New Member/Ferraria crispa
J.E. Shields (Sat, 04 Oct 2003 06:51:54 PDT)

Hi Rand and all,

If you don't have a greenhouse, put the pot of Ferraria in the brightest,
sunniest window you have.

Good luck on trying to switch them over. My only thought on the subject
would be to store the bulbs next summer and autumn for as long as possible
out of the pot, bare, and in a brightly lit, warm and quite dry location to
delay the new shoots.

Some bulbs are very sensitive to environmental conditions and come in and
out of dormancy in response to moisture, daylight length, heat, cold,
etc. Others seem to have a built-in calender and clock and grow on their
own timetable regardless of conditions around them.

Regards,
Jim Shields
in central Indiana, where my pots of Ferraria have not started to grow yet.

At 10:38 AM 10/4/2003 -0400, you wrote:

Mary Sue and PBSers:

Thanks for the welcome.

I will be extremely interested in this particular Topic of the Week, but
right now, I could use some advice on planting my Ferraria crispa bulbs
which are sprouting as I write. And on keeping them going over the winter
until I can try to switch them. They will be potted and kept indoors over
the winter.

Anyone have any suggestion to share?

Rand

Dear Rand,

Welcome to the PBS List. There was a man on the IBS list for awhile many
years ago from Seattle named George Krassle. He dropped out and I didn't
have any luck contacting him later. He reported to that group that he was
growing Ferraria on a summer cycle as he was unable to grow them
successfully with his wet cold winters otherwise. I tried to turn some of
mine around and didn't have any luck even though he said it was quite
easy and they started into growth when he watered them. Maybe if you
started them from seed in the spring and they always had been grown that
way it would work. Or maybe it depended on how they were stored.

In October I plan to have a topic of the week on the subject you have
suggested. It was inspired by Lisa Flaum, but I wanted to wait until Mark
Wilcox has returned from South America since he too is interested. I've
haven't figured out a title yet, maybe Bulbs that can be grown out of
their normal cycle?

Mary Sue

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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
Member of INTERNATIONAL CLIVIA CO-OP