Albert's Greenhouse

So, I went to the hardware store ( I think it was ) last fall and looked at their bulb section. Among the tulips and daffodils and perhaps dahlias, gladiolus and so on, one finds stranger, more tempting things. The pictures on the packages promise much, but one is often disappointed by reality when one plants.

In the bulb section, more than anywhere else, one may occasionally find a gem. The strangest Allium is packaged right next to the daffodils. The most unusual south african bulb shares shelf space with the most common darwin tulip. The species tulip on the other side of the box is hiding out, waiting for the right person. They continue to sell dracunculus vulgaris in huge numbers, apparently. Who buys this stinky plant? I certainly do, but I love the odd, the strange, and the smelly.

I was attracted to Sparaxis, of which I had never heard before. The package looked promising, in that it displayed multi-colored, rounded, patterened flowers, somewhat reminiscent of the South American tigridia lilies I grow. Sparaxis is a South African irid, and the tiny corms packed with some wood shavings that I got didn't seem too promising, but I planted them out anyway in front of the house, and waited.

First, in the fall, little green iris-like leaves poked above the soil, and to my surprise, a few weeks ago I got my first flowers. So far, at least, things are going well. I read that Sparaxis likes a dry summer, which happens to match up almost perfectly with what we have around here, so hopefully the little tubers will multiply and be with me for many years.