The World of Tulbaghia.

"I have to confess," says Collection Holder, Liz Powney,  "that I have an obsession about Tulbaghia".

A chance purchase, and the discovery not only of the ease of culture, but longevity of the flowering period of this South African genus, prompted me to acquire other species and hybrids.  My journey into the world of  I found there were many incidents of incorrect identification of species within the horticultural world, and upon receiving full status as a National Collection Holder of Tulbaghia by Plant Heritage (NCCPG) in 2007 I embarked upon a morphological study of the genus.

To further aid the study and because many of the flower components are tiny, the purchase of a stereo microscope was made and I upgraded  my digital camera to a DSLR, at which point I promptly ran out of funds.   So, as you can imagine, I was elated when I was granted a bursary by Brother to help me purchase a macro lens which I am absolutely delighted with. It is such a joy to use and has enabled me to produce good quality visual recordings of all aspects of the plants to accompany my notes. Thank you all at Brother for making this possible.

Tulbaghia colours can vary enormously in the northern hemisphere depending on the amount of sun that they receive, which further leads to misidentification. I wait until the plants have received as much radiant sun as possible to mimic that which they would receive in South Africa.

Pictures are taken, transferred to Photoshop on my computer and compared for colour accuracy with a plant placed beside the computer screen. It is also important that the screen is calibrated for optimum visual accuracy. Images are then resized, and saved in PSD format.

Details and culture of many of the Tulbaghia species, inter-specific hybrids and hybrids in the collection can be seen on my web site dedicated to the genus www.tulbaghia.com  together with morphological details of new Tulbaghia hybrids registered with the Royal General Bulb Growers' Association (KAVB), which have been bred here in Wales.

The references that I consult are:

“The Cytotaxonomy of the genus Tulbaghia; Canio G. Vosa. Estratto dagli, Annali di Botanica. Vol. XXXIV, 1975. Roma.
And the latest revision of Tulbaghia:
"A revised cytotaxonomy of the genus Tulbaghia (Alliaceae) by Prof. Canio G. Vosa; Caryologia Vol.53, no.2: 83-112, 2000.

Liz Powney

Liz's Collection is best viewed in July and August (by appointment).

_{All photographs copyright Liz Powney. Tulbaghia leucantha (top), L. myles (above)}