Nerine Thoughts - anew
Mary Sue Ittner (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