South African bulbose plants 2009

[David Nicholson]

Dave,  Richard Doutt says he had trouble maintaining a population. He quotes someone who had difficulty with it as it developed chlorosis when grown in granite sand but remedied it by applying aluminium sulphate to make the mix more acidic. There's always a clue as someone else says

[daveyp1970]

David i once read some where that Geissorhiza radians grows in quite damp places along with south african drosera so i might when they go dormant put half my stock into a peat silver sand and perlite mix and stand the pot in a little rain water during the growing season,repot every year into this mix which might keep it nice and acid.

[Paul T]

I've never managed to get Geissorhiza radians past flowering.... they always die out for me.  Flowering seems to be the death nell.  

G. monanthos on the other hand has persisted for years for me, flowering each year but never obviously multiplying..... until this year where there were 3 flower stems and another non-flowering one.  I have never repotted it (I never remember when it is dormant), and I am not really game to in case I jinx it by doing so.    It out competes the weeds in the pot each year, producing the glorious flowers as a surprise to me each year when I again think I have lost it.  G. aspera (I think that is the right name, small blue flowers about 1cm wide) persists for me unattended in a pot as well.  I noticed with surprise some flowers in the pot this year.  It is possible though that these might be seedlings flowering in this case.  I know for sure that that is not the case with the monanthos.

[David Nicholson]

David i once read some where that Geissorhiza radians grows in quite damp places along with south african drosera so i might when they go dormant put half my stock into a peat silver sand and perlite mix and stand the pot in a little rain water during the growing season,repot every year into this mix which might keep it nice and acid.

I don't have that one Dave but going from the pictures it's a little cracker. A damp acidic mix should suit it a treat.

[daveyp1970]

Paul thats what i was told about Radians i was told to collect seed from them and sow it and i would then have stock all the time.

[Darren]

From various sources I'd say you are all correct! I have to keep G radians going from seed so carefully hand pollinate & collect some each year. I ,too, think it would benefit from extra water in spring and from a very acid compost and I think your idea is a great one Davey - please let us know if it works. I use ericaceous loam based compost as the basis for my mix for radians - most other SA bulbs seem unfussed about the bit of lime in normal John Innes compost. I'm pretty sure it is short lived. The similar G mathewsii is longer lived and seems to increase vegetatively. Unlike Paul I get great vegetative reproduction of G. monanthos but few flowers! G aspera is very prolific and almost weedy but is so lovely and generous with flowers that i forgive it.

The others I have are G.corrugata (lovely yellow - doesn't have the nice tight coiled leaves like it does in nature though, probably low light levels). This is long lived but doesn't increase much vegetatively. G inaequalis behaves like aspera and I've only just got G. splendidissima to flowering size so can't comment yet.  G. darlingensis and G. tulbaghensis I find very difficult from seed and currently don't have either.

My main word of caution is be careful repotting as they all can have miniscule (1mm) offset bulblets and they are the colour of compost. I now plant the corms within a layer of sand in the pot - I can then carefully take out this whole layer at repotting time and pop it into a pot with new compost above and below it. I used to spend hours playing 'hunt the bulbil'....

Here are pics of G aspera and mathewsii:

[Paul T]

I have friends in Western Australia who have conditions where they can easily grow radians to flowering the first year (or at most the second year), so they just sow seed each year from it.  Mine take at least 3 years to get to flowering in my conditions of neglect (not entirely the seedlings fault  ) but if left in seed pot like the ones I have now, the corms will last indefinitely. I have a pot that hasn't been repotted since sowing about 5 or 6 years ago..... it has never flowered, but still comes up each year..... definitely the energy going into flowering that kills them.

[daveyp1970]

Darren your Mathewsii is as good as radians and better behaved(long lived)then i will go onto silverhills next spring and order that some seed, Geissorhiza are simply stunning.
Paul i find it incredible that to see such a wonder that this plant has to die,radians was the plant that brought african bulbs and corms to my attention what a shame its so fleeting.

[Paul T]

Davey,

For some, it apparently isn't that fleeting.  There are some people who report it persisting after flowering.  They seem to be in the minority though, and obviously have just the right conditions.

[Darren]

I'm sure you are right Paul - I'm pretty convinced that I get more than one flowering from radians but still need to have seedlings as insurance because I'm equally sure that I don't get more than two or three flowerings from a corm. There's usually little ones in the pot so it is hard to tell. I can only be sure with mathewsii because I only raised one seedling to flowering size so I know I've had at least three flowerings from that corm and it has sent up a shoot again this year - as well as three offsets. Unfortunately one clone = no seed.

My G mathewsii actually came from AGS exchange seed. Remarkable in two ways, firstly it is quite a rarely cultivated species and secondly it was true to name

[Diane Whitehead]

So, after setting seed, its duty to posterity is done, and a corm dies?

[Paul T]

Only if conditions aren't right for it to continue, and only if it is a species that has those requirements.  Certainly I lose the complete pot of radians after flowering, or at least have done so the twice that I have flowered them.

[David Nicholson]

A couple of pics of Lachenalia alioides quadricolor from a distinctly chilly greenhouse today. If you look at Reply 1 from this thread it shows my plant flowering away on 12 February last. It produced so many daughter bulbs I now have four pots full and the pics are from one of them.

[Darren]

Lovely that David. I only grow the weird blue/green aloides var vanzyliae and its nice to see some others.  Keep it moving - if it increases like vanzyliae it will be overcrowded in no time! Speaking of which - if you'd like some var vanzyliae next summer....?

[David Nicholson]

We'll do a swop Darren.