Getting Rain Lilies to bloom

Boyce Tankersley btankers@chicagobotanic.org
Mon, 03 Mar 2003 06:24:10 PST
Mary Sue and all:

Last summer we planted 3 large bulb pans filled with Zephranthes candida into our new Water Gardens. The top of the soil surface is slightly above the water level. The edges of the lake have been resculpted to reduce erosion and now gently slope out to the depths. The rainlilies are about 15 feet from the shore. Despite my misgivings, the bulbs bloomed throughout the summer without stop. Brent Heath got very excited when he saw them. As far as I can tell, no viable seed was set.

These same containers were brought into the greenhouses over the winter and placed in the aquatic tanks with the other non-hardy aquatic taxa. Foliage remained green but there have been no flowers whatsoever. Diurnal temperatures in the greenhouse flucuate only slightly in this greenhouse heated for warm tropicals.

Boyce Tankersley
btankers@chicagobotanic.org


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