Moved Rhodophiala Outdoors

[Judy Glattstein]

Serious drought here in western New Jersey. July - there was grand total of 1.30 inches, only 25% of our expected rainfall. August - even worse. So far there was only 7/10th of an inch and that was back on August 1st. Nothing since. But tomorrow is supposed to bring rain.

So this afternoon I moved 15 pots of Rhodophiala bifida out of the greenhouse and top dressed all the pots. There are a few more still inside. They'll have to wait.

I had a full replacement of my left knee in mid-July and recovery is taking longer than I anticipated.

[Martin Bohnet]

Our drought here in southern Germany finally ended last weekend - heavy rain for hours - in fact so heavy my buddleja broke a few big branches.

What's your limiting factor for keeping the Rhodophialas in pots in New Jersey? In my experience they're quite happy outside here in southern Germany's viticulture climate, deal well with summer rain (if it happens - gets rarer year by year) and enjoy our growing lack of snow cover as they need winter light. Minimum temperature since planting some: -11°C.

First red ones are in flower right now, pink form was even earlier.

[petershaw]

A bit off topic, but I have 15 or so seedlings from the seed exchange and I think the hardest part of seed production is moving transitioning from a seedling to an adult.
How should I care for these little seedlings? They are in a greenhouse (unheated) but along the central coast of CA. Move outside?

[Arnold]

Peter

I've always tried to keep them growing as long as possible in their first year. Move to more favorable environs if you must.  I'd look to report in 2-3 years when bulbs have bulked up a bit.

[petershaw]

perfect, thats great information,

much appreciated by a guy that loves bulbs but knows nothing about growing them

[Arnold]

Peter

We all started somewhere on the learning curve with the quest to grow exotic bulbs.  

[Judy Glattstein]

Six of 15 pots are well into growth, this after the rains came just three days ago on August 22. The "top dressing" I mentioned giving the pots was more like adding 1/3 of soil to the tall narrow pots. Some are shoving up green leaf shoots - those must be the smaller bulbs. But there are definite flower buds too - those will wait to send up leaves since rhodophiala are hysteranthous.