South African Bulbs2012

[bulborum]

Intriguing flower Arnold

Roland

[PeterT]

Ohhh, nice Arnold

[ArnoldT]

Chasmanthe floribunda Duckittii

[daveyp1970]

Very nice Arnold i have Chasmanthe bicolor just about to flower.

[ArnoldT]

 Lachenalia aloides var. aloides

[Michael J Campbell]

Hesperantha vaginata.    Thanks Darren.

[ronm]

What a stunning flower Michael. A good grower?

[santo2010]

Amazing Michael! And I saw some albums from your pics, What a collection! If anytime you want to swap seeds just let me know! 

[Michael J Campbell]

What a stunning flower Michael. A good grower?

Yes, but you must be careful with watering and ventilation as it is inclined to rot at soil level in cold damp weather. This is my first year growing it.Darren will be able to tell you more about growing it.

[Darren]

Looking good Michael! 

Biggest issue with it is as Michael says - prone to rotting off at ground level. Grow it in a plunged clay pot and it is no trouble. In the wild it grows in conditions very much like some American frits - in sticky red clay that bakes very hard in summer. Ironic that it does not appreciate the moisture in cultivation. Experiments with growing it in seramis/cat litter granules look promising and my two-year old seedlings look like one or two might even flower.

After a particularly good flowering in 2010 my mature corms took a year off (not even leaves) but are about to flower again this year -don't panic if this happens. I thought I'd lost mine!

Seed set is good if hand pollinated - but the seeds MUST be stored warm (room temp or in the greenhouse) over summer before sowing in early autumn. Seed has a definite need for a post-harvest ripening period. Germination is excellent if you remember this.

[Maggi Young]

Looking good Michael! 

Biggest issue with it is as Michael says - prone to rotting off at ground level. Grow it in a plunged clay pot and it is no trouble. In the wild it grows in conditions very much like some American frits - in sticky red clay that bakes very hard in summer. Ironic that it does not appreciate the moisture in cultivation. Experiments with growing it in seramis/cat litter granules look promising and my two-year old seedlings look like one or two might even flower.

After a particularly good flowering in 2010 my mature corms took a year off (not even leaves) but are about to flower again this year -don't panic if this happens. I thought I'd lost mine!

Seed set is good if hand pollinated - but the seeds MUST be stored warm (room temp or in the greenhouse) over summer before sowing in early autumn. Seed has a definite need for a post-harvest ripening period. Germination is excellent if you remember this.

Darren, VERY useful information.... of the sort that it is very rare to find about plants...... invaluable to anyone trying to grow them. Thanks!

[Darren]

 

Thanks Maggi.

It is a lovely plant and one which I was keen to grow after seeing it in the wild in 1999. My original seed came from Kirstenbosch in around 2001 (before they stopped sending seed overseas) making my 5 mature plants over 10 years old. Michael's plants are first-generation seedlings from these. Because I was keen to grow it well it got particular attention which is why I've managed to observe its needs quite closely over this period.

It was OK in plastic pots and my usual compost mix as seedlings but became less tolerant as it matured. After a few years of losing the top growth to collar rots in winter I decided to try the plunged clays in order to allow drier conditions at the neck. This worked and I've since done the same with other Irids prone to the same thing (the hairier-leaved Moraeas and Hesperantha pauciflora for example). Flowering in the Moraea has improved very markedly - possibly because this regime also allows more watering (and thus feeding).

With regards the seed storage: Two years I naively kept some seed over summer in the fridge and got zero germination. Nowadays I would never consider refridgerating winter-growing bulb seed if sowing the same year - it is completely contrary to the conditions they would experience in nature.

The year off:  Many SA Irids are prone to doing this anyway, especially after a cool summer I find. In this case, however, non-flowering plants in the same conditions grew away as normal the following season, only the flowered ones did not. It may be possible to overcome this, for example by limiting the amount of seed set or by giving extra feeds. I just don't know - yet

[Diane Whitehead]

Lots of South African bulbs take more than one year off in the wild as they
wait for a fire.  Then some of them are up and blooming in a couple of weeks.

Maybe yours needs a little fire on top, or a bit of fertilizer instead.

[PeterT]

I have heard of some real disasters experimenting with fire on pot grown plants, smoke would be a safer option. 

[Darren]

Not convinced either way. This is not native to a particularly fire-prone habitat like the fynbos species are. The fertiliser idea is worth pursuing though.