Veltheimia
James L. Jones (Fri, 23 Nov 2012 13:29:23 PST)

I grow my Veltheimias in a greenhouse that hits freezing (but not below) every year. The capensis, which I grew from Silverhill seed, has very nice clear pink flowers; in blooms in February. I divided it once when it went dormant.
Jim Jones
Lexington, MA

-----Original Message-----
From: Joseph Kraatz <plantnut@cox.net>
To: pbs <pbs@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Fri, Nov 23, 2012 3:29 pm
Subject: [pbs] Veltheimia

My Veltheimia go below freezing before Christmas most years. Just seems to make
them grow better. This year we had the worst heat day since I've lived here on
Sept 14 I was 106 degrees. It went above 100 at 10am and didn't drop below 100
until 6pm. What was strange about this heat was the high humidity. In s. Calif.
heat normally occurs with very low humidity. It totally blasted the foliage on
all my Veltheimias. Fortunately they recovered and I fertilized them and they
all look great at this time. I have a suspicion that the blasting of the
foliage was because they couldn't transpire and cool down. I get yellow flowers
on very few B. bracteata. The yellows never set seed and I just have to
propagate by dividing the bulbs. But, I always sow the seed of the pink
bracteata and about 2% produce yellow flowers. Go figure!! My V. capensis are
now in full bloom. I like the foliage but the flowers are very mottled and
not nearly as attractive. Joe, Oceanside, C
A