Question about Zephyranthes

Mark Akimoff via pbs pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net
Sun, 27 Sep 2020 09:59:44 PDT
Thank you all for the tips, interestingly enough, Lord and Schryver never used this combination for an under planting in a Rose Parterre for the rest of the 30 plus years they designed gardens so they may have ran into the same issues. 

Salem gets the occasional summer rain shower often in the first week or two of August but it’s rarely enough to soak the soil deeply.  I had thought of digging the Bulbs and storing them for the winter. It will be interesting to see if the bulbs can make it through the normally wet winters here though if I leave them to try and settle in a bit more. 

I’ll keep on the hunt for recommended selections that might work because I would really like to make this combination work.

All the best,
Mark
Garden Manager/Curator
The Lord and Schryver Conservancy
Salem, Oregon 

> On Sep 26, 2020, at 12:40 PM, Nan Sterman via pbs <pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net> wrote:
> 
> Mark, I would wait until your population of Zephyranthes stabilizes over the next couple of years and then re-evaluate.  It often takes a few years for some kinds of bulbs to bloom reliably and in my experience, that happens with Zephyranthes. The first year is not representative of their bloom cycle and amount of bloom - generally that starts with the second year. 
> 
> That sounds like a gorgeous combo, by the way!
> 
>> On Sep 25, 2020, at 8:50 AM, mark akimoff via pbs <pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net> wrote:
>> 
>> Hello,
>> 
>> I work for a Historic Garden Conservancy dedicated to preserving the legacy
>> of the first two female landscape Architects to start a firm in Oregon in
>> the 1930's, Elizabeth Lord and Edith Schryver. One of their earliest
>> designs from 1929, recommended planting Pink Rain Lilies, in front of
>> Heliotrope as a foil for the roses in a parterre planting for a garden in
>> Tacoma, Washington.
>> 
>> The combination sounded pretty stunning so I set out to recreate this
>> design, obtaining Zephyranthes rosea and Zephyranthes grandiflora from
>> several different commercial online bulb sources. I planted these in May,
>> along with several flats of Heliotrope 'Marine'.  Several flowers appeared
>> immediately and I thought if this keeps up it will be a stunning sight. But
>> that ended up being all the flowers that showed on the rain lilies. I tried
>> trying drying the rain lilies out for a few weeks at a time, while trying
>> to keep the Heliotrope looking good and then introducing more water but no
>> blooms. Now the fall rains have started in earnest and still no blooms on
>> the rain lilies.
>> 
>> So i'm wondering if anyone with more experience with Zephryranthes would
>> have any recommendations about how to get better summer blooms with those
>> two selections? Or is there a better one to try? I have seedlings going of
>> Z. morrisclintii and and some small offsets of Z. 'labuffarosea' from one
>> of the exchanges but they are years away from making a show in the garden.
>> 
>> I have some bulb catalogs from the 1930's and they list Zephyranthes
>> robustus, with the following description "Large, bright pink flowers
>> appearing in late summer on 6-8" stems. foliage during winter and spring.
>> The flowers are long enough to be useful for cutting. It's adaptability to
>> culture in pots, rock gardens, and borders makes it a very useful member of
>> a well known group"
>> 
>> Any tips or tricks to recreating this floral show would be much appreciated?
>> 
>> Thanks,
>> 
>> Mark
>> Garden Manager/Curator
>> The Lord and Schryver Conservancy
>> Salem, Oregon
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