Shy bloomers

Rodger Whitlock totototo@mail.pacificcoast.net
Wed, 24 Sep 2003 03:06:42 PDT
On 20 Sep 03 at 20:15, Angelo Porcelli wrote:

> Hymenocallis x festalis, from 1994 in the ground, has turned in a
> massive clump of maybe 15 bulbs, sends stalks every summer but it
> aborts the flowers regularly. This summer I have watered them
> continuosly, thinking it was my summer heat and drought to cause
> this, but no result again. Probably I have to move the bulbs in a
> partial shade, as now are in full baking sun.

I wonder if there's some nutritional deficiency involved?

Since I started a program of fall fertilization of my garden a couple 
of years ago, I've noticed all sorts of things flowering that never 
did much in the past. A stray lycoris, not the usual squamigera, 
popped up this fall to my astonishment, and the colchicums include 
some I don't remember seeing flowers on for years.

You might, as an experiment, try scattering a general purpose 
fertilizer on your Hymenocallis now. I use 13-16-10 at a rate around 
an ounce per square yard, roughly 35 g per square meter -- not much.

-- 
Rodger Whitlock
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
"To co-work is human,
to cow-ork, bovine."


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