Tigridia pavonia
Mary Sue Ittner (Thu, 16 Mar 2017 22:02:11 PDT)

When I lived in Stockton, California I grew Tigridia pavonia in raised
beds with perennial flowers. It came back year after year and produced a
succession of flowers. I haven't had a lot of luck growing it
successfully in coastal Northern California where we get much more rain
in winter and summer temperatures are cooler, especially at night.
Purchased bulbs I put in the ground didn't reappear so I tried growing
some from seed and keeping them in pots. I had some success with that,
but very few flowers and nothing in subsequent years. Still, when I saw
the photos of Ellen's 'Sunset in Oz' I was smitten and so when I saw if
offered in the NARGS seed exchange I decided it would be worth it if I
got to see a couple of flowers. And I was curious what they would look
like. I had discovered from my other experiences growing this species
from seed that it was possible to get it to bloom the first year if you
transplanted it up to a deeper pot after it came up and fertilized it. I
sowed seed on February 22 and seedlings started emerging on April 15.
The first flowers appeared in September. Five bulbs bloomed that month.
Luckily I was home as the flowers only last for part of a day. Two of
them resembled the cultivar and the other three did not. The following
month a second flower was produced on two of the plants. And that was
it. Seven flowers lasting less than a day.

I moved the pot into my greenhouse so it could be dry over the winter
and didn't repot. The second year there were lots of leaves and only one
flower one day. But it was a beautiful red and it happened on my
husband's birthday so that was special.

I moved the pot in the greenhouse again when it went dormant and
recently I unpotted and discovered there were lots of bulbs of different
sizes which really surprised me. I probably should give it up as I
obviously don't have the right climate to grow these, but I'm giving
them one more chance and planted a few of them out and a few in a pot
and am sending the rest to Dell for the BX. If they can flower from seed
in months, it would seem there would be a chance for smaller bulbs to
flower this year. I added photos of my 8 flowers to the wiki.

http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/…

After years of drought we've had a lot of rain and some things are
flowering that I haven't seen for years so that is very exciting.

Mary Sue