Resprouting Ornithogalum

Lee Poulsen wpoulsen@pacbell.net
Mon, 14 Apr 2014 17:48:50 PDT
Oh my goodness, I've kind of ignored these posts on Ornithogalum (particularly O. dubium) because they are like weeds for me. I treat them just like all my other Cape bulbs: no water during summer dormancy, stored in a shady location next to the house. And they come back every fall, and invade other pots. Sometimes I think it's something particularly rare that I finally got to survive. And then it blooms the next year and it's *another* O. dubium. And it doesn't seem to matter whether it's orange, yellow, or white. The individual flowers are never as big as the year I bought them. Now, I don't buy them at all; I have plenty including all the volunteers. I didn't realize there was a problem getting them to grow every year. I have that problem with Ferraria, although with Ferraria, even if they don't come out of dormancy for a whole year, the bulbs seem to multiply anyway. And when they do start growing again, they seem to do so with a vengeance.

--Lee Poulsen
Pasadena, California, USA - USDA Zone 10a
Latitude 34°N, Altitude 1150 ft/350 m

On Apr 14, 2014, at 2:52 PM, Mary Sue Ittner <msittner@mcn.org> wrote:

> From a post of mine from October 2003

> There were no responses to this post.
> 
> From a post I made to this list  in July 2007

> I was able to get Ornithogalum dubium to rebloom a number of years this way. But finally I tossed the rest.  I don't remember if this was because they didn't sprout or looked virused. They are so beautiful however that if you could get  two to four years of bloom out of them, it might be worth it to buy new ones from time to time. I never tried planting any in the ground. The only Ornithogalum I still grow and it is reliable year after year in my raised beds is Ornithogalum montanum (blooming at the moment).
> 




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