South African Bulbs 2013

[SJW]

Massonia echinata starting to flower, one with a pink tinge. Actually, I assume they are echinata...?

[meanie]

So what is it to be?  Information about hardiness, or a look at the inside of the
flowers?

Diane

Depends on whether you grew it out of intellectual curiosity or because you liked the look of it. Personally I'm with the previous two answers.

[angie]

Massonia echinata starting to flower, one with a pink tinge. Actually, I assume they are echinata...?

Really lovely 

Angie 

[ashley]

Really lovely

+1

[SJW]

Angie and Ashley - thanks. Massonia pustulata is flowering really well at the moment. And here's another shot of the pink flowered Massonia.

[angie]

Now I am really Jealous.

Angie 

[Peter Maguire]

Now that's just showing off! 

Lovely plants though......

[angie]

Now that's just showing off! 

Lovely plants though......

Peter I agree but thats just because I am jealous. 

[Peter Maguire]

I'd just like to have a flower on mine. Just one is all I ask.....

[SJW]

I'd just like to have a flower on mine. Just one is all I ask.....

Peter - with mine flowering well this year I wonder whether it's because I have a new propane heater and it's keeping the greenhouse warmer than usual. Judging by the speed with which I've just gone through a gas bottle it could turn into quite an expensive way to show off! Still fiddling with the thermostat to try and minimise use but it's quite a blunt instrument...

[Darren]

My Massonias are at the same stage as yours Steve and I've not yet used a heater at all this winter (though I am in a much milder area) and there has been slight frost inside the greenhouse twice so I'm not convinced that extra warmth during growth helps the flowering. What does affect flowering, I think, is keeping them too cool or shady the previous summer. I keep sale plants (flowering size) under the bench and they often fail to flower, whereas those kept on top in the light and where they get a warm summer perform reliably.  None of my M. depressa even produced shoots last season as the summer of 2012 was so cold - they stayed completely dormant right through the growing season. They are back to normal this year.

Mathew says in one of his books that Massonia should not be kept too warm and dry in summer as they can shrivel. One has to bear in mind that his experience is in the banana belt of south east England. Up here in the more civilised parts of the country a hot summer is a rarity and mine came to no harm (in plunged pots) even though we had several days this summer where the temperature under glass exceeded 40C.

[Michael J Campbell]

Same here Darren, I have a heater set at 3c but I don't think it has come on at anytime this year yet, the pots are plunged in sand and stay in the same position Summer and Winter and always flower reliably every year, can't say the same about Daubenya though.any tips about how to flower those every year.?   

[Maggi Young]

What is the situation in nature for these plants ? Do they flower each year in the wild or only now and then?

[Darren]

No Michael- and I've asked Paul Cumbleton the same question. He has confirmed my findings that most Daubenya don't even seem willing to sprout every year. Seeds germinate well but then often the seedlings then stay dormant in future seasons or sprout sporadically at best. D. comata seems to be the exception for me - my 3 years olds have shooted every year and look like being flowering size soon.

Alberto has said Daubenya are easy in Argentina and D. aurea is propagated for sale in supermarkets in SA, so it must be something climatic that they miss here. D.aurea is by far the most recalcitrant with me (I can't grow it at all basically).

I do think it might simply be that I am being too kind to the little seedlings and keeping them too cool beneath the bench (see my post above again) in summer to avoid such small bulbs shrivelling. Might be well worth experimenting with a few dormant bulbs in a propagator set to a minimum of, say, 25C for the whole of August, then watering as usual in September after taking them out.

My few purchased mature bulbs (stylosa and marginata) did grow well this season, and stylosa flowered. Unlike the seedlings they were partially exposed at the soil surface during the hot summer under glass. I don't think this is coincidence.

[Darren]

What is the situation in nature for these plants ? Do they flower each year in the wild or only now and then?

Excellent question Maggi!

Of course the wild situation also depends on their getting some rain in autumn, whereas this variable is eliminated in cultivation. My guess would be that wild plants staying dormant could be related to dry conditions at the start of the growing season as much as getting enough warmth in summer. Then again - bulbs from Fynbos habitats do tend to stay dormant or fail to flower for years once they become shaded out by surrounding vegetation, only to grow and flower again after a bush fire. Reaching optimum temperatures during dormancy is likely one key to this but many Daubenya actually grow in unshaded habitats with little competition so this is not likely to be a factor with these in the wild.  Like Michael - I wish I knew!