Rain at last??/When to start watering
Shirley Meneice (Sat, 16 Oct 2004 21:09:56 PDT)

I find a deep saucer under the plant helps. The water applied to the
top does run through, but when caught below tends to be taken up as if
by a wick. The other possibility, though terribly time-consuming, is to
immerse the whole pot in a bucket or large container of water and let it
stay there until the bubbling ceases, indicating that the soil is
soaked. Often it will "float" in the container when really dried out.
Then I place a smaller plant on the container to hold it down into the
water until it has begun to soak up the moisture and no longer tips over
in the water.

Hope that helps.
Shirley Meneice

Mary Sue Ittner wrote:

Dear All,

We have discussed more than once when to start watering dormant plants
if you live in a Mediterranean climate. As usual there is no
consensus. Some people recommend late August for those of us in the
Northern hemisphere. There are a couple of genera that Lauw and others
have noted do not bloom well or even come up if started later:
Oxalis, Ferraria, maybe some Moraeas. I have been a bit concerned
about starting some things too early since where I live we can have
warmer temperatures in September and October than we do in summer and
have been concerned how some of the newly emerging plants will cope.

Last year Gordon Summerfield from South Africa told us when we visited
him that if they are not in growth by mid October, he gives his
dormant plants a good soaking. I saw on the weather report last night
that they are predicting the first good winter rains for some parts of
California will hit early next week. San Diego and Los Angeles have
had no really measurable rainfall since mid April (just imagine all of
you in other areas who complain when you go a number of weeks without
rain!) I hiked with a couple from South Carolina this week who visited
last spring and they just couldn't get over how different it looked
here with all the grass brown and looking dead and everything covered
in dust. Hopefully this rain will wash off the dust on the leaves of
the evergreen shrubs and trees and help with the fire danger.

Last week we had a number of days of very hot weather and it looks
like my Oxalis ambigua which was looking so nice has died and some of
the Lachenalias that were just coming up have shriveled leaves. I'm
wondering if either will recover. I had watered some of my dormant
containers, but not all. Anyone else want to update us on their
experiences?

Finally does anyone have any good ideas about the best way to water
dormant pots that are completely dry? I find the water goes right
through them, around the sides.

Mary Sue
Mary Sue Ittner
California's North Coast
Wet mild winters with occasional frost
Dry mild summers

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