Bulbs of south africa
Mary Sue Ittner (Sat, 11 Jun 2005 07:52:27 PDT)

Dear All,

It sounds like some people have responded to Jonathen from Brazil's
questions about how to grow the South African bulbs he has received. He
answered in Spanish to Alberto so I am assuming Alberto wrote to him. When
people write privately it is hard to know whether we still need to try to
answer the questions.

But I am guilty too as I wrote him about Cyrtanthus mackenii and C.
brachyscyphus which are both evergreen although probably need less water in
winter and referred him to our wiki page since Bill has added a lot of good
information there. Cyrtanthus contractus and C. breviflorus are Eastern
Cape species so would be a summer growers. I don't grow either so perhaps
someone could tell us their water needs. I saw the latter in bloom last May
in the UK so perhaps it too needs some year round water?

I have some seedlings of Boophone disticha and some I'm growing from
African Bulbs. Since this species can be found in both summer and winter
rainfall I've tried to make mine winter growing. They've never really gone
dormant though so now I don't know when to stop watering them. Younger
plants can sometimes tolerate more moisture and I don't want to kill them
by overwatering them as they age. Giving advice about something that grows
in areas with different environments seems tricky.

We also have a lot of good information on the wiki about Haemanthus thanks
to Cameron McMaster.
http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/files/…
In that article he wrote: "Winter rainfall species should be kept dry in
summer and only watered again when growing season commences in late summer.
Summer rainfall species are more tolerant of watering all year round and
should not be allowed to dry out completely in their dormant phase.
Evergreen species should be kept moist all year round." H.
pauculifolius and albiflos are evergreen and H. humilis and montanus are
summer rainfall species.

Littonia modesta is a summer grower. I keep mine dry in winter and start it
into growth late spring. Agapanthus praecox is evergreen and A. caulescens
is deciduous and summer growing.

Jonathan if you did not learn enough about any of these from your private
responses, please write again and ask about which plants you still are
wondering about.

Mary Sue