Rotating Pot Culture For Bulbs
ConroeJoe@aol.com (Sun, 21 Nov 2004 13:09:19 PST)

I like plants that can rotate in and out of season easily. By this I mean I
leave them outside for months and don't have to bother with them to protect
from too much cold or too much rain. There are so many bulbs that will do this,
but it is not always clear which ones will be happy here--the main culprit is
too much rain--even in their regular growing season. Some bulbs behave like
cacti from extreme deserts, and it is just too wet here. Those that have
done OK here get 7 months outside and 5 months indoors (totally dry and air
conditioned).

The bulbs that I've had success with (not that many yet) are easy for another
reason; they don't need too big a pot--10 inches seems about right. Thus,
there is room for variety on a not-too-large sunny porch and I have enough room
to store them indoors in the off season. I just give them a shot of mild
pyrethroid insecticide (soil drench in early fall) before I store them and I don't
worry about insects. The pots sit here and there, and my friends and family
are used to seeing them as doorstops, etc. Some sit on the top shelf in the
laundry room where temperatures are generally warmer than the rest of the house
(up to 85-90 F) during the day when air conditioning is minimized. I have
not yet tried to store summer-growing bulbs-I suppose they would do fine in the
garage but the humidity will be higher there. I'll try some experimenting
with Eucomis vandermerwei.

As far as bulbs go, I am first and foremost, a Crinum addict, but some other
species are wonderful and take up far less space. I'm happily waiting on
some Nerine species that I'm growing from seed--perhaps they will find the pot
rotation culture to their liking.
I think I'd like to try some of the Moraea species-I've resisted them a long
time because the fortnight lily is such a tediously common landscape plant
where I grew up (Southern California). But, plants I want to try include Moraea,
more Lachenalia, and some other deciduous Cape bulbs.

I think that winters in this area (greater Houston, TX area) will be
acceptable to bulbs that come from savannah areas or perhaps grasslands, but maybe not
for bulbs from truly arid deserts. If they are like cacti and North American
succulents, the bulbs that will do best here (greater Houston, TX) will be
those from regions that normally receive at least 15-20 inches of rain per year.

Cordially,

Joe