Mystery bulb

Mary Sue Ittner msittner@mcn.org
Tue, 16 Apr 2019 18:25:42 PDT
One thing I've learned from my years in this group is that it is 
sometimes a challenge to give advice as what you suggest may not work 
and often more than one solution works. Some Cyrtanthus hybrids I had 
never flowered until Alberto advised me to put them in a deeper pot. 
After I did that every year they flowered. I think it is a challenge 
also to identify bulbs from the leaves as the leaves can look quite 
different under different growing conditions. I have flowered Cyrtanthus 
obliquus (in a large pot, but with more than one plant) after many years 
of waiting and the leaves of my plants look a lot like the leaves of the 
ones in the Mystery photo. I grow it in my greenhouse year round and it 
gets some water year round as well as it never goes completely dormant 
but more water in summer. I saw it flowering in South Africa on a very 
hot day in open areas without any shade anywhere (I remember since I 
needed to have cold water poured over my head to cool off). I can't 
replicate that in my garden so that's why it needs to be in the 
greenhouse in the summer for warmer temperatures then although I guess 
I'm also sheltering it a bit from our sometimes wet winters. I lost some 
of the bulbs to the Narcissus bulb fly early on, but smaller ones 
survived and eventually got big enough to flower. It hasn't flowered 
every year and probably won't this year since I pulled out one of the 
bulbs to share with a friend. It's an amazing flower so very exciting 
when it does flower. Hopefully the Mystery bulb will flower and then 
this group can help identify it.

Mary Sue


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