[Fermi]

Another genus of South African bulbs  which does well here!
Babiana pygmaea is one of my favourites,
cheers
fermi

[Trevor Australis]

You are weeks in front f me with this one. Mine are not even showing buds yet. But it is a huge favourite with me.

[Fermi]

Here's Babiana cedarbergensis
cheers
fermi

[Fermi]

Apologies for the poor pic, but this is another species, Babiana villosa in a dark red form,
cheers
fermi

[David Dickinson]

Does anybody have the names of any suppliers in Europe? I have found a couple of species on offer but not a great selection. I found one supplier in Greece with bulbs selling at around €10.00 each which might indicate their scarcity in Europe. After seeing the pics here I looked through pics of as many as I could find on the internet. I would be interested in finding any of the following.

Babiana
stricta (white),
rubrogynaea,
villosa,
hirsuta,
thunbergii,
pygmaea,
ecklonii,
purpurea and
framesi.

Thanks

[Fermi]

These are probably hybrids of Babiana stricta which are quite common in gardens in Southern Australia
cheers
fermi

[Trevor Australis]

We were in the Clare Valley on the w/end and saw scads of Baboon Root naturalised in heaps of places - on road verges, in vineyards, old churchyards, cemeteries, municipal parks, railway cuttings etc. Mostly between the two Fermi showed BUT SOMEWHERE in this garden are white ones I rescued from Summertown cemetery about 40 yrs ago. Such willing and beautiful Spring bulbs. I've also rescued some samples from the great drifts of them around Keyneton in Die Alte Barossa where an early settler family must have planted hundreds of them in the early 1840's - the family are McGloughlin's, still there on their original estate.

[David Dickinson]

I have found seeds of the following at http://www.rareplants.es/shop/search.asp?strKeywords=babiana&submit=SEARCH

Babiana odorata, pygmae, villosa & thunbergii There are some others too. Thanks to all who posted the photos which have prompted me to try them

[Fermi]

... Thanks to all who posted the photos which have prompted me to try them

Glad we could help, David
Also have a look at http://www.silverhillseeds.co.za/
cheers
fermi

[Fermi]

Babiana spathacea is long and lanky and I have 2 forms, one cream and the other white, both with purply-red marks (bee-lines) in the throat,
cheers
fermi

[Fermi]

Two weeks later the Babiana spathacea were in full flower - they've taken a few years to get to this size,
cheers
fermi

[Fermi]

The first of the Babianas in our garden this year are some seedlings of Babiana odorata, but they may've been hybridised with B. pygmaea which happens a lot for some reason!
cheers
fermi

[Charithea]

They look beautiful.

[Fermi]

One of the most unusual species is Babiana ringens which has evolved to be pollinated by sun-birds by developing a perch for them to hold onto while searching for nectar!
cheers
fermi

[Alisdair]

Fermi, I saw this last week in South Africa, in a recent burn site, growing in pure granitic sand. Usually as you can see from the second picture they were flowering in or close to the skeleton of a burned bush, and one or two beautiful malachite sunbirds were flying from bush to bush then flying down to the top of the aborted flower stem, then hanging upside down to sip the nectar (thus also pollinating the flowers)...