Bessera elegans, Alophia drummondii
Joe Shaw (Sun, 20 Aug 2006 15:47:02 PDT)

Hi Gang,

A.

Bessera elegans is blooming for the first time for me. I have been
delighted with the plants so far. I got small bulbs from an email friend
last spring. I put them out and then forgot about them, after a time they
put up some bits of leaf and I set them in a 2-gallon container with Aloe
plants of similar container size. I let the rain water them in spring and I
did feed them lightly once or twice.

It has been a very hot summer, with 2 dry spells and I have not provided
supplemental water.

Yesterday I saw a bloom, and now I know why folks would grow this plant.
The bloom it not large, but it is beautiful and an attractive scarlet, a bit
brighter than oxblood lily. I think these are worth increasing for front
porch pot culture and summer bloom. I hope they survive the winter; if they
don't mind the winter rain the ground doesn't freeze.

B.

I saw the note about Alophia blooming. The plants I have are generally
locally collected and I scarcely notice them most of the year, if at all.
The are found in east Texas and south Texas, and nearby areas, but I have
always found them in sandy soil, very sandy soil. The soil may or may not
have lots of humus, but it is always sandy and very quick draining.
Therefore, I have planted my own plants in similar soil in pots with Agave
or Aloe, etc., or else I have put them in elevated beds of sandy soil.

It is very true that the blooms are ephemeral; I drove home one day for
lunch, hoping to get a photo of an open bloom I had seen in the morning.
The bloom was history by 12:30 p.m; so beautiful and well worth growing, bus
so ephemeral. The plants make seed easily, a single flower will set 20-30
or more seeds, but they are reluctant to germinate for me unless I leave
them outside over the winter in a 1- or 2-gallon container of very sandy
soil--in which case germination is easy.

For me, in this climate, I have never seen the plants blooming after July.
They seem to do their best in May, and can repeat in June or July (but not a
lot of repeat). I wonder if the repeat bloom may not have been an offset or
a seedling beside the mother plant; they are small plants and I haven't paid
a lot of attention to them buried as they are in spiny plants. Mostly, they
are just a delightful part of the "cover crop" I try to keep growing on
large containers to provide a bit of shade (things like sedums, dryland
sedges, or a semi-weedy annual Portulaca).

Cordially,

Joe
Still hot, but not 100 plus any longer.