Australian Spear Lily

[Michael]

I would like to share with you the most recent flowering event of the Spear lily (Doryanthes palmeri) and Gymea lily (Doryanthes excelsa).

According to Kew it seems to flower only once in every 10 to 20 years , but i find this very exagerated, as i remember to see these flowers a couple of times already (but i dont remember if they are provenient from the same plants or not).

http://www.kew.org.uk/plants/spearlily.html

[Michael]

The Gymea lily is a bit more problematical to photograph, as the spikes are huge (i guess around 5 m tall).

[Paddy Tobin]

Michael,

Astonishing flowers, wonderful photographs.

Many thanks, Paddy

[Anthony Darby]

Amazing Michael.

[Lesley Cox]

These Australian plants are magnificent in the Melbourne Botanic Gardens and elsewhere. The flower stems I saw were all of 3 metres tall.

[Michael]

These Australian plants are magnificent in the Melbourne Botanic Gardens and elsewhere. The flower stems I saw were all of 3 metres tall.

Yes Lesley, they truely are. When not in flower, they look like agave and are not that interesting.

 
By the way, these pictures were not taken on the Botanical garden, but on a public garden. I spoke to the gardeners there and they told me that since they remember the plants were already growing there, and they flower very often, wich means they have been around for a very long time.

I counted around 25 adult plants of Doryanthes scattered among the place, 3 of wich were in bloom. Unfortunately, the one with the biggest spike was broken by someone

In the end the gardeners were kind enough to offer me a division of it

Do you have any ideas regarding their hardiness?

[Lesley Cox]

I'm sure they would be totally hardy with you Michael, in Madeira. Melbourne where I saw them - also in motorway plantings near Sydney - does get some frost I believe, though perhaps not a lot. They were certainly flourishing there. I have grown D. palmeri myself, from seed, for about 5 years in a tunnel house but eventually it was killed in a winter when we had to -12C. I doubt if it would have ever flowered for me.

[arillady]

I saw these magnificent flowers in the southern districts of Sydney - as Lesley said on the motorways and also in some amazing scrub on one of the roads on the wat to the city from Engadine. Utterly fascinating plants. You would need a heck of a big yard to grow them to perfection.

[Michael]

I'm sure they would be totally hardy with you Michael, in Madeira. (...) I have grown D. palmeri myself, from seed, for about 5 years in a tunnel house but eventually it was killed in a winter when we had to -12C.

I asked about its hardiness, because i am sending another plant to a friend who lives in Belgium. I guess he will need to empty the greenhouse then ^^

How big were they, after 5 years from seed, Lesley?

[Lesley Cox]

It's a long time ago now but I recall they reached about 10 - 12 inches.

[Paul T]

Mike,

Just saw this topic and thought I would respond...... at the ANBG some of the clumps of Doryanthes excelsa flower every year, or at least every 2 years, so the long time between flowerings is not true in our climate at least.  I posted some pics a while ago in the ANBG topic, including a closeup shot on a shorter flower stem that allowed me to photograph it without the extreme distance.    They're around the 4 or 5m there as well.  I have never grown them myself from seed, so can't help with that, but I seem to recall seeing something about 8 or 9 years to flowering in ideal conditions?  I could be wrong with that though.  Stunning plants!! 

[Michael]

Thanks for the info Paul. I also have realized that the size doesnt really matters, as i have seen a small plant flowering, and manmy huge ones without spikes this year.