Nerine Thoughts - anew

Mary Sue Ittner msittner@mcn.org
Mon, 23 Aug 2010 08:22:40 PDT
Hi,

I didn't have time to reply to the original post this weekend, but 
I'd like to make a few comments. Some I've said in the past, but 
we've had new people join our group since then.

Like Mike I sent money to Steve to assist him in trying to save some 
of the bulbs in the Zinkowski collection. I talked with Steve at a 
NARGS winter study meeting and he talked about what a horrible state 
the collection was in when he tried to save some of the plants. One 
of the benefits from participating was receiving some of the plants 
as a thank you. I gave half of mine to Diana Chapman. I don't know if 
she propagated any of them. I had very poor luck with them for years 
although there was one that looked more like a species that bloomed 
the best. At the time (1999) Harold Koopowitz advised us not to plant 
any of these in the ground. As an experiment I planted one in the 
ground and the rest in pots. The one in the ground has bloomed once 
since 1999. It was a shock to see it as I was sure it was long gone.

Over the years I've tossed a couple of pots when leaves looked 
virused and saved seed of some of my favorites and grown them on. 
I've also given seed to the BX I think. Hamish Sloan offered seed to 
the BX too and  I have one plant in bud at the moment from some of 
the ones I succeeded in growing.

During the topic of the week years we had some first rate information 
on growing these from Hamish and our wiki team has also added a lot 
of good information on the wiki Nerine page:
<http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/…>
My Nerines hybrids bloom so much better now that they get summer 
water so the roots don't shrivel. I can't leave mine out in winter 
because where I live it is too wet and they got stagonospora curtisii 
(red blotch). So I leave them in the greenhouse where I have a fan on 
24-7 and put them under the benches in summer and water every two to 
four weeks depending on how hot it has been. If I lived in a hot 
summer climate I'd probably move them to a cooler place during the 
summer. Most years the majority of my pots bloom and they are 
wonderful. I love the dazzling blooms. They are so sparkly (which you 
can capture when photographed in the sun.)

Hopefully Matt Mathus will speak up since he grows a lot of the 
hybrids in his greenhouse in Massachusetts.

Mary Sue


More information about the pbs mailing list