Updated Collection Update

[Bonaventure W Magrys]

I find that older mature tubers rot easily too. Once established in a garden
they tend to form next years bulb at a "right height", that is, the plant seems
to be able to sense moisture in the substrate and situates the new bulb for the
winter at just the right level. Often this is in the humus and leaf fall, quite
shallow, that has just accumulated in the autumn but providing a great deal of
organic matter and nutrients for next years developing shoot. Like an orchid
pseudobulb the corm is often in a position that is too dry for root survival,
and hence we may see the roots growing out from the crown with great vigor and
only developing fine root hairs after borrowing straight down from the corm.
Uprooting the bulbs, replanting them in a different setting, or covering with
too much mulch or compost may disrupt this acclimitazation to moisture levels
and allow rot. Immature (by the way if we call them bulbs or tubers instead of,
or interchangeably with, as I often do, corms is it OK?) tubers have to deal
with
different conditions and rapid humus burial in proportion to their size.
Triphyllum is supposed to be one of the most resistant to rot but I have found
it in very wet conditions almost on the surface, hardly buried at all with the
upper face of the tuber covered by only a few fallen leaves.
Bonaventure
Elizabeth, NJ USA zone 6