Try This One in Pink

Those hardy souls at the US National Arboretum  have been out in the wilds collecting plants again!  The new plant is Lycoris incarnata, (similar in shape to the plant pictured left, L. aurea), which has a pale rose-pink flower with a dark red or maroon strip down the middle of the petal. According to Arboretum horticulturist Carole Bordelon, scientists are still waiting for the bulb to bloom before it is planted out in the garden.
The bulb, commonly called the surprise lily, was brought back from Jeju Island off the coast of South Korea by a team of scientists led by research horticulturist Mark Roh.  The bulb was previously thought to grow natively only in China, but it is thriving as well in wild habitats in S. Korea. The scientists say it is possible that the bulb was brought to Korea from China, but so far they've found no evidence supporting that theory.

(photo: ARS, USDA)
(click on image for larger view)

Another new introduction is the cape milkwort, (Polygala myrtifolia), discovered by US plant geneticist Alan Meerow, while hiking in South Africa. Meerow works in Miami at the Subtropical Horticulture Research Station of the USDA's Agricultural Research Service.  Scientists arranged to purchase seed of the South African native from a company licensed to collect native plants, studied it for two years, selected one seedling with superior attributes, and named the variety 'Chapman Field.'  This plant is hardy in sub-tropical zones 9B-11, has small clusters of purple blooms that flower throughout the year, and bright green, glossy leaves roughly 2 inches long and 1.5 inches wide.  The shrub reaches a height of about 4 feet, making it a perfect, showy candidate for small gardens. The plant's been made available to commercial growers, so look for it in nurseries -- and a display should soon be on view at the Fairchild Tropical Botanical Garden in Coral Gables.  Sounds like a winner.

(photo: ARS, USDA)
(click on image for larger view)

Comments

[Andrew Spark]

Thank you for the information here. I really enjoyed the articles about roses. It is good to find a gardening site for our area.

[Wholesale Flowers]

I saw about the bolbs only thought to be found in china and suprisingly enough there are so many flowers that people think there is only in one country but they are also in another and in fact several.