Albuca

Monica Swartz eciton@utexas.edu
Sat, 23 Apr 2016 21:19:21 PDT
Hi Jane, the flower photos on the Logees website show Albuca 
namaquensis. This is an easy frost tolerant Albuca, probably the 
easiest of the curly leaf species. It is a winter grower and wants a 
dry summer. When it finishes flowering and setting seed in early 
spring, stop watering it. Once the leaves have dried, store it in a 
shady dry spot, it can be dark, but it needs to be warm. Mine go on 
shelves in a hot garage and sleep until fall. Then when the nights 
start to cool (late Sept./early Oct. here in Central Texas), I dunk 
all the pots once in a barrel of rain water, then set them aside 
until they start to grow. Give it full sun so you get nice curly 
leaves. It can take some frost but I wouldn't let it hard freeze.
There is a short discussion about growing Mediterranean-climate bulbs 
on the PBS website: 
http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/…
If you keep the plant growing beyond its normal growth cycle, it will 
get confused and may die. I think of it as terminal sleep 
deprivation. Let your Albuca go to sleep now Jane, they will thank 
you by growing great next fall.
If you are going to keep them in Massachusetts, they will need to 
stay in pots so they can be protected when its too cold. When the pot 
starts to bulge, it will need a bigger one. They make a lot of seed 
that you can try in the ground in Mexico. I've been successful with a 
surprising number of winter growers in the ground as long as they 
have very good drainage for the unwelcome summer rain, and I can 
supplement water if it is a dry winter. There are also lots of summer 
growing Albuca to try and all are easy from seed. Join PBS and you 
can get all you want in our seed and bulb exchanges. monica



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