South African Bulbs2012

[Darren]

Just looked at tulbaghensis on the PBS wiki and can confirm this is it. Hope it improves when open in the sun!

[ArnoldT]

Lachenalia orthopetala

[daveyp1970]

Just looked at tulbaghensis on the PBS wiki and can confirm this is it. Hope it improves when open in the sun!

I bought seed of this Darren last year put hasn't germinated,hopefully it will improve it is quite nice in the pics i have seen.

[Michael J Campbell]

Ferraria crispa.

[Pete Clarke]

Great photo of F. crispa Michael.
Now can you share your secret of how to flower it. I have had a large clump for years and never had a flower.

Pete.

[Maggi Young]

I agree that Michael's photo of the Ferraria crispa flower is lovely.... but did you folks spot the great flowering clump... self sown in a bed, that Angelo showed on the previous page?
 
http://www.srgc.org.uk/forum/index.php?topic=8333.msg242665#msg242665

Angelo Porcelli     Re: South African Bulbs2012
« Reply #192 on: April 11, 2012, 09:41:09 PM »  

Ferraria crispa, self sown in an Amaryllis belladonna patch

I had no idea it  could flower like that!!

[Lesley Cox]

That's a very pretty Lachenalia Arnold, so light and airy. I have several now, all coming through just in time to catch first frosts which will descend any day. Most South Africans are fairly hardy for me but the lachenalias always get it, perhaps because of their fleshy foliage.

[Ezeiza]

Maggi, provided the sun and temperature range is to its liking the flowering season is very long for a bulb. Ferrarias are definitely not for small pots, they like free root run and make large clumps from the rosary of naked persistent corms (something very strange in an irid).

[Peppa]

Ferraria crispa.

Wow, what an odd-looking flower, Michael! I love it very much!

[Angelo Porcelli]

Maggi, indeed the previous photo is just a part of the clump, which is 60-70cm tall with many stems. I didn't post the whole plant as the photo is not very good. Anyway, as Alberto says, Ferraria needs deep soil to grow well, much better in the ground where climates allows. This species is very variable in colour, I have several combination of background and fringe, from yellow, brown to dark chocolate. In full flowering the plants emit a strange scent, an odd combination of vanilla and chemical notes

[Maggi Young]

Thank you, Angelo and Alberto, for that information.

[Michael J Campbell]

Now can you share your secret of how to flower it

To be honest with you I have no idea,it was just pot luck. I think it might have been the mild winter followed by very warm weather with above average temperatures and lots of sunshine in March. It is in a 20cm pot in a mixture of 50% JI no3, 30% perlite, and 20% grit,the pot is plunged in builders sand in the greenhouse. It got one feed or miracle-grow at the beginning of March. 

[Darren]

Mine gets pretty much the same treatment as Michael's and is in a 15cm plastic long-tom rose pot (20cm deep). It flowers each year without trouble.  I agree it is happier with a deep pot and Ferraria are also one of those Irids which occasionally stay dormant for a whole season. This can be prevented to some extent by giving them a good hot summer ( my pot is moved up against the south facing glass in the greenhouse when the plant is dormant and being black it gets very hot). This might help with flowering too. Of course if I was in an area which got naturally hot summers (or any summer at all given the last two washouts here) I'd be wary of this cooking the plants!

However - I think it helps that I got the corms when already flowering size (10 years ago) so all I have to do is maintain it. Seedlings are extremely slow to increase in size in my conditions and I'm sure that a really big pot or planting out would be greatly advantageous in this respect. I'm absolutely in awe of Angelo's clump  

[ArnoldT]

Angelo:

That's a spectacular looking plant.

[ronm]

Angelo, surely the scent is not of Affogato? If it is I must grow this plant. But surely not?