Zinkowski Nerines

Mary Sue Ittner msittner@mcn.org
Fri, 20 Sep 2002 20:14:23 PDT
Dear All,

Since there were a number of Z. Nerines in the BX I thought it might be a 
good idea to give some of the people who might now know what they are some 
background information. In the winter of 1998-1999  Mr. Zinkowski (sorry I 
can't remember his first name, it couldn't be Eugene could it?) died 
leaving behind a large bulb collection. There were many greenhouses and a 
lot of the material was badly neglected. Steve Vinisky organized a rescue 
effort and other IBS members assisted him. Zinkowski had been a breeder of 
Nerines and maybe Narcissus and those of us who contributed money to a 
rescue fund were rewarded with some of the Nerine bulbs that he had been 
hybridizing. Most were supposed to have Nerine sarniensis in their 
heritage, but there could have been other species involved too. We were 
told that we could get something really special or something that could end 
up in the garbage heap. Since they had been neglected it could be a number 
of years before they would recover their previous vigor. It appears that 
Cathy is sharing some of hers with the BX.

I haven't been very successful with mine, only getting two of them to bloom 
in years past. I shared the ones I got with Diana Chapman and she reported 
much better luck. She told me they needed a warmer summer than they were 
probably getting where I live and suggested they go into the greenhouse 
after they went dormant for the additional heat. Harold Koopowitz thought 
they needed good fertilization while in growth to make up for the neglect 
and Diana suggested using a slow release fertilizer. Other suggestions were 
summer water which Lee Poulsen had found to be very successful as a way to 
get his to bloom. Harold thought weekly water might be too much and I 
finally settled on once a month. I looked at some of them recently and with 
that treatment they were totally dry. The good news is that I have 3 scapes 
forming on three pots that haven't bloomed yet so I am excited to see how 
they will turn out to be.

Mary Sue 




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