Ferraria culture, NOT in the Pacific Northwest

J.E. Shields jshields104@insightbb.com
Sat, 17 Jan 2004 13:28:29 PST
Hi

I grow Ferraria crispa in a 6-inch pot in a gritty mix.  They bloom in this 
pot, and have for a couple years already.  They live in this pot in the 
greenhouse year round, being totally dry and dormant in the hot greenhouse 
in summer.  In the 6-inch plastic pot they are about 16 to 18 inches high 
when blooming, with leaves to 24 inches long.

They do not increase in size very quickly for me.

Jim Shields
in central Indiana


At 12:36 PM 1/17/2004 -0800, you wrote:
>Dear Dave,
>
>We've talked a little about Ferraria before you joined us. The search 
>feature on our archives isn't working very well at the moment. But if you 
>go to Google and put in Ferraria and pbs you will find that we talked 
>about this subject in October 2003.
>http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbslist/old.php/…
>
>Look under New Member/Ferraria crispa
>
>My experience has been that Ferrarias are not very hardy (read mush when 
>we got into the low to mid 20ties) and do better in the ground than in 
>containers and that they can go very deep. The trouble with planting them 
>deeply is that won't help if they are in growth when it is cold.
>
>George Krasle from Seattle told the IBS list many years ago he had 
>converted his to a summer growing cycle since they couldn't tolerate his 
>winters. And they were very happy. I tried to do this without luck. And he 
>quickly dropped off that list and his email no longer worked so I could 
>never get more information about how he did it. Mine wanted to be on a 
>winter cycle.
>
>Ferraria can get very tall, but then it falls over so that means it no 
>longer is tall unless you stake it.
>
>The one I grow as Ferraria crispa norterii (which is no longer considered 
>to be a subspecies) I've been able to grow and flower quite successfully 
>in a 8 inch pot. I think that one could be moved inside or to a greenhouse 
>when extreme cold was expected.
>
>Maybe Rand Nicholson can tell us how his are faring since he was the one 
>to raise the question.
>
>If yours haven't sprouted yet, maybe you could try to hold them and see if 
>moisture would get them going in spring.
>
>Mary Sue
>
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>pbs@lists.ibiblio.org
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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


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