Rhodohypoxis

Lee Poulsen wpoulsen@pacbell.net
Fri, 03 Mar 2006 09:56:30 PST
I guess So. Calif. winters are sufficiently less rainy that I can leave 
my pots of these out all year round. I keep the pots with all my other 
summer growers where they get watered regularly during the summers and 
they grow quite well, quickly overflowing 6-inch pots within 2 or 3 
years.

One year, when we had neither an outside dog or outside cats, I also 
lost 2-3 pots before I noticed that a rat had discovered them and was 
methodically eating every bulb in a pot before moving on to the next 
pot. I moved them to a protected spot and they were fine. Having a dog 
or cats in the yard that prey on rodents has kept them completely 
undisturbed.

I have a few summer rainfall bulb species that I grow outside that I 
really love such as Rhodohypoxis and Hippeastrum that I now keep 
together and try to keep excessive rainfall off of them in winters like 
last year's and put them on drip sprayers on a timer in the summer, and 
they do quite well. And it's worth the effort. The problem for me is 
some of the species that would much rather prefer Florida conditions 
that I also really want to grow. I have to limit myself to just a few 
genera of these because I only have so much room in my small unheated 
greenhouse which simulates Florida or Mexico conditions (summer 
humidity and reversed rainfall pattern).

--Lee Poulsen
Pasadena, California, USDA Zone 10a

On Mar 3, 2006, at 7:49 AM, Mary Sue Ittner wrote:
> I planted out Rhodohypoxis too in my California garden, but it did not
> survive. It was either too wet in winter or too dry in summer for it.

> Recently I noticed what looked liked digging activity
> in a Rhodohypoxis pot and dumped it out and not much was left, only a 
> few
> tiny bulbs. So perhaps rodents got them.

> Many of my experiments with summer rainfall
> bulbs are unsuccessful.
>


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