Amaryllis belladonna and fire
Mary Sue Ittner (Wed, 30 Sep 2009 19:57:18 PDT)

Hi,

It has been a dismal year for the Amaryllis belladonna in my garden.
Only two have bloomed. Usually I have a lot more bloom.

You may recall in our recent discussion about how to get them to
bloom that I wrote that in South Africa they are much more likely to
bloom after a fire. Members of this list didn't seem willing to go to
those extremes to get them to bloom.

Several weeks ago a local restaurant burned to the ground. This
restaurant was sited close to a bluff top overlooking the Gualala
River and the Pacific Ocean. Below it was a steep slope that was a
mixture of mostly non native vegetation (non native grasses, Vinca
major, wild radish) although there were some Garryea elliptica (silk
tassel bushes/trees) and Baccharis closer to the bottom. The upper
part burned with the building taking out for the moment the Vinca.
Walking on the bottom of the slope where there is a trail a week plus
later we saw something pushing out of the ground on the hillside
above in the scorched earth and broken glass. Immediately we figured
out it had to be Amaryllis belladonna. We've never seen it there and
I'm not sure how it got there since I don't think anyone could have
planted it on that steep of a slope. But it is all over the place
with more coming up all the time. I took a few pictures for the wiki
today, but I couldn't get very close and my zoom lens distorts distances.
<http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/…>http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/…

Mary Sue

PS. So far it seems to be a great start for my Oxalis and Moraea
polystachya is in bloom and the first Crocus and Hyacinthoides
lingulata. Also a number of Nerine hybrids and species are in bloom
and a lot of Cyclamen.