Shy bloomers
Rodger Whitlock (Wed, 24 Sep 2003 03:06:42 PDT)
On 20 Sep 03 at 20:15, Angelo Porcelli wrote:
Hymenocallis x festalis, from 1994 in the ground, has turned in a
massive clump of maybe 15 bulbs, sends stalks every summer but it
aborts the flowers regularly. This summer I have watered them
continuosly, thinking it was my summer heat and drought to cause
this, but no result again. Probably I have to move the bulbs in a
partial shade, as now are in full baking sun.
I wonder if there's some nutritional deficiency involved?
Since I started a program of fall fertilization of my garden a couple
of years ago, I've noticed all sorts of things flowering that never
did much in the past. A stray lycoris, not the usual squamigera,
popped up this fall to my astonishment, and the colchicums include
some I don't remember seeing flowers on for years.
You might, as an experiment, try scattering a general purpose
fertilizer on your Hymenocallis now. I use 13-16-10 at a rate around
an ounce per square yard, roughly 35 g per square meter -- not much.
--
Rodger Whitlock
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
"To co-work is human,
to cow-ork, bovine."