best time to transplant A. belladonna

Gastil marygastil@yahoo.com
Mon, 23 Jul 2012 13:04:36 PDT
Nhu that photo of the parking strip with Tigridia pavonia and Amaryllis belladonna inspires me. I have a patch of pink A. belladonna which is taking up precious bulb bed space in the back yard and Im looking for indestructible plants for the parking strip. Naked ladies are one of the few bulbs that can out-compete the dreaded pest Oxalis pes-caprae, which plagues my parking strip. 

My question: 
is this a good time to transplant A. belladonna? They just began sending up their pointy flower bud spikes at rocket speed last week. One bloom is open. I vaguely recall reading they should be dug when in bloom but that is just so counter to intuition. Is that true? I dont mind if transplanting makes them not bloom for a few years, as long as they make piles of thick dark leaves to smother the Oxalis. 

Have others had luck transplanting these while in bloom?

- Gastil
Zone 9b (sort of), Cool Mediterranean



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