WOW! I've been wanting to try growing these for years ... here in San Diego. Maybe I will try them on my fairly shady, North-facing hillside. Besides additional summer water ... I suspect these would prefer a more acid soil than what is the norm here in SOCAL ... can anybody confirm? Should I be saving all the neighborhood's dropped pine needles for additional soil treatment? Should I be acidifying our crappy alkaline water as well? How do they tolerate clay soils?
Thanks for all the info so far!
Ken Blackford,
coastal San Diego, CA.
USDA zone 10-11
generally cool (65-75F) dry (no rain) summers but with higher humidity here at the coast (avg 60-80%) and short, cooler (45-65F) somewhat more moist winters ... we average about 9" spread from December through March ... although this winter ... probably close to 20" so far.
--- On Tue, 3/22/11, Philip Bolt <phb@redhall.org.uk> wrote:
From: Philip Bolt Subject: Re: [pbs] Cardiocrinum
What is your altitude, rainfall and winter minimum temperature? Google tells me Zone 10a is 35 - 30F min. This shouldn't be a problem: it's most probably max. temp. and water.
Cardiocrinum are Himalayan plants of woodland shade and so they don't like sun and would not be happy getting too dry, ('though they also rot if too wet!).
I don't think there is any particular type which would fare better than any other: keep them shaded and as cool as possible.