Albucas and other South African Hyacinthaceae
Mary Sue Ittner (Sat, 22 Mar 2008 20:27:43 PDT)

I haven't found the winter rainfall Albuca species to do very well for me
in my Northern California garden. I have a couple in pots and they often
don't break dormancy. Some I put in the ground I never saw again. I'm
assuming they might want more summer heat but I'm not sure. Ornithogalums
are hit and miss too that way and Daubenya. I'm happy that I can grow
Massonia, Lachenalia, and Polyxena. Luckily I have a large enough
collection of bulbs now that I no longer grieve the losses and just
concentrated on the successes although I will admit to having tried some of
the really pretty Ornithogalums and Daubenyas more than once. I have a
couple of species of the latter that do come up, but so far haven't bloomed
or grown very fast. There is only so much room in the greenhouse to put all
the South African and South American species that wish for warmer summer
temperatures.

As Linda wrote Albuca canadensis, syn. Albuca maxima, is definitely a
winter rainfall species. Not too long ago I added some habitat pictures to
the wiki of it. It really makes a statement in the wild. Also the name has
been changed. I checked with John Manning on this and he confirmed this to
be true in spite of it being named maxima in some books he had written
rather recently. It is now considered Albuca canadensis which used to be
the name for a yellow flowered species and which is a strange name for a
South African species. I rather suspect this is going to be a change that
is resisted as it is well known as Albuca maxima. I'd think if Linda is
growing it in a container it might need a very large one eventually.
http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/…

Mary Sue