Oxblood Lily, and L. squamigera
J.E. Shields (Mon, 13 Sep 2004 07:51:48 PDT)

Hi all,

I envy Jim McK. if he has Nerine in his garden. I have not found a Nerine
that will survive and flower outdoors in the ground here. We have Nerine
filifolia just starting to bloom now. N. krigei flowered several weeks
ago, followed by NN. gracilis, next [filifolia X krigei], and then filamentosa.

I'm very fond of these, but they only flower here in pots. I tried NN.
angulata, filifolia, krigei, and [filifolia X krigei] planted in my raised
bed rock garden last summer. None made it through the winter. I also
tried N. bowdenii (NOT!) 'Pink Triumph' in the rock garden, and it also
perished.

Only N. bowdenii "Koen's Hardy" have ever survived outdoors in the ground
through winter, and they never bloom out there.

One batch of Rhodophiala bifida survives in the ground and is now in
bloom. Two other batches in the ground in different locations died. As
Panayoti Kelaidas says, try plants in lots of different locations before
deciding that they are not hardy.

Where the one batch of Rhodophiala bifida survive, the Gladiolus
oppositiflorus salmoneus died. These glads, however, flourish out in the
open field in the same bed where three Crinum varieties also do
well. Well, actually, out of about 20 bulbs of Crinum [bulbispermum X
macowanii] lined out, only three survived the winter. On the other hand,
19 out of 19 C. [bulbispermum X lugardiae] lined out two or three years ago
survived and most bloomed this year.

Regards,
Jim Shields
in central Indiana

At 10:32 AM 9/13/2004 -0400, you wrote:

*************************************************
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