Cryptostephanus blooming now?
Lee Poulsen (Fri, 04 Sep 2009 20:10:17 PDT)

Unlike Clivia miniata, which in my area flower the vast majority of the
time on a strict annual schedule where you start seeing the scape appear
down in the bottom of the leaves usually in February (late winter/early
spring) and flowering for about a month starting in March or so, my
Cryptostephanus vansonii don't seem to have any schedule that I can
ascertain. Flowers seem to appear at random times throughout the year.
Now I've only had a well-growing C. haemanthoides for 2 growing seasons
so far, but this year it appears to be growing like gangbusters. I don't
know if this has anything to do with the unusually mild summer we had
until it suddenly became unbearably hot with very little cooling at
night (and very smoky with ash every day for the more than a week now)

I'm not sure when it flowers, if it does so at some specific season. But
I hope this year or next it will flower for me.

--Lee Poulsen
Pasadena, California, USA, USDA Zone 10a

James Waddick wrote:

Dear Friends,
I was surprised to see a tiny pale flower in a shady area and
traced it back to a plant of Cryptostephanus vansonii. This is the
'pink' form although in the current warm weather I doubt it will show
much pink color.

This hasn't bloomed for me all that often and I seem to
recall it blooming in spring, not late summer. I checked out the wiki
http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/…
and see that Lee Poulsen blooms his in Oct. so maybe this
isn't so far off.

What is the usual bloom time in northern gardens? Any other reports?

Thanks Jim W.