Patersonia
Mary Sue Ittner (Thu, 16 Jun 2005 22:50:20 PDT)

Hi,

John Ingram asked about Patersonia glabrata on June 8th. I don't know if
anyone answered him. I only grow one species, Patersonia occidentalis. I
think most of the Patersonias are evergreen however. The species he is
asking about is native to Queensland, New South Wales, and Victoria so I
think it is unlikely to be summer dormant. I looked it up in the
Encyclopedia of Australian plants and this is what it says:
"Occurs in coastal heaths growing in sandy soils and in clay loams in open
forests....Adapts readily to cultivation in subtropical and temperate
regions. One of the best for mass planting. Requires well-drained acid soil
in semi-shade or full sun. Tolerates light to moderate frosts. Propagate
from seed or by division." It doesn't say anything about water but I'd
think that if you were growing them in pots they would need regular water.
And it sounds like they can be divided. I hope this helps.

My Patersonia (the only one to survive from my attempt to grow it from
seed) bloomed for the first time this year. The flowers are fleeting, but I
was still very pleased to see them the days it bloomed. I remember really
enjoying these plants in Australia when we visited them.

My part of California doesn't seem to understand that it usually is a
Mediterranean climate as it continues to rain. It will be interesting to
see what happens to all my dormant bulbs that are getting rained on which
are usually dry at this time of the year and to see if any of those South
African Amaryllids I have grown from seed will finally decide to bloom this
fall encouraged by summer rainfall. I am wondering if this has agreed with
my Patersonia helping it to bloom. I made a new wiki page for Patersonia.
http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/…

Mary Sue

At 10:50 PM 6/8/05 -0700, you wrote: