Current Blooms in Indiana

At the moment, the only things in bloom outdoors in the ground are the
Colchicum. After them, maybe we'll see Sternbergia bloom this autumn, and
maybe we won't. I'll let you know!

The first Colchicum to bloom in mass is C. cilicicum, followed by C.
byzantinum. Last will probably be the large patch of C. speciosum I have
naturalized in the front lawn. This last one is very attractive when in
flower, but the big patch of leaves, weeds, and long grass in the spring
and early summer are less fetching. Still, their appearance is a price we
gladly pay in summer for the Fall color.

In pots, we have Cyrtanthus montanus and C. sanguineus currently blooming,
as well as Nerine [filifolia x krigei], N. platypetala, and N.
masoniorum. The dwarf form of N. augustifolius is just about to start
blooming, and N. filifolia is in bud and will soon be in flower.

We no longer grow several Nerine species that were more bother than their
tiny blooms were worth. NN. gracilis and rehmannii are pretty much all
gone. I'm getting impatient with most of my N. laticoma, which are plenty
large enough to bloom now but still have not. I'm wondering if my N.
huttoniae will ever get big enough to bloom.

N. krigei, which usually bloom very reliably for me, only produced a single
scape this year among several pots. Maybe I did not get them cold enough
for long enough last winter. They do require cold temperatures near
freezing in winter to release bloom in summer.

It will soon be time to move the pots of N. sarniensis hybrids from
basement storage to the greenhouse for their winter growing season. I'm
eager to see if we get more bloom than last year, which was the first year
in a long time that I have gotten any sarniensis types to flower for me.

If I ever get to the place where I can get sarniensis types to reliably
flower here, I'll expand my collection of them, because I find them very
attractive.

My Haemanthus coccineus are still blooming, and only one barkerae is still
in bloom. The Haemanthus barkerae are usually the first Haemanthus to
flower here, often starting in early August (more or less mid-summer
here). The last to bloom will be H. crispus, which are bright red but have
umbels no larger than barkerae on peduncles (stems) only about one inch
high. H. crispus does not set abundant seed, so it is very slow to
increase. The leaves of crispus are the main attraction -- narrow, only
about 1 inch wide, very channeled, and the margins are strongly undulate
(very wavy) and take up essentially the whole leaf.

Lachenalia should start to bloom as soon as I start watering them. So far,
I am keeping them dry and out of the way under a bench. Several pots of
these need repotting and dividing. This is the time to do it!

Jim Shields
in sunny central Indiana, USA

*************************************************
Jim Shields USDA Zone 5 Shields Gardens, Ltd.
P.O. Box 92 WWW: http://www.shieldsgardens.com/
Westfield, Indiana 46074, USA
Tel. ++1-317-867-3344 or toll-free 1-866-449-3344 in USA