Ferraria culture, NOT in the Pacific Northwest
J.E. Shields (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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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