Nerine 2011

[Hans J]

I have to made a correction :

All my wintergrowing Nerines ( like sarniensis ,humilis ) have not received any fertilizer until now - only the summergrowing like bowdenii,laticoma,undulata,krigei and all the thin leaved ...

So this is maybe a reason why I not have seen this virus - I will water my wintergrowers later with fertilizer.

Hans

[jshields]

I appreciate everyone's comments.

I use a home-made soluble fertilizer for these broad-leaf Nerine, including bowdenii types:  0% nitrogen + 10-25% phosphate + 30-40% potassium.  The range of values is not the composition itself which is constant, but rather my lame attempts to calculate the composition.

I have seen the virus-like streaking of the leaves after every occasion where I have used my normal fertilizers (20-10-20 at 100 ppm nitrogen) on these Nerine forms.  On the other hand, all my nerines except the sarniensis and huttonii sit outdoors in the lath house in summer.  They pick up traces of nitrogen from the rainfall and from birds that hang around the lath house, without getting the streaking.  I'm trying to decide how much nitrogen to let my few sarniensis have,since they currently get none.

The home-made fertilizer is 50% by wt potassium sulfate, 25% dibasic potassium phosphate, and 25% monobasic potassium phosphate.  It is certainly not cost-effective to make this oneself!

Jim

[jshields]

......
It is strange in this year with flowers on my nerines - I had not flowers on N.krigei + N.laticoma ....but on the most of my smaller nerines - maybe a result of this strange summer ?

Hans

I have found laticoma to be a rare bloomer here at my place.  N. krigei needs to be chilled in winter in order to bloom the next summer, or so I have been told.  I normally store both krigei and laticoma under benches in my cool greenhouse and get fairly good bloom on the krigei.  Chilling might help laticoma to bloom, but it apparently is not sufficient in itself to trigger bloom in this species.  I had only 2 out of about a dozen bloom-size laticoma bloom this past summer.

Jim

[Hans J]

Jim ,

I do the same like you with N.laticoma + N.krigei ....in winter they are in my greenhouse under the benches .
But no succsess for this year !
....maybe one reason was that I have repot it in last winter ...it seems some Nerines like this not .
In other hand - my N.gracilis and some other have flowers well after repotting

Hans

[johnw]

Jim - On their website Exbury recommends "Feed fortnightly with weak LIQUID MANURE or similar fertilizer for good leaf growth- make sure that it is low in nitrogen- we use a tomato fertiliser that is 15-15-15."  They seem unperturbed by the viral threat and produce great plants.

My bowdeniis get alot of fertilizer outdoors as they are on the edge of a Galanthus patch. It doesn't seem to adversely affect them at all.

johnw

[angie]

Hans very nice  and all this talk about viruses. I still don't have a flower on any of mine yet

Angie

[Michael J Campbell]

Nerine flexuosa (humilis) Alba
Nerine bowdenii
Nerine sarniensis

[orpheos]

In these days I have too a Nerine sarniensis in bloom..it has 2 scapes for one bulbs!
I love the golden dust over the petals

[johnw]

A good red in flower today, colour-wise that is. Petals too narrow and on first flowering only 7 flowers per stem.

johnw

[ArnoldT]

This is a bit earlier than last year.

Nerine Blanchefleur.

[Lesley Cox]

Michael, are you saying that fexuosa and humilis are synonyms?

[Michael J Campbell]

Yes, according to the Pacific Bulb Society.

http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/NerineSpeciesOne

[PeterT]

I understand several groups of Nerine species have been combined but that the discarded names represent distinct plants, so I am retaining the names for "horticultural purposes" untill I see if the plants I grow are distinct

[ArnoldT]

Hard to take pictures of white flowers.

Nerine blanchefleur

[Lesley Cox]

So I shan't rename this snakepit of seeds just yet. N. flexuosa alba went haywire before I got them packed to send off. The little bulbs are already forming.