Paul, Maybe this is due to my growing all my Haemanthus in containers. I do try to put my largest Haemanthus bulbs into 2-gal. pots. They seem to get really huge if given enough room for roots. I think the roots out-mass the bulbs in most cases. I'll keep watching my coccineus for signs of offsets; but I've never seen an offset on one of my own coccineus yet. My oldest Haemanthus bulbs are 12 years old. I vaguely recall seeing some curious Haemanthus coccineus in the Little Karoo botanical garden in South Africa about 6 years ago. They had spotted or mottled leaves, like some Lachenalia, and they may have clumped. I never managed to wheedle any seeds of that Haemanthus out of the curator! Jim Shields At 07:15 AM 1/12/2010 -0800, you wrote: >Jim >Unlike your experience, the H. coccineus in both the Botanical Garden >and my home garden definitely make several offsets. These may even >appear shortly before their first bloom. > >Paul Licht, Director >Univ. California Botanical Garden >200 Centennial Drive >Berkeley, CA 94720 >(510)-643-8999 >http://botanicalgarden.berkeley.edu/ > > >On 1/12/2010 5:14 AM, J.E. Shields wrote: > > Michael, > > > > That does not look like my plant of Haemanthus nortieri. On my plant the > > single leaf stands quite erectly, straight up. Its surface is slightly > > sticky or tacky, and bits of dust, sand, etc., stick to it. The leaf is > > somewhat succulent as well. > > > > Neither my bulb of H. nortieri nor Graham Duncan's much older bulb of > > nortieri, at Kirstenbosch in Cape Town, has ever bloomed. I guess you > > could say that not blooming is the main trait your Haemanthus has in common > > with nortieri (that's a joke). You don't have nortieri. > > > > As far as I know, neither nortieri nor coccineus ever makes any > > offsets. HH. barkerae, pubescens, humilis hirsutus, albiflos, and > > pauculifolius are the only ones that usually make offsets. H. humilis > > humilis may occasionally make an offset, but produces seed so readily (if > > you have at least 2 clones) that offsets don't matter. > > > > What it actually is would be hard to say until it blooms. At a guess, you > > have Haemanthus coccineus. H. coccineus will eventually bloom for you, and > > then should bloom almost every year from then on. It does make a very > > attractive plant and inflorescence, but it is not rare. I have a bunch of > > bloom size bulbs of coccineus in my greenhouse, and I really enjoy them > > when they bloom sometime in August-Sept-October. > > > > Best regards, > > Jim Shields > > in cold and snowy Westfield, Indiana > > USA. > > > > > > > > At 11:02 AM 1/12/2010 +0000, Michael wrote: > > > >> ....... > >> Now could somebody please tell me if it is normal for Haemanthus nortieri > >> to have 2 leaves at a time? I thought it only produced a singe leaf, at > >> least that's what the literatue says about it. > >> > >> My plant never flowered to me but I guess the leaves are attractive enough > >> on their own. Are there any chances of the plant being confused, thus the > >> reluctance on blooming? Or coud it be dividing itself from the crown? Does > >> this species ever produces offsets? > >> > > ************************************************* > > 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 > > > > _______________________________________________ > > pbs mailing list > > pbs@lists.ibiblio.org > > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php > > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/ > > > > >_______________________________________________ >pbs mailing list >pbs@lists.ibiblio.org >http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php >http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/ ************************************************* 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