Needless to say, E. vandermerwei *loves* the summers up here in Little South Africa, aka upstate New York. Unfortunately I neglected to get any into the ground, and since the ground is frozen this morning, it won't happen today. Maybe in a day or two, when it warms up. It comes from a fairly cold area -though I don't really expect it to survive our formidable winters (but I must try). As someone suggested earlier this year, when I inquired on this list, leaf cuttings "take" at a high rate (when seeds aren't available). It is a wonderful little plant! Who out there is growing Eucomis schijffii? Any experiences with that in the open garden? It should be quite cold-hardy. I am now the proud owner of 2 young bulbs and 9 new seedlings thereof, so am not ready to sacrifice my own stock to hardiness experiments. While I think of it: if anyone has a bit (small bulb, seeds) of E. humilis to trade, I would love to get hold of some - Ellen Ellen Hornig Seneca Hill Perennials Oswego NY USA Zone 5; avg. annual snowfall 3m/10ft Original Message: ----------------- From: Tony Avent tony@plantdelights.com Date: Wed, 10 Nov 2004 07:37:06 -0500 To: pbs@lists.ibiblio.org Subject: Re: [pbs] Eucomis vandermerwei Joe: We have a small plant of Eucomis vandermerwei that didn't like our summer either, but we have hope that it will perform better when it grows larger. We saw large production rows of this in Holland this summer, so it should be imported on a limited basis in a couple of years. You can see a photo on our expedition log at http://www.plantdelights.com/Tony/holland.php and scroll down to Monday August 9. At 05:53 PM 11/9/2004 EST, you wrote: >Hi, > >An email garden friend sent me seeds of Eucomis vendermeiwei last winter. I >started them indoors under fluorescent lights, with the aloes and agaves--long >days and bright light. > >In spring I moved them outdoors and they started growing rapidly. But, by >July they were not doing too well--I think the 30 days of rain in June was not >agreeable and the hot summer temperatures didn't seem to help them. > >So, I kept them a bit dry (hard to do here in summer) and now they have >started growing again with the cooler days of Fall. October was quite hot, but >nights were often 70 F rather than 80 F, and it was dry. > >I guess this purported summer grower has 2 seasons here in the greater >Houston area--spring and fall. I'll keep them out till they obviously complain >about the cold and then will dry them down and put them away till next spring. >Who knows, perhaps they won't mind our mild winters--last year the low was 25 F >a few nights, maybe they will grow all winter. > >They sure are attractive, even the little seedlings, with the purple-spotted >leaves. > > >Conroe Joe >_______________________________________________ >pbs mailing list >pbs@lists.ibiblio.org >http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php > Tony Avent Plant Delights Nursery @ Juniper Level Botanic Garden 9241 Sauls Road Raleigh, NC 27603 USA Minimum Winter Temps 0-5 F Maximum Summer Temps 95-105F USDA Hardiness Zone 7b email tony@plantdelights.com website http://www.plantdel.com/ phone 919 772-4794 fax 919 772-4752 "I consider every plant hardy until I have killed it myself...at least three times" - Avent _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.ibiblio.org http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php -------------------------------------------------------------------- mail2web - Check your email from the web at http://mail2web.com/ .