having had any other mans of getting here, let alone becoming so successful. One of the things I do for my job is work with our city's stormwater engineers, helping to manage our large number of sites. Before I got onboard with this group, they had been led down the "native vegetation" pathway, which at least in the upper midwest always means only one thing-prairies! So even though this part of Wisconsin was heavily forested prior to European civilization getting here, quite a number of practitioners can't think of any plant community type when the words native vegetation are uttered. So a huge part of my goal has been to expand this concept. We plant pockets of things like tamarack and N. white cedar trees, we install red-osier dogwood shrubs-all things that are, in my conception, far more "native" than the prairie plant community which after all, is really more a southern or central plains thing. There were pockets of prairie up here, not so much where I'm at, but to our south and west, but these were ALL here because of the practice of Indians setting the land ablaze. So, what's really "natural"? I better quit. Obviously, I could write about this stuff all day! But I was going to say, to many of the folks viewing one of our prairie plantings (not prairie "restorations", please), all they see are weeds. They are not correct, just because they don't understand what they're looking at. +oM