{"id":3887,"date":"2014-02-19T22:37:20","date_gmt":"2014-02-20T03:37:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/macgardens.org\/?p=3887"},"modified":"2014-02-19T22:37:20","modified_gmt":"2014-02-20T03:37:20","slug":"ferraria-ferrariola-arrives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/macgardens.org\/?p=3887","title":{"rendered":"Ferraria ferrariola Arrives!"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Ferraria<\/a>

Ferraria ferrariola<\/p><\/div>\n

I first saw an image of Ferraria ferrariola while trolling through the pictures at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s South African Bulbs Collection<\/a>. \u00a0It was a revelation to me that a flower could be some closely modeled to the fractal images of mathematics. \u00a0The flower petals curl and then recurl. \u00a0Ferraria are all South African natives in the Iris Family and named in honor of the Italian botanist who first described them in the 1600’s. \u00a0There are 15 species in the genus, mostly in the winter rainfall\/summer dry areas of South Africa, and all are said to be frost-sensitive. \u00a0For those of us in the U.S. who do not live in Southern California, these are definitely greenhouse plants. \u00a0I ordered two plants from Annie’s Annuals<\/a> last winter as soon as I found them as a source. \u00a0The plants were a good size when they arrived but alas they did not flower. \u00a0One is budding up at the moment but the plant that is flowering now actually came from Telos Rare Bulbs<\/a> as just a corm that I planted this September. \u00a0The flowers last only a day or two and are only two inches or less across but their infinite complexity invites closer inspection. \u00a0Some of the species are described foul-smelling but I found no such issue with ferrariola. \u00a0As you can well imagine I am delighted to finally see flowers from this little rarity.<\/p>\n

\"Ferraria<\/a>

Ferraria ferrariola<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Ferraria<\/a>

Ferraria ferrariola from above<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Ferraria<\/a>

Ferraria ferrariola with one open and one closing flower<\/p><\/div>\n

I have four other Ferraria species in various stages of growth from seed and corms obtained from the Pacific Bulb Society’s<\/a> bulb exchanges. \u00a0By the way, I need to comment that despite its name the Pacific Bulb Society is international in scope. \u00a0No other organization that I’ve been involved with has so many experts ready and willing to offer seed, bulbs, and information. \u00a0The PBS wiki is THE online source of bulb information. \u00a0If rare and exotic bulbs are interesting to you at all, you must joint the PBS…(end of commercial).<\/p>\n

At the same time the last of my Oxalis species has come into flower and it’s a particularly gorgeous double.<\/p>\n

\"Oxalis<\/a>

Oxalis compressa double form<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Oxalis<\/a>

Oxalis compressa double form<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Oxalis<\/a>

Oxalis compressa double<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Oxalis<\/a>

Oxalis compressa double form with two buds open<\/p><\/div>\n

This lovely Oxalis is another contribution from last year’s order from Telos Rare Bulbs. \u00a0Between Telos and the Pacific Bulb Society’s bulb exchanges I have at least a dozen Oxalis species and varieties now.<\/p>\n

Lastly, let me note that I think I have solved a plant puzzle that has been bugging me since last spring when one of the seed exchange packets from NARGS produced a yellow flower rather than the purple that was described for the packet. \u00a0Definitely not the Boechera koehleri that was on the label. It was easy from seed and very fast growing. \u00a0It flowered essentially all year and the one in the greenhouse is flowering still. \u00a0Suggestions from two sources led me to look at wallflowers as a possible ID. \u00a0After reviewing the NARGS seed lists I think my best guess is now Cascade wallflower.<\/p>\n

\"Erysimum<\/a>

Erysimum arenicola<\/p><\/div>\n

If anyone has a better suggestion, I’m open to possibilities. \u00a0In addition to identifying it, I need to propagate some more. \u00a0It’s a winner.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I first saw an image of Ferraria ferrariola while trolling through the pictures at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s South African Bulbs Collection. \u00a0It was a revelation to me that a flower could be some closely modeled to the fractal images of mathematics. \u00a0The flower petals curl and then recurl. \u00a0Ferraria are all South African natives in the Iris Family and named in honor of the Italian botanist who first described them in the 1600’s. \u00a0There are 15 species in the genus, mostly in the winter rainfall\/summer dry areas of South Africa, and all are said to be frost-sensitive. \u00a0For those […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[43,4,34,8],"tags":[11,38,53,42],"class_list":["post-3887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bulbs","category-flowers","category-greenhouse","category-sources","tag-bulbs","tag-flowers","tag-greenhouse","tag-sources"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/macgardens.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/macgardens.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/macgardens.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/macgardens.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/macgardens.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3887"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/macgardens.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3887\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3897,"href":"http:\/\/macgardens.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3887\/revisions\/3897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/macgardens.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/macgardens.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/macgardens.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}