Getting rainlilies to bloom

Kevin D. Preuss hyline@tampabay.rr.com
Thu, 01 Aug 2002 04:25:31 PDT
All my rainlilies are grown in the open and in full sun, exposed to the
elements. Some weeks we see 1 in. of rain, 2-3in. at a spell.....the pots
overfill with rain and ofetn there's standing water on the mats or ground.
This has inspired so many flushes that I can not keep up with all the seed
pods produced as they will pop open and spread like weeds. So many have
already been tossed into the lawn or over the fence it is ridiculous. I'll
begin to set aside packets for the BX here. (there is one correct?)

We have had so much rain that the rivers are several feet above normal and
are above flood stage. I saw thousands of Crinum americanum, totally
submerged, blooms and all.

The local populations of Z. atamasco did not bloom in March and April as is
typical, it was so dry then. Oddly they have been blooming sporadically
since, though.

As for saucers, they do the trick for spider lileis, I can say that.

Best,
Kevin Preuss
St. Petersburg, FL

From: osthill@htc.net Wed Aug 17 13:32:38 2002
To: "Pacific Bulb Society" <pacificbulbsociety@lists.mcn.org>
Date: Wed, 17 Aug 2002 13:34:22 -0400
Subject: Re: Getting rainlilies to bloom 
From: Lisa and Al Flaum <osthill@htc.net>
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To: Pacific Bulb Society <pacificbulbsociety@lists.mcn.org>

Dear Mary Sue and other PBSers,

I used what came out of the well, which is pretty cold. However, since its been above 95F here for days without number, the water warms up fast. 

The pots stood in water overnight, until saturated.

Phase 1 has been done with Zephyranthes clones
Z Ajax
Z. Apricot Queen
Z. Benidama
Z. Big Shot
Z. Fadjar's Pink
Z. Fireball (possibly seed strain)
Z. Grandjax
z. Paul Niemi
Z. Prairie Sunset
Z. Ruth page
Z. Sunset Strain
Z. White Swan
Z. Norma Pearl
Z. ex Thad
Z ex Ajax
and
H. biflorus (this is from seed from the IBS from plants from Fadjar Marta. It looks most like H robustus to me, but I am hardly an expert. Anybody else have this plant?)

Of these, all 8 bulbs of 'Paul Niemi' have buds. Buds are also visible on 'Apricot Queen' 'Benidama' 'Bigshot' 'Fadjar's Pink', 'Fireball', 'Prairie Sunset' and 'Norma Pearl'  Last time I checked was about 36 hrs after removing them from the water. So far, it is looking
good. 

I plan to dunk all the pots of species next.

Go for it, Mary Sue.
Lisa

From: meenglis@cts.com Wed Aug 17 13:32:38 2002
To: "Pacific Bulb Society" <pacificbulbsociety@lists.mcn.org>
Date: Wed, 17 Aug 2002 13:34:22 -0400
From: Marguerite English <meenglis@cts.com>
Subject: Re: Getting rainlilies to bloom 

 Lisa's note has encouraged me to do the same. I will be going out shortly to place saucers under all the rain lilies and see what happens. Water from my well is cold, but the days are very warm, so the water should heat up in the saucers nicely.
 I did make a list of all those that survived my rough year, and will include it when I report the results. I just moved the pots into the garden as they were slightly shaded in my open gh. I have already had some nice blooms on the Habranthus robustus, but the plants that bloomed had no tags so I didn't allow them to set seed for the SX. ( I can do that if anyone would want them, and would trust my identification skills. They do set seed robustly)
 We have started our room addition, so I've been quite busy, but I hope that will lighten up a bit soon. The 'Pines' fire blew away from us, although we were watching closely when it got down close to the Cleveland National Forest - in which we live! We had heavy smoke blowing over Mt. Cuyamaca the first couple of days.

Marguerite



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