2 Lovely Nerine's

[David Nicholson]

Nice display of Nerines there Malcolm and of course the "Zeal" tribe have Devon connections. I've had a number of goes with the garden species without any success at all, yet they grow as easily as weeds in many gardens in Devon.

[Maggi Young]

" bruise-coloured" is a good description of some of the purplish shades of several plants - nerines, iris, primulas, dionysias etc - lacking in attraction  to my mind- after all, who wants a bruise?

[Mavers]

Hello Malcolm I've just found this thread.

I love the Zeal Plum.

Here are some of the nerines I bought when I went to Exbury with the NAAS.

[johnw]

Malcolm    - Alexandra is an extraordinary shade of orange.  Very good to see, I had no idea that shade was even possible in Nerine.

johnw

[Mavers]

Does the bubble wrap insulation really make a difference to a greenhouse that's just being kept frost free?

Does anyone think it diffuses the amount of daylight reaching the nerines to even lower levels during the winter months?

Mike

[majallison]

Lovely nerines there, Mike. Yes, the insulation definitely helps keep heating bills down as there are nights (& some days) where the temperature remains below freezing & I have a heater going (with a thermostat) to make sure the temperature doesn't go below 2 degrees C. It certainly means that there's less light reaching the plants & they're more etiolated than they would be without it, but I'm happy to put up with this as I'm trying to minimise energy use while keeping the greenhouse heated.

[Mavers]

Right Malcolm, I'm ordering some UV stabilised bubbles during my next coffee break!

It was a pleasure meeting you at the NAAS Devon trip.

[johnralphcarpenter]

A pale pink form of Nerine bowdenii flowering now in the garden.

[François Lambert]

That's fantastic John - flowering outside in the garden, your selection seems to hardy.

I have also Nerine Bowdenii, but they absolutely don't seem cold hardy.  This spring they really only were kissed by frost in the greenhouse and they did not like it at all with immediate damage to the foliage.  Moreover, the seedling bulbs I had from this Nerine Bowdenii all died following this sub-zero exposure.  After this chilly experience, over the summer, the Nerine Bowdenii have grown well with more foliage than ever before.  But this year they are not flowering, i assume this is also still a consequence of their having been exposed to a small frost in the spring.
I also have a Nerine 'Stephanie', I think this must be a hybrid or a selection of N. Bowdenii, and this one resisted better to the cold test of this spring.