Scadoxus multiflorus - how to bloom?

Anders Bo Petersen anbope1970@yahoo.dk
Wed, 01 May 2013 11:54:10 PDT
Jim, no Denmark is a strange country. If the wind comes from the east in summer we'll have hot summers, if it comes from the west it will be cool and humid - about 20 celsius. Another reason why it hasn't bloomed for some years is that I think I did a mistake by repotting it a couple of years ago. I read a that South African bulbs don't like to like to be repotted.
I will try to water the bulb regularly from spring and let it stay dry from November till April.
 
Anders 



________________________________
 Fra: Jim McKenney <jamesamckenney@verizon.net>
Til: Pacific Bulb Society <pbs@lists.ibiblio.org> 
Sendt: 16:45 onsdag den 1. maj 2013
Emne: Re: [pbs] Scadoxus multiflorus - how to bloom?
 

Anders, here in Maryland. where summertime day temperatures regularly go over 32 degrees C (in July 1936 it reached 43 degrees C!); there are on average about 30 days per year when the temperature is at or over 32 degrees C. Not only is it hot, it is humid. Not, I think, like Denmark.

Scadoxus multiflorus multiflorus grows well and easily here. My plants have been in the same pot for years. During the frost free season, the pot is placed in a dish of water and left out in the sun. I try to remember to keep water in the dish at all times.  Some years I throw in some granular fertilizer. In the autumn, I keep a watch out for night frosts and bring the pot in for that night if they occur. Otherwise, the pot stays outside until the foliage ripens sometime in early November. Then the pot comes inside and spends the winter dry in the heated basement. In April or May it goes outside again to repeat the cycle. 

The soil used is a heavy loam. 

Other than that, it gets no special care. And the pot has bloomed every year, some years more abundantly than others. 

Jim McKenney
Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, USDA zone 7, where the tree Davidia involucrata has about a thousand flowers now, tulips are at their height and the first tree peonies are in bloom. 




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