Romuleas in bloom
J.E. Shields (Thu, 27 Feb 2003 05:47:00 PST)

Hi all,

I have Romulea tabularis in bloom, a tiny, light blue flower 3/8 to 1/2
inch across (9 to 12 mm). It self-seeds profusely. It is from South
Africa and is one Romulea that blooms reliably in the greenhouse.

R. sabulosa has trouble surviving in a pot and is of course not
freeze-hardy. The flowers would only open in full, bright sunshine, which
is a scarce commodity here in winter. My last pot of this one seems to
have died, which is too bad. Overall, a big disappointment in pot culture
here.

Most of the South African Romuleas I've tried from seed have not lived to
bloom. I've had better luck with some of the Mediterranean Romulea species:

R. tempeskyana (corms from Potterton & Martin) bloomed and has more buds
coming along. It's a nice large blue flower (>1" across).

R. bulbocodium (ex NARGS seeds) bloomed and produced a few self
seeds. Small yellow flower (<1").

R. crocea (ex NARGS wild collected seeds) is growing very slowly for me so far.

I'd like to find a Romulea that would bloom late enough and was hardy
enough to grow outdoors here in the rock garden. Anyone have any ideas?

Jim Shields
in central Indiana

At 02:20 PM 2/27/03 +0100, Lauw wrote:

*************************************************
Jim Shields USDA Zone 5 Shields Gardens, Ltd.
P.O. Box 92 WWW: http://www.shieldsgardens.com/
Westfield, Indiana 46074, USA Tel. +1-317-896-3925
Member of INTERNATIONAL CLIVIA CO-OP