Should I send Moraea speciosa seed to SX?

oooOIOooo via pbs pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net
Sat, 20 Apr 2024 15:56:42 PDT
As above. Does anybody want me to send some to the SX?

This is one of the easiest bulbs to grow and flower in my desert climate now that I've learned a little of what it wants. It makes more flowers per plant, over a longer flowering season, than other Moraeas I've grown.

My sense of reading about it on the Wiki is that some people find it tricky to grow. I think I see why, and most of those issues are easily fixed.

I planted seed from Silverhill Seeds in 2020 in builder's sand. About ten came up. I left the plants in 20-ounce foam cups until the cups began falling apart from the UV. I wound up with two plants, which I put into their own 20-ounce foam cups, in finely screened decomposed granite dug from my property. They didn't offset.

I keep them wet to very moist all winter, until they begin dying down. Then I stop watering. In summer I leave them outside where the pots receive full sun for most of the day, all year. They get occasional monsoon rain.

They never flowered.

A few years ago one finally produced a few flowers. I noticed the plant looked far too big for the 20-ounce container. That summer I put both corms into a single 1-gallon standard nursery pot, with a mix of local clay and pumice (to make the pot lighter.) I fertilize about monthly with 20-20-20 and micronutrients during the growing season. I don't pay attention to pH, but my tap water is very alkaline and high in minerals.

Now both flower profusely each year.

So if you want to grow this, move it to a big pot. I suspect there is no chance for it to flower in a 3.25" square pot, or smaller. It's OK to get hot in summer when it's dry. I don't know how it would do with heavy El NiƱo winter rains, because we don't get as much as does California. But I suspect it would do well in the ground in most of California. I am thinking of moving them to an even larger pot over the summer.

Leo Martin
Phoenix Arizona USA
Zone 9?

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