Haemanthus Hardiness
J.E. Shields (Mon, 29 Nov 2010 07:19:32 PST)
Paul,
That's very interesting. As I recall from my grad school days there 50
years ago, it can get rather nippy in Berkeley in winter.
I'm not ready to try Haemanthus outdoors in the ground here in Indiana just
yet, but I think folks in zone 7 should look into this notion. I'd suggest
trying Haemanthus montanus first. If it survives a couple of winters, then
try things like albiflos (cheap and common), coccineus (relatively common),
and humilis hirsutus (probably pretty cold-hardy).
Plant the bulbs completely in the ground, with the tip of the bulb just at
or slightly below the ground surface. I'd start off with them in a very
well-drained soil.
Jim Shields
in central Indiana
USA
At 06:58 AM 11/29/2010 -0800, you wrote:
We have a diverse collection in the ground here in Berkeley and I don't
think we've lost any to frost in my 7 years here. It gets down to mid-20s
in the Garden and the leaves get very stiff. I'm sure this doesn't
approach the midwest/east coast.
Paul Licht, Director
Univ. California Botanical Garden
200 Centennial Drive
Berkeley, CA 94720
(510)-643-8999
http://botanicalgarden.berkeley.edu/
*************************************************
Jim Shields USDA Zone 5
P.O. Box 92 WWW: http://www.shieldsgardens.com/
Westfield, Indiana 46074, USA
Tel. ++1-317-867-3344