Amaryllis belladonna
Mary Sue Ittner (Thu, 13 Aug 2009 07:42:07 PDT)

Hi,

Amaryllis belladonna hasn't always bloomed each year for me even though you
see it coming up everywhere in coastal northern California. None of mine
are showing yet even though I have seen them all around town for weeks.
This has been discussed on this list in the past without any conclusions.
People have suggested they need some summer water, but not a lot, that they
need to be covered by soil or have their necks exposed, that they need a
lot of sun. They aren't supposed to like being transplanted, but I've seen
some bloom the next year after they were planted and others sulk for years.
And where I live we get low temperatures in summer at night and they bloom
most years in abundance so I'm not sure Jane's theory is right for why the
don't bloom for her. It could be low winter temperatures instead of low
summer temperatures. I was reviewing an old Veld and Flora which noted that
they do not bloom reliably in the wild either. They are fynbos plants that
normally flower only after fires at intervals of 5 to 40 years. Since they
do flower more often in gardens this might support the needing a lot of sun
which they would get when the fires clear the vegetation. In the garden
they could be planted where they are not shaded by other plants. The
article mentioned two memorable fires. The great fire of 1950 resulted in
the mass flowering of an estimated 50, 000 belladonna lilies. Now that must
have been an amazing sight! In February 1996 after a raging fire in
December 1995 at Lion's Head (Table Mountain National Park) thousands
erupted from the blackened soil transforming the slopes into a fragrant
white and pink carpet. Note that the latter fire occurred in summer when
the plants would have been dormant and Kathleen's plants were stressed in
winter when they were in growth.

Like others in our great freeze in 1990 we lost a lot of bulbs. Some
recovered in later years. Some did not.

Mary Sue

Mary Sue Ittner
California's North Coast
Wet mild winters with occasional frost
Dry mild summers