Urginea maritimum

Paul Tyerman ptyerman@ozemail.com.au
Tue, 08 Jun 2004 06:02:46 PDT
>
>
>Lifting Urginea maritima for the winter would be disastrous, as it is a
>winter-growing plant from Mediterranean coasts - whence it is collected for
>export by unscrupulous bulb companies. It is extremely frost-sensitive and
>will promptly be killed by more than a degree or two of frost.
>

John,

Well don't you DARE tell that (the frost sensitive bit) to the bulbs of it
that I grow. ;-)  Maybe we here in Aus have a strain that doesn't mind
frost but my 2 bulbs of it even just took without any problem an
unseasonably early -5 followed by -6'C the two mornings over the weekend.
So many other things got hit badly as this is VERY early for that hard a
frost here and a lot of things were still only closing down for the winter
and hadn't completely hardened off (so to speak).  So many plants in our
garden pulped to a certain degree that would normally easily accept -6'C
later in winter when they have prepared for it.  Even with this early low
the Urginea maritima are doing just fine and not looking like they've been
damaged in the slightest.  Big healthy leaves are still there, having
emerged in teh last month or so and still growing.

They went through last winter fine as well, taking -8'C as well, so I do
wonder whether the seed of the bulbs I bought was actually from some colony
that was frost hardy?  Interesting that it shouldn't be at all frost hardy.
 Definitely have to agree that it is a winter growing bulb here though
<grin>.  I HAVE heard of a number of South African (in particular) bulbs,
mainly amaryllids as I recall, that seem to grow in opposite patterns in
some parts of the US to that which they originally come from.  I can recall
a couple of discussions where people were surprise that a particular plant
was summer or winter dormant when it was supposed to be the opposite, but
apparently some aspect of the climate has triggered an opposite dormancy
for some reason?

It is quite fascinating to hear about differences like these such as
different seasons and frost hardiness etc.  It makes forums like these so
worthwhile as some of the "definites" for a particular plant sometimes
aren't as definite for otehrs <big grin>.

Cheers.

Paul Tyerman
Canberra, Australia.  USDA equivalent - Zone 8/9

Growing.... Galanthus, Erythroniums, Fritillarias, Cyclamen, Crocus,
Cyrtanthus, Oxalis, Liliums, Hellebores, Aroids, Irises plus just about
anything else that doesn't move!!!!!


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