Hesperocallis undulata
Don (Tue, 03 Oct 2017 12:02:41 PDT)

Hi Lee. Sorry for the delay in responding to you, but I just now saw it.
It is clear that there are difficulties in bringing these bulbs to
maturity, but it is also clear that they do this just fine in the wild.
I'm trying to understand the factors that control their growth and
flowering. It may be that they simply take a very long time to reach
maturity and there is a lot of attrition along the way. A paper I
recently read about a geophyte from the Pyrenees found that the bulbs
did not reach maturity for 20 years, and the oldest bulb in the
population was over 300 years. If you respond to me by email to
don@rideouts.net, I will send you my draft paper on what I have observed
so far.

I presently have some seedlings that I will experiment with. As you
said, the seeds germinated readily. I placed 14 in standard 1 gal. black
plastic pots with a mix of potting soil and native soil. After a week, 8
of them have produced single thread-like leaves. I plan to place the
pots in the ground with the bottom cut off so it does not interfere with
drainage or root growth. I'll see how they do in their natural
environment for the next several years.

Don Rideout
Borrego Springs, CA USDA Zone 9a
33.25958, -116.37659

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