Scilla maderensis and Urginea maritima bulbs

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Paul S
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Re: Scilla maderensis and Urginea maritima bulbs

Post by Paul S »

MartinNicklin wrote: Wed Dec 03, 2025 8:15 am Great photos Paul but I didn’t know that Urginea can suffer with Peyronie’s disease!

That's on my search history now.
Chad wrote: Tue Dec 02, 2025 7:13 pm But I don't have a passport...
I know you were being silly about 'England' but suspect this may be true. You should.
MartinNicklin
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Re: Scilla maderensis and Urginea maritima bulbs

Post by MartinNicklin »

Someone on the FB group Bulborum told me today that bulbs from stock nearer to the sea flower more readily and that spraying the leaves with salty water might help. Apparently the soil they grow in in the wild bakes to rock hard clay with tourists breaking knives trying to get souvenir bulbs.
Paul S
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Re: Scilla maderensis and Urginea maritima bulbs

Post by Paul S »

Doesn't surprise me. To my shame I did try to lever one out of the ground with the tip of my walking pole once in the Tramuntana mountains of Mallorca - they grow over the entire island by the billion there from coast to coast. I gave up. Anything massively xeric is the same. Maybe not quite as exotic, but a damned fine plant nevetheless - there are enormous colonies of Sea Holly on the sand dunes at Shoeburyness, 10 miles east of - and even drier than - here. Worth repeating - it grows on sand dunes in the driest bit of England. Tough plant. Again, one time I attemtpted to remove a small seedling, it wasn't going to happen. I collected some seed, chucked that on the rubble of the new bit and have started off some that way, pleased to have such an emminently suitable and attractive native plant from local provenance growing here in between the cacti and agaves.

That might make a discussion - what natives to you grow alongside your exotics that you feel 'justify' their place?

My initial thoughts would be that the litoral ones might flower better but most probably be more tender but the range of this plant is huge and you'd exepct some variability, from being splashed by the sea to freezing in mountains.

Here a link to iNaturalist page of pictures - https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/118535 ... wse_photos which has to be one of the best on-line resources for seeing where and how plants grow in the wild. If you are familiar with these areas, and I go there lots on my hols, the notion that the soil needs to remain damp for these plants to flower can be summarily dismissed.
Chad
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Re: Scilla maderensis and Urginea maritima bulbs

Post by Chad »

Paul S wrote: Fri Dec 05, 2025 8:15 am The notion that the soil needs to remain damp for these plants to flower can be summarily dismissed.

It was advice specifically for them growing in pots. And it wasn't that they needed to stay 'damp' just not to desiccate completely.

Out of interest, since this isn't a plant I've grown, does it have deep questing roots that wouldn't 'quest' in a pot?

Chad
ian s
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Re: Scilla maderensis and Urginea maritima bulbs

Post by ian s »

I can’t get the link to copy, maybe it’s me or maybe the phone but there’s lots about U. maritima (as they call it) on janemming.com
It’s an American site and shows flowering plants in pots although with the rider that in the long term, flowering suffers. There’s pictures of the roots too.
Chad
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Re: Scilla maderensis and Urginea maritima bulbs

Post by Chad »

.

Thanks Ian,

I can link to the page, but for me there are no pictures showing.

Chad
Paul S
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Re: Scilla maderensis and Urginea maritima bulbs

Post by Paul S »

Chad wrote: Fri Dec 05, 2025 9:55 am
Paul S wrote: Fri Dec 05, 2025 8:15 am The notion that the soil needs to remain damp for these plants to flower can be summarily dismissed.

It was advice specifically for them growing in pots. And it wasn't that they needed to stay 'damp' just not to desiccate completely.

Out of interest, since this isn't a plant I've grown, does it have deep questing roots that wouldn't 'quest' in a pot?

Chad
I've not grown it in a pot, Chad :lol:
Chad
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Re: Scilla maderensis and Urginea maritima bulbs

Post by Chad »

I've been thinking about this.

Could the 'don't let it dry out' just be about extending the growing season so there is a bigger bulb the next year?

Chad
MartinNicklin
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Re: Scilla maderensis and Urginea maritima bulbs

Post by MartinNicklin »

Chad I can tell you from repotting my original four bulbs in and out of different potting mixes in an attempt to get them to “produce the goods” that their roots are massive and fleshy. Mine were planted in deep pots and the roots went right down, a bit like the big root system you get on agapanthus. They seem out of proportion to the bulb. Whether this is their attempt to find water in arid conditions or whether these fleshy roots are an indication they require a certain amount of moisture, I don’t know.
PS Ian I had previously seen that article on the net. Intriguing that they are flowering in what look like small pots. This is perhaps where I’ve gone wrong. Zooming in, it looks like the growing medium is very gritty, as suggested by”fierce draining”. However, I’m intrigued that the flower well in the wild in soil which appears from descriptions to be almost concrete-like. The more I read, the more confused I get about what to put my new bulbs in!
Incidentally, my Scilla maderensis bulbs arrived today. Again , I’ve seen pictures of them with the bulbs exposed but other people, including the sellers Farmer Gracy, saying twice the depth of the bulb. All these bulbs to pot up and don’t know which way for the best!!!
PPS This was the image I recently stumbled across which prompted me to buy some bigger bulbs. The grower says they tower above his head at over 6ft. I’d be very pleased with a pot like that!

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MartinNicklin
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Re: Scilla maderensis and Urginea maritima bulbs

Post by MartinNicklin »

New bulbs planted today. I’ve gone for a smallish diameter but deep pot with a gritty mix but with plenty of topsoil which does bake like concrete and the bulbs half covered, based on images I’ve seen of them flowering in pots. Will keep them watered well in summer and sprayed with salt! My last attempt at these fussy devils.

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