Haemanthus Hardiness
Tony Avent (Mon, 29 Nov 2010 09:51:09 PST)

Jim, etal:

Here are the results of our haemanthus trials.

Did not survive winters here

Haemanthus albiflos
Haemanthus barkarae
Haemanthus carneus
Haemanthus carneus dwarf
Haemanthus coccineus
Haemanthus coccineus dark red stripe form
Haemanthus deformis
Haemanthus humilis ssp. hirsutus
Haemanthus humilis ssp. humilis Cathcart E. Cape Form
Haemanthus montanus
Haemanthus montanus A1SA-057
Haemanthus pauculifolius
Haemanthus sanguineus

Alive since 2004
Haemanthus humilis ssp. humilis hairy form

Tony Avent
Plant Delights Nursery @
Juniper Level Botanic Garden
9241 Sauls Road
Raleigh, North Carolina 27603 USA
Minimum Winter Temps 0-5 F
Maximum Summer Temps 95-105F
USDA Hardiness Zone 7b
email tony@plantdelights.com
website http://www.plantdelights.com/
phone 919 772-4794
fax 919 772-4752
"I consider every plant hardy until I have killed it myself...at least three
times" - Avent

-----Original Message-----
From: pbs-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:pbs-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org]
On Behalf Of J.E. Shields
Sent: Monday, November 29, 2010 10:20 AM
To: Pacific Bulb Society
Subject: Re: [pbs] Haemanthus Hardiness

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