Haemanthus
While some Haemanthus are clearly xeric in habitat, the ones now in bloom here are from the Eastern Cape Province, KZN, or Gauteng/Mpumalanga, all of which are in the summer rainfall zone. Haemanthus montanus has just finished flowering, while Haemanthus humilis hirsutus is almost finished. Haemanthus humilis humilis is just starting to flower, and my two bulbs of Haemanthus carneus are blooming now for the first time since I received them years ago.
I'm trying to find seeds of some of the rare Harmanthus, like canaliculatus, pumilo, and tristus, if anyone knows of sources. We tried and failed with seeds of nortieri. In the cool greenhouse, we have had very good luck growing coccineus, barkerae, and crispus from seed. We have managed to grow a couple namaquensis from seed to almost bloom size. Pubescens and amarylloides have been much slower to grow and show no signs so far of blooming. We have one bulb of dasyphyllus, also very slow growing.
Jim Shields
Westfield, Indiana
USA
|