Phycella bicolor

I can't understand why this species is described as growing in "an area
that receives nearly constant rainfall." The two sites for it described
in "Flora nativa de valor ornamental" are on the east slope of the
Chilean Coast Ranges, which have dry summers, and I don't think a great
deal of fog gets to the east side. I've been to one of them, which is in
La Campana National Park. It is noted for the wine palm (Jubaea
chilensis), which does tend to appear in the lower parts of canyons
where moisture is higher. It is somewhat moister than the east side of
the central California Coast Ranges, but not as moist as the west side
by any means. They grow avocados around there.

That book says (my transl.), "They need full sun, soil rich in
nutrients, good drainage, and some moisture." They flower in mid-spring.
I haven't seen p. bicolor in flower but have seen the closely related
Phycella ignea, growing on steep slopes (in one place fairly shady, in
another in full sun).

If you're growing your bulb in a pot, you should not water it "heavily."
The leaves may be dying because the plant is too wet, too cold, or
inadequately lighted. I'd try to deal with "too cold" also.

Or you can move to California, where all the beautiful Chilean plants
are so seldom grown and so well suited.

In general I've observed that Chilean amaryllids grow with their bulbs
quite deep in the soil (you can see this in drainages where floods have
washed away some soil). This Phycella would experience dry conditions
during its summer dormancy, when the weather is likely to be quite hot,
but would not become completely dried out or hot because of its soil
depth. That is also difficult to provide a potted specimen, but plunging
the pot in sand would help.

Hope this helps. It's always worthwhile to find exact wild sites for
plants, and if you can't visit them yourself, look at the images: they
may show topography and soils, or whole plant communities from which you
can infer growing conditions.

Jane McGary, Portland, Oregon, USA

On 10/29/2018 7:36 PM, Michael Kent wrote:

I need some help with this plant. My bulb has sent up sprouts three times
since I acquired it. Each time, the sprouts only got about 2" out of the
soil before flopping over and dying off. Two of the times, I was trying to
water very lightly since my only option for winter growing bulbs is the
basement, under grow-lights (With the temps in the mid-50's, too much water
tends to lead to cold and damp soil.). The third time, I watered more than
previously, but still had no success.

I recently was looking at some information on Chile-Flora website. It
states that the P. bicolor grows in an area that receives nearly constant
rainfall. The annual rainfall may be up to 32", mostly concentrated in the
winter months. It also stated that the soil tends to be either clay with
limited drainage, or poor soil with good drainage. The soil in the pot may
not quite qualify as poor, but the drainage is good.

I now have a few more sprouts coming up. Should I be watering heavily until
Spring, or will that just cause more problems?

Thank you for any input.

Mike
Zone 6a in the Finger Lakes, where the paperwhites are impatiently popping
out of the ground
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