Chasmanthe floribunda

Mary Sue Ittner msittner@mcn.org
Sun, 04 Nov 2007 19:33:42 PST
Hi Jim,

We saw this species in bloom in South Africa in August-September when we 
visited. I see now I never got my pictures to the wiki. It doesn't bloom as 
early here in Northern California as it does in Southern California, but it 
is one of the earlier Southern African spring bloomers. So it normally 
blooms late winter, early spring. It is definitely a winter grower and 
would start going dormant in the wild when it gets hot and dry. It sounds 
like you need to get it into growth sooner so it will bloom before your hot 
weather sets in.

Your experience with it quitting when the heat kicked in is true of a lot 
of South African Irids. It is the reason why some people don't think it is 
a good idea to start winter growers from seed in spring. The ones that go 
dormant when it gets hot may not have developed enough of a storage organ 
to last until the next season.

Mary Sue


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