Haemanthus 2010

[jshields]

Yes, Paul, -5 C is pretty mild!  We have 25°F (-4 C) this morning, with a little snow falling and on the ground, and our winter is just getting started.

A few members of the Pacific Bulb Society online list reported in on their Haemanthus.  In Berkeley, California, they grow a great many species of Haemanthus in the ground at the U.C. botanic garden and have had no losses in the past several years.  In North Carolina, two members reported success with Haemanthus montanus outdoor in the ground, for one year in one case and for several years in the other.  However, the second report noted that no other species of Haemanthus had survived outdoors in the ground in that garden (USDA cold zone 7b).

Jim Shields
Westfield, Indiana, USA
USDA zone 5

[Auricular]

...and we had -16 degress celsius yesterday at 5am...no chance for outdoor-cultivation of Haemanthus here in Bavaria
 

[jshields]

Fortunately, inside the greenhouse, it's a bit warmer.  Haemanthus pauculifolius is in bloom.

[Auricular]

Hi Jim,

 

very nice!

Your remember me with your photo to check my pauculifolius in the coldhouse, maybe one of my plants will flower also this year.

Paul Christian has sent me my ordered big bulb of Haemanthus nortieri today/yesterday. Hope it arrives ok here...im a bit worried about the cold temperatures and the expensive bulb in the box on the way to Germany

 

[jshields]

Good luck with the Haemanthus nortieri.  Graham Duncan has had one for about 20 years at Kirstenbosch and still has not had a bloom on it!  I have a smallish one that I got in 2001, also from Paul Christian.  It has not bloomed either, naturally.

Jim

[BULBISSIME]

I also have 3 of them, 1 big and 2 small ones but never got a flower...
Wait and ... hope 

[jshields]

Fred and Auri in Bayern,

I had a small disaster with H. nortieri a few years ago.  I received a batch of seeds of nortieri, which I planted and grew under fluorescent lights for two years.  When the young seedlings insisted on going dormant, I gave them summer rest, dry, under the lights.  The first summer, I lost only a few; so I moved them to the haemanthus greenhouse for the winter.  The next summer, they were stored with the other dormant Haemanthus -- seedlings as well as mature -- under the benches in that greenhouse.

Not a single nortieri seedling survived that summer!  Note that these were 3 year old plants at that point.  I was devastated.  Of course, I didn't expect to live long enough to ever actually see any of them bloom, but I had hoped to at least be able to distribute some of them.

Jim

P.S. Greenhouse number 2 is the Haemanthus House.

[Hans J]

Jim ,

I had the same problem like you with my H.nortieri seedlings ...not only one has survived by changing the hemispheres 
No problem for other Haemanthus ( if they are big enough )

A other problem for me is H.tristis ...
I have sown it before two year- in the begin no problem ...but in last winter one after one is died 

Hans

[angie]

Jim
I to would be devastated. Three years of looking after these little babies and then to lose them. I would have been so mad. When you say you wouldn't expect to live long enough to see them flower how long do they take from seed to flower ?

Angie

[jshields]

As long as we're telling sad tales, I must mention that when a friend in South Africa sent me 2 seeds of H. tristis, they arrived squashed.  Neither germinated.  I'd like to get a few seeds of HH. tristis, graniticus, even some more of nortieri.  Unfortunately, I don't know anyone who has any of these anymore.

I am looking forward to bloom of some seedlings of lanceifolius, probably next year.  I hope to produce some seeds when they flower, if anyone is interested in trading.

By the way, my 10-year old bulb of nortieri has survived the summers quite well, so one probably just has to give the nortieri seedlings a few extra years of T.L.C.  They can  take at least 20 years from seed to flower, maybe even longer.  At my age, 76, I'll be lucky if I ever see my present bulb of nortieri in bloom.

[angie]

Wow twenty years from seed to flower ... I shall be 74 by then so I better get my first attempt right with my seeds.
I suppose Jim its something to look forward to.

Maybe some of the members might have seeds to give you. I hope so because you have a lovely greenhouse to grow them in and keep them happy,  good luck. Will keep watching to see all your Haemanthus in flower.

Angle 

[Auricular]

Hello again,

i own a H. nortieri since 3 years, bought also from Paul Christian as flowering sized 2007. The plant is growing well but have not flowered for me.
I hope that this plant and my new (if it isnt dead after the mail-journey in this cold time...) flower in the next years and i could cross pollinate them.
But i fear i must wait manymany years and i wont have the luck that the 2 plants flower in the same year.

But first the big nortieri from P.C. must arrive here and it must build a new root-system.

Today i harvested some berries of albiflos x unifoliatus (keep fingers crossed that no albiflos-pollen had contact to the stigmas)

 

Best wishes

Bernie

[Tony Willis]

Wow twenty years from seed to flower ... I shall be 74 by then so I better get my first attempt right with my seeds.
I suppose Jim its something to look forward to.

Maybe some of the members might have seeds to give you. I hope so because you have a lovely greenhouse to grow them in and keep them happy,  good luck. Will keep watching to see all your Haemanthus in flower.

Angle 

Save time buy a flowering size one(or two) for only £95 each !!

[angie]

Wow twenty years from seed to flower ... I shall be 74 by then so I better get my first attempt right 


Angle 

Save time buy a flowering size one(or two) for only £95 each !!

Money or time 

Angie

[BULBISSIME]

Money or time 

Angie
[/quote]

Angie , I'm afraid it will be Money AND Time