Landscaping with Bulbs--Natal/South Africa

Greg Pettit goblin@itikzn.co.za
Wed, 01 Oct 2003 03:33:00 PDT
Greetings,

When I lived in Queensburgh/Durban last year I had set all of my bigger
Crinum up into beds.  I did my best to emulate where they had come from.

About 200-300 Crinum macowanii were in a bed on a bank adjacent to my storm
water drain.  They were flooded every time it rained.  They lived in full
sun and most gave me at least 3 stalks per bulb.  Some even produced 5 stems
(almost at the same time). They were the first to flower (now, in mid
spring)

Down in the forest I had about 500 Crinum moorei.  They were between two
annual streams and tended to flower in mid summer.  By keeping them more
than 5 metres into thick bush, I managed to keep the Amaryllis caterpillar
at bay.  To do the same in open spaces I need to plant Tagates (Marigold).

Between the two beds I had set up an area for my Crinum acaule and
delagoense/forbesii.  I dug out a bed of about 4 metres by 2 metres and
about 500mm deep.  I back-filled with fine beach sand and sunk the
pre-mentioned two species into the beds.  They flowered in December (mid
summer).

Another large bed was home to about 2000 Eucomis hybrids.  These were also
in full sun.

In the forest I had beds/clumps of the lesser value bulbs.

On a bank that was home to a spring, I had all my species Kniphofia and
below that was a few thousand Zantedeschia ethiopica.

Further in the forest was huge clumps of Dietes grandiflora and iridioides.

When I moved here to the farm (near Pietermaritzburg) I brought a few truck
loads of bulbs up with me and just planted them anywhere to keep them going.
I am slowly separating them and planting them into beds.

The only plants not happy with the move has been the Crinum procerum
(Hawaii), Crinum asiaticum and Musa merelii (ex Kenya, I think that is the
name of my red edible bananas?).  All three are unhappy with the cold
winters.

In Durban we dropped to a minimum of 8C at night whereas here we drop to 0C
and even had 2 evenings of light frost.

Regards
Greg


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