Gethyllis

Michael Mace mikemace@att.net
Mon, 23 Nov 2009 15:12:21 PST
Hi, Benoit.

I agree with everything that people have already said about Gethyllis.
Here's a little bit of additional information.

I think the cultural techniques you'll need to use will vary depending on
the climate in your part of France.  Gethyllis villosa grows pretty well in
20-cm plastic pots for me here in San Jose, California.  But I find that in
my climate, I need to keep the pots damp throughout the summer.  I give them
some water once a week.

In my part of California, we receive no rain at all for at least six months
of the year, and the air is very dry.  If I let the pots completely dry out,
the Gethyllis bulbs seem to suffer.  I think their roots are active in
summer, even if they do not have leaves, and so it hurts them to completely
dry out.

I use a very lean soil consisting of 50% peat moss, 25% sand, and 25%
perlite, amended with a little bit of bulb fertilizer.  This seems to help
prevent the bulbs rotting in summer, even though they are wet.

I do not know how other Gethyllis species would respond to this treatment,
but G. villosa is pretty happy.

Good luck,

Mike
San Jose, CA (zone 9, min temp 20F / -7 C)




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