Hi Mary Sue, I'm in agreement with you and Dirk Wallace about the seasonal growth of Brunsvigia grandiflora. My 3 plants of this species are growing in a garden bed reserved for Brunsvigia's and they have glaucous twisted leaves and are autumn/winter growing like marginata, bosmaniae, litorallis and josephinea that also grow in the same beds. There are obviously a number of variants of this species which inlcude variations in dormancy. Cheers Jim Lykos ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mary Sue Ittner" <msittner@mcn.org> To: <pbs@lists.ibiblio.org> Sent: Wednesday, July 09, 2008 12:54 AM Subject: [pbs] Brunsvigia grandiflora > Hi, > > I suspect Brunsvigia grandiflora is one of those plants that may behave > differently depending on where the seed comes from and how they are grown. > Quoting Dirk Wallace from Australia: "The variation in a species can be > immense, and there is no hard and fast rule to cover all the different > forms of a particular species. > Many factors are involved, especially where the collection comes from, and > what climate you are putting it into." > I saved these notes from Greg Pettit from 1999: > "Brunsvigia grandiflora is found in Southern Natal towards the mountains. > At Kokstad a large colony existed (decimated for indigenous medicine?). > These bulbs were in a heavy black clay and were buried almost up to the > necks. This species has a very close resemblance to Boophone disticha and > is often found at the local "medicine" market in and amongst Boophone. > It > will not tolerate the high humidity of Durban so my attempts at rescuing > some have proved fruitless. > > There is another colony of B. grandiflora growing on the foothills of the > Southern Drakensberg which are at least 200mm in diameter and are 2/3 > exposed above the ground. They are subjected to heavy frosts and > snowfalls in winter and although I did not see them in flower (only in a > light snow), > I am sure that the pink display would be impressive." > > On the other hand Dirk's plants had a cycle of growing through > Autumn/Winter/Spring and going dormant in late Spring through Summer. He > kept his with his rainlily collection and watered them while dormant in > summer every couple of days. > > I received seeds of this species from the Huntington Gardens in Southern > California in February 2000. I forgot they were supposed to be a summer > rainfall and treated them as a winter rainfall species and was horrified > when I was potting them one year to realize that I had been treating them > as a winter rainfall species. Then Rhoda wrote that this species in the > Stutterheim region of the Eastern Cape had leaves appearing in late summer > to early fall and growing into winter when they dried up. I started giving > mine a bit of water during dormancy, probably not as much as Dirk, but > watering when I think about it. I planted them in a large pot and > submerged > it in the ground and let it get rained on during winter. In the ground in > a > large pot the soil probably doesn't dry out so much either and since I > have > it nestled in another pot it is harder for the redwood roots to get into > the pot and suck up the moisture. Last year it finally bloomed, seven > years from sowing and the last of the leaves has just dried up. New leaves > usually appear in August or September so it isn't without leaves very long > for me. It bloomed in November and December which is not the time of year > it is supposed to bloom according to others (mid to late summer). Also > Rhoda said it blooms with the leaves which obviously was not how it was > supposed to bloom. I love the undulating leaves of the form I am growing > and when it was blooming it got multiple compliments, perhaps partly since > it was a time of year not a lot was in bloom in my garden. > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/… > Mine is the 2nd picture in the group, but there are also habitat pictures > from Cameron. > > Rhoda and Cameron gave away seeds of this plant to our group in 2004. Any > of you wish to report how your plants are doing? > > Mary Sue > > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.ibiblio.org > http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/