Cyrtanthus species and hybrids Intro.TOW
J.E. Shields (Mon, 29 Dec 2003 11:27:55 PST)

Hi all,

Angelo's complaint mirrors mine exactly: Cyrtanthus elatus never bloomed
for me in all the years that I had it. I have to say that I threw out my
last bulbs of C. elatus several years ago! Never again will I waste good
greenhouse space on Cyrtanthus elatus.

C. sanguineus also blooms reliably here every year for me. I also find
that it never has set seed.
My bulbs of C. mackenii cooperi also bloom just about every year. Both
these species have filled their respective pots to overcrowding with
offsets, several of which also bloom.

A large bulb of C. obliquus that I bought a year or so ago is still large
and seems pretty healthy, but has not so far bloomed for me. Three large
bulbs of C. falcatus, bought at the same time as the obliquus, have
produced only one single scape so far.

Small bulbs of C. montanus are slowly growing toward what I hope will
eventually be blooming size.

Small seedling bulbs of C. brachyscyphus are just sitting there, perhaps
because they are too crowded in their original communal seed pot.

I have lost 100 % of seedlings (from seed) of CC. breviflorus and
flanaganii. On the other hand, C. obliquus seedlings (from seed) are doing
very nicely, and I should probably pot them up into individual pots this
winter before they start to grow again.

I grow all of my Cyrtanthus in pots, of course. They would not survive
long outdoors in the ground in my climate. I pot all of them in gritty
mix: Promix + sand + granite chick starter grit ( 2 : 1 : 1 ). They spend
the winter inside a greenhouse, almost always completely dry; in summer
they go outside, in full sun. This may not be the best way to grow
Cyrtanthus, it is merely the way I try to grow all of my Cyrtanthus. It
doesn't always work.

I look forward to this discussion because I would like to be able to grow
more Cyrtanthus species and to grow the tough ones more successfully (at
least more successfully than 100% mortality!)

Regards,
Jim Shields
in central Indiana (USA)

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Jim Shields USDA Zone 5 Shields Gardens, Ltd.
P.O. Box 92 WWW: http://www.shieldsgardens.com/
Westfield, Indiana 46074, USA
Tel. ++1-317-867-3344 or toll-free 1-866-449-3344 in USA
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