Blooming in the December greenhouse

Matt Mattus mmattus@charter.net
Sun, 04 Dec 2005 17:43:26 PST
In my Massachusetts greenhouse,  I do have a Haemanthus albiflos in bloom, a
first for me, as well as two pots of Lachenalia viridiflora. One is darker
than the other pot and comes from a differnet location, but I don't have the
specifics here. The Oxalis are still continuing on, many are still in full
bloom, some passing peak, but a particular spectacular pot of Oxalis
versicolor must have a 150 blossoms on it this morning, ( of course, I
believe there are as m,any bulbs in the pot!) until the sun went in and the
snow started to fall when the quickly closed.  I have resisted putting the
bubble wrap insulation on the single pane greenhouse until the weather
becomes colder, and I believe that the light quality in addition to the
fertilization of the Oxalis last year, have helped them thrive. I had never
has so many blooms or dense growth.

A couple of my still mystery Cyrtanthus' in bloom are even better than last
year. You might remember, perhaps from my posting a year ago, that these
we're two tiny Cyrtanthus seedlings which I had bid on at the IBS bulb
auction a few years back at Huntington Gardens, both we're labled Cyrtanthus
elatus, anthough, when they bloomed last year, I feel that we all agreed
that they they we're most likely a cross between C. purpureus or another,
since the blossoms droop, yet they are quite large, about four inches long
and brilliant vermillion. It's nice that they bloom through the holidays,
regardless.

As an experiment, I planted one on from it's 6" plastic pot, to a large 5
gallon terra cotta pot, and they other, I have kept pot bound in it's azalea
pot. They spend the summer out of doors in full sun and just get rainwater.
The plant in the 6" pot  bloomed first (as it did last year) and the one
that I repoted, is now just sending up two stems, both with large buds. It
also has split into about 5 bulbs, so time will tell. I am quite pleased
with the performance of this questionable Cyrtanthus.

The Cyclamen are too in a bit of a break but C. mirabile and C. repandum are
in bloom now, and the C. africanum and C. hederafolium are about past and
moving on to foliage.

A Nerine alta (undulata) has two stems out of four bulbs in bloom, as well a
a couple late N. sarniensis hybrids.

It's been a slow autumn for the Clivia,just a few  Clivia interspecific
crosses in bloom, and still, the Narcissus romiuxii and related species are
just starting to bud with three pots in bloom right now but plenty of buds
showing.

Matt Mattus
Worcester. Massachusetts
USDA Zone 5
Where it is snowing today, 4 inches, and 28 degrees F.



On 12/4/05 3:00 PM, "J.E. Shields" <jshields104@insightbb.com> wrote:

> It's pretty dead around here in the greenhouses, and very dead outside
> them.  There is even a lull in the flowering of the cyclamen right now.


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