Pleione formosana in flower

[RosieC]

This is always the earliest of my two Pleiones. Bought as one bulb in 2011, I now have loads of bulbs both large and small (small from previous year's bulbils), and masses of bulbils from last year. It's faded now, the flowers don't last long in the warmth of the house but I like to see it inside. It will go out to the greenhouse mid April. These photos were just taken from one of three trays I now grow them in. Last year just one very packed tray, this year they really wouldn't fit in that.

Interestingly the colour is very different (to the naked eye) in daylight or artificial light. Lilac in daylight, pink in artificial light. These pictures capture the daylight colour, except the last, which is the same as the one before it but shot without the flash, capturing the colour in artificial light.