Brunsvigia grandiflora

I suspect Brunsvigia grandiflora is one of those plants that may behave
differently depending on where the seed comes from and how they are grown.
Quoting Dirk Wallace from Australia: "The variation in a species can be
immense, and there is no hard and fast rule to cover all the different
forms of a particular species.
Many factors are involved, especially where the collection comes from, and
what climate you are putting it into."
I saved these notes from Greg Pettit from 1999:
"Brunsvigia grandiflora is found in Southern Natal towards the mountains.
At Kokstad a large colony existed (decimated for indigenous medicine?).
These bulbs were in a heavy black clay and were buried almost up to the
necks. This species has a very close resemblance to Boophone disticha and
is often found at the local "medicine" market in and amongst Boophone. It
will not tolerate the high humidity of Durban so my attempts at rescuing
some have proved fruitless.

There is another colony of B. grandiflora growing on the foothills of the
Southern Drakensberg which are at least 200mm in diameter and are 2/3
exposed above the ground. They are subjected to heavy frosts and
snowfalls in winter and although I did not see them in flower (only in a
light snow),
I am sure that the pink display would be impressive."

On the other hand Dirk's plants had a cycle of growing through
Autumn/Winter/Spring and going dormant in late Spring through Summer. He
kept his with his rainlily collection and watered them while dormant in
summer every couple of days.

I received seeds of this species from the Huntington Gardens in Southern
California in February 2000. I forgot they were supposed to be a summer
rainfall and treated them as a winter rainfall species and was horrified
when I was potting them one year to realize that I had been treating them
as a winter rainfall species. Then Rhoda wrote that this species in the
Stutterheim region of the Eastern Cape had leaves appearing in late summer
to early fall and growing into winter when they dried up. I started giving
mine a bit of water during dormancy, probably not as much as Dirk, but
watering when I think about it. I planted them in a large pot and submerged
it in the ground and let it get rained on during winter. In the ground in a
large pot the soil probably doesn't dry out so much either and since I have
it nestled in another pot it is harder for the redwood roots to get into
the pot and suck up the moisture. Last year it finally bloomed, seven
years from sowing and the last of the leaves has just dried up. New leaves
usually appear in August or September so it isn't without leaves very long
for me. It bloomed in November and December which is not the time of year
it is supposed to bloom according to others (mid to late summer). Also
Rhoda said it blooms with the leaves which obviously was not how it was
supposed to bloom. I love the undulating leaves of the form I am growing
and when it was blooming it got multiple compliments, perhaps partly since
it was a time of year not a lot was in bloom in my garden.
http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/…
Mine is the 2nd picture in the group, but there are also habitat pictures
from Cameron.

Rhoda and Cameron gave away seeds of this plant to our group in 2004. Any
of you wish to report how your plants are doing?

Mary Sue