Haemanthus 2011

[jshields]

Jim do you feed your seedlings and if so do you keep feeding all year.

Angie

Angie, I feed virtually every time I water the Haemanthus.  I use a weak solution of Peters 20-10-20, aiming for about 100 ppm nitrogen in the water.  I fear I sometimes get closer to 200 ppm.  To compensate for that I occasionally water thoroughly with plain tap water -- actually well water loaded with lime, and they do need calcium.  If I stop watering the seedlings on continuous growth culture, they will try to go dormant; so I try to discourage that.  Eventually they will tell you, "Enough is enough!" and go dormant anyway.  Then you have to let them do it.

I should apologize if I tend to pontificate.  However, I'll soon be old enough, in a few more years, to do it unapologetically.

Jim

[PeterT]

It is usefull advice Jim, -dont apologise. I, and many others I'm sure, are very glad to benifit from your experiance and advice.

[angie]

Jim I find all this information really beneficial. It's great to hear what members do. And for folks like me that don't have much experience it's great to get all this information and to be able to look up old post to retrieve the information that I forget.
So please remember that any information you can pass on to us beginners is so welcome.

Angie

[Brian Ellis]

Jim I find all this information really beneficial. It's great to hear what members do. And for folks like me that don't have much experience it's great to get all this information and to be able to look up old post to retrieve the information that I forget.
So please remember that any information you can pass on to us beginners is so welcome.

Angie

Hear. hear.  Many thanks Jim.

[JoshY46013]

Jim,

  I appreciate all your advice and information as well   Keep it coming!!!!!

[Paul T]

Howdy All,

This topic is a wonderful resource.  Some brilliant photos of species, and some good discussions on diagnostic features.  Thanks so much for showins us all these wonderful species that many of us haven't seen (I just adore some of the good pink forms you're all showing!!) and quite likely never will. 

Thanks heaps everyone.  

[jshields]

There have been no signs so far of bloom on any of the winter-growing Hemanthus species I have.  However, this morning's low of about 62°F/17C is the coolest temperature here since late June.  Maybe this will release some bloom!

Jim

[jshields]

I'll stick a Scadoxus in here as well.  They are almost kissing cousins, after all!  This is Scadoxus membranaceus.

Jim

[jshields]

Bulbs of Haemanthus species:  Haemanthus barkerae.  This is the form with narrow, almost linear leaves.  Note the abundant offsets and the narrow neck.  No visible basal plate to speak of.  These particular bulbs first bloomed in 2003.

Cf. http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=6891.msg210685#msg210685  for bulbs of pubescens and coccineus.

Jim

[JoshY46013]

They remind me of Narcissus bulbs

[jshields]

They are all in the Amaryllis Family!

[jshields]

Coccineus vs. Arenicolus

I've no picture of it, but I just repotted my Haemanthus pubescens arenicolus, and observed the following:  1)  The mother bulb showed a slight downward extension of the basal plate, while none of the basal plate is visible in coccineus; 2) the neck of the bulb is not as wide relative to the height of the bulb as in coccineus; 3) the roots are significantly fatter than in coccineus. 

Also, the scale pattern seems different in arenicolus from coccineus; the bulb seems less wide relative to height than coccineus; the exposed portions of the upper part of the bulb have a purple tint, not seen in coccineus which only rarely shows any color and then just a trace of red at the neck.  And finally, this bulb, about 10 years old, had an offset.  None of my coccineus, some of them 14 years old, has ever produced an offset.

I don't really see how arenicolus belongs as a subspecies of pubescens.  If anything, it looks more like it should be a subspecies of coccineus.  In bloom and leaf, this plant looks very much like coccineus, having barely more hair on the leaves than coccineus.  Until DNA bar-code is available for Haemanthus, I think that identifying arenicolus is going to be heavily dependent on geographical origins.  Or on examining the bulb, basal plate, and roots.

Jim

[jshields]

Bulb of lanceifolius:  This is a young bulb, but bloomed last season.  As I  was repotting it, I photographed it at the same time.  Note the roots are mostly still undisturbed in the old potting mix for minimal-stress repotting.

Jim

[JoshY46013]

Jim, I've been repotting many of my Hippeastrum this way and they seem to be without bother!  I think this is a great method and especially for young Amaryllids!

[Auricular]

Hi Jim,

how old is the bulb?
I bought lanceifolius sown 2006 from Terry Smale, hope i soon have flowering plants.

Kind regards

Bernie