Lycoris: Withholding Ain't My Thing

totototo@telus.net totototo@telus.net
Fri, 02 Jul 2010 14:30:37 PDT
On 2 Jul 2010, at 9:44, David Maxwell wrote:

> given my Zone (Sacramento 9/10), someone please tell me when I should start
> withholding water from my potted Lycoris in order to get them onto their
> dormancy/blooming cycle. 

Generally speaking, eastern Asia has a summer monsoon climate: hot, humid, wet 
summers, with dry, cold winters. On the Pacific coast of North America, we have 
quite the reverse where moisture is concerned, with coolish, very dry summers, 
and very wet, not overly cold winters.

I have found many eastern Asiatic plants most unhappy in the west coast 
climate, likewise some natives of the American east coast. (Note that my garden 
has a rather heavy, badly drained soil, which aggravates the effects of winter 
wet.) Tricyrtis disappears after one year, for example. I've learned the hard 
way not to waste time growing things that dislike this climate.

You, in Sacramento, have warmer winters and much hotter summers than we do in 
Victoria, but your rainfall pattern is the same as ours. Hence, for an eastern 
Asiatic like lycoris, you need to protect the plants from the rain during 
winter and water like mad in the summer. Is the effort worth it? Maybe not; it 
might be easier to set up a tent in Jim McKinney's backyard and live there.

Don't forget to feed your lycoris.



-- 
Rodger Whitlock
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Maritime Zone 8, a cool Mediterranean climate
on beautiful Vancouver Island

http://maps.google.ca/maps/…


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