Babiana

Jim McKenney jimmckenney@starpower.net
Mon, 08 May 2006 15:12:59 PDT
Leo Martin wrote of Sparaxis:" The trick is getting them through the first
summer.

They arrive in early spring. Put them into the crisper drawer of your
refrigerator until late fall."

Leo, I found one aspect of your advice for growing Sparaxis intriguing, so
much so that I'm giving into the temptation to ask you if you followed it
yourself. 

You advised that spring purchased corms be put into the crisper drawer of
the refrigerator until late fall. 

But aren't the corms offered in the spring corms held in cold storage from
the previous autumn? That is, corms which should have been planted in the
autumn of the spring prior to purchase? 

By putting them in the crisper, aren't you in effect keeping them in cold
storage for an entire year? 

And what happens to make getting them through the first summer a problem. I
know from my own (meager) experience with spring planted Sparaxis that they
surge into growth almost immediately; some bloom, most don't (presumably
because of the heat). Some go dormant, some don't. In either case, they pop
back into active growth in the autumn. The one or two samples I tried didn't
die during the summer. It's not as hot here as in Phoenix, but it's hot and
wet. 

Can Sparaxis be grown outside year 'round in Phoenix? 

Please tell us more about what you did, in particular in subsequent summers.


Jim McKenney
Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, USDA zone 7, where seed has already
ripened on some of the vernal Colchicum. 


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