What is your thought on this?

It did not bloom last year that I know of and I do not know what this is. I tend to sneak in bulbs when my Dh is not paying attention and then forget what it is I planted.

How big is it? Looks like a Scilla of some sort - maybe Scilla peruviana? I know it's blooming somewhat early, but it might be because your climate is warmer. Take a look here for various Scilla species, including S. peruviana: http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/Scilla

No I do not think It is a scilla. The stalk is really thick. I will take pictures of the whole thing tomorrow and post.

Some of the larger Scilla species, like S. natalensis (now Merwilla plumbea), have very thick stems.

I think we will be waiting for blooms then. S. natalensis would be a nice surprise although I do not remember buying that one :o)

The inflorescence certainly looks like a Scilla though, doesn't it? And I can't think of any others that are similar.

Yep I was thinking the same thing but the only scilia I recall buying was S. peruviana and I think I killed that one.

Well, guess we'll have to wait and see. When it blooms you could put it on the ID forum and see what all those experts have to say. It's amazing how quickly they come up with positive IDs.

Here is a picture of the whole plant. It almost looks like my crinum at the bottom

Closer picture of the buds

Have you purchased any Ornithogalum or Albuca? There are some large species in both genera, and for some reason the closeup reminds me of these.

I can't wait for the flowers to open up!

Nope but I kept wanting to say it looked like an onion and I knew that was not right it is a ornithogalum that it reminds me of!! Thanks for getting my head straight on that.

You're welcome. I'm kinda glad you haven't purchased them - that's two that we can count out of this puzzle. LOL!

I had the same thought as faeden, about the base of those looking exactly like crinum lilies, but I don't recall seeing any buds like that on them. I can't wait to see what blooms.

(By the way, I pulled out the crinum lilies eventually. The effect of the flowers didn't seem worthwhile, in proportion to the huge mounds and fountains of foliage. The bulbs are so huge and they had spread like crazy. It was a chore--more of a battle -- to get them out.)

It still has not bloomed. Our temps have dropped almost 20 degrees over the last few days. As soon as there is a bloom I will post a picture.This one is making me crazy.

I have quite a few crinums. I need to move a few more after they bloom this year.

Fianlly the buds are open. Albucca of some sort?

Yep, definitely an Albuca. Don't know which one, though. Maybe A. nelsonii? It's one of the larger Albucas.

Well this one is huge. I think I have another coming up in a different part of the garen and I am begining to think some traded or sold me a wrong bulb.

What were you supposed to get instead? Here are a couple of good links to A. nelsonii:

http://www.plantzafrica.com/plantab/albucnelson.htm
http://www.smgrowers.com/products/plants/plantdisplay.asp?plant_id=2307

I grow Ornithogalum magnum which yours is not, but I love it, so I was curious about your mystery plant. Could it be
Ornithogalum battenianum aka Albuca batteniana? I was looking for it when I came across this site. Your plant is not on it, but the photos are amazing, especially the close ups. Remarkable. Patti

http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/indexmag.html?http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/artfeb06/bj-ornitho.html

It's unlikely to be A. batteniana because this Albuca is considered to be rare and a collector's species. That means it's not easily obtainable, and if you had one you would have purposefully purchased it and would remember where you planted it and what its name is. A. nelsonii, on the other hand, is much more available.

A. nelsonii flowers look like what it is. I hav eno clue what I was supposed to get in place of this, I gave up a long time ago on markers in the garden but I just know this is not one I was interested in adding to my collection.

Albuca batteniana is interesting and I can see why someone would want it. But there is a definite difference in the growth compared to mine.

Well, I'm glad you figured it out even though you didn't order it. Sometimes these nurseries send you plants that are totally different than what you ordered.

I was at a specialty nursery a few years ago and saw a large pot of a lot of bulbs which were marked Ornithogalum. I didn't know what they were (they looked like Massonia), but I knew they weren't Ornithogalum. So I bought them cheap and brought them home, and found out they were some kind of Lachenalia! Now I've never seen a Lachenalia with bluish-green leaves that lay flat on the surface and have light veining and red margins, have you? If you have, please let me know because to this day I still don't know which Lachenalia it is!

I got really tired of losing markers too, so I buried one with each plant I needed to remember. That's helped me a lot.

I have started doing that too. How funny. But only in the last couple of months so I am sure I will have a lot of unidentified stuff for along time to come.

I was at a specialty nursery a couple of weeks ago and they had some SA bulbs but none were marked correctly and the person working there knew less than I did about the bulbs. I can tell you so far 5 out of 8 pots I bought were labeled wrong.

This message was edited Mar 29, 2010 9:41 AM

That doesn't surprise me at all. Unless you buy from a known SA bulb source (think Jim Duggan, Rare Exotics, Silverhill Seeds) you're going to find this. It's astonishing how ignorant nursery people are when it comes to these easy-to-grow bulbs.