South African Bulbs 2015

[Paul Cumbleton]

Hi Chris,
I wouldn't worry about your plant's reluctance to die down in summer. V. bracteata in my experience is almost evergreen and seems best with just a short dormancy of maybe two months or so in the autumn/early winter. Even then it may not lose its leaves.

Cheers
Paul

[François Lambert]

Thanks all for the tips.

I watered them this morning 

[Chris Johnson]

Hi Chris,
I wouldn't worry about your plant's reluctance to die down in summer. V. bracteata in my experience is almost evergreen and seems best with just a short dormancy of maybe two months or so in the autumn/early winter. Even then it may not lose its leaves.

Cheers
Paul

Thanks for the reassurance, Paul. I hadn't given it much thought until I read differing approaches.

[ruben]

Gladiolus dalenii 'Boone'
Gladiolus flanaginii
Gladiolus 'Emerald Spring'

[Chris Johnson]

Two Eucomis showing good leaf markings:
Eucomis schijffii
Eucomis vandermerwei

I particularly like the burgundy outline to the leaf of Eucomis schijffii.

[Anthony Darby]

Gladiolus flanaginii

Do you keep this dry over the winter?

[Darren]

Do you keep this dry over the winter?

I can't speak for Ruben but we grew this unprotected in a crevice between rocks on the rock garden for a number of years and it seemed quite happy with our wet Lancashire winters in such a position. It's eventual demise was (I suspect) due to rodents rather than climate.

[Robert]

Gladiolus flanaginii

Do you keep this dry over the winter?

I keep losing seedlings of this species. They never return in the spring. Yes, do you keep this dry over the winter?

[ruben]

I grow flanaginii in open ground. We have wet winters and sometimes wet summers but this ones grows well in sandy soil for 4 years now! I don't gave winter or summer cover. Use a lot of grit in the soil, it likes good drainage but also lot of water in the growing period.

[Robert]

I grow flanaginii in open ground. We have wet winters and sometimes wet summers but this ones grows well in sandy soil for 4 years now! I don't gave winter or summer cover. Use a lot of grit in the soil, it likes good drainage but also lot of water in the growing period.

Ruben,

I appreciate the information. I may be that I have been keeping the bulbs too dry during the winter. The drain has always been excellent.

[Anthony Darby]

I think mine aborted its flowers last summer because of being too dry. Just received some seeds from Seeds by Post, South Africa (http://seedsbypostafrica.wordpress.com/), including Daubenya aurea, Empodium namaquensis and Nerine filifolia. I'm assuming it is best to sow them straight away?

[Darren]

Gethyllis villosa, first flowers in a potful of seedlings from Silverhill seeds sown June 2012. Much faster to reach flowering than I had anticipated. The two flowers are from separate bulbs and have done exactly as usual for the genus - both appeared simultaneously on the same day last week in (presumably) response to the weather turning a bit cooler and/or barometric pressure dropping.

[Maggi Young]

Must say Darren, that I would have been pleasantly surprised  by getting flowers in three years too. Seems very generous of some bulbs to act at speed when some take "forever" !

I like the pink flush from the centre of  the flowers - is that typical?

[Darren]

The pink flush does seem typical but variable looking at some pictures from elsewhere - you can see the intensity differs between my two clones as well.

I was shocked at the speed - many Amaryllids are notoriously slow. Though Haemanthus humilis hirsutus also managed it in 3 years for me.

You might have noticed the substrate. This is a moler based cat litter (Tesco low dust light weight to be exact) much used by the cactus growers these days. Behaves much like Seramis but is considerably cheaper.

I mention this because I believe it contributed to the speed with which the Gethyllis reached flowering size. Because of its porosity and structure it dries quite quickly and also encourages the plant to develop a strong root system. Gethyllis I've found prone to rotting in a 'soil' substrate but love this stuff. Most importantly it allows more frequent watering and therefore liquid feeding than a soil substrate which retains a lot of water.

 I continue to experiment with using this. Paul Cumbleton's findings with Seramis and fritillaria were that it grows bulbs well and massively reduces the repotting chores associated with more organic substrates that decompose - provided the feeding regime (including trace elements) is suitable. I have found with seedlings that in warm summers it can easily over-dessicate small seedling bulbs when dry so I modify it for seed sowing with a little composted bark.

One of the findings of Susan's college experiment with the stuff was that, used pure, it even kills Sedum by drying them out via the roots if allowed to get really dry under glass. Simply adding 25 percent 'compost' prevented this effect.

[Rimmer de Vries]

You might have noticed the substrate. This is a moler based cat litter

Hi Darren, did you use straight cat littler or mix it with the 25% organics for Gethyllis?
when do you start to water these? after your see growth or?

Thanks

Rimmer