Nerine culture and Crinum pedunculatum

Hamish Sloan hamish.sloan@virgin.net
Mon, 15 Oct 2007 13:32:36 PDT
Dear All,

Number of leaves between flowering in Amaryllidaceae:
	Clivia 4 - being two on each side of the pseudo-bulb, the scapes coming on 
opposite sides of the plant whether obtain two scapes in a year or just 
one.
	Crinum pedunculatum  3 - scapes appear every three leaves while the bulb 
grows seven (from memory - I'll have to check when its light tomorrow) to 
give a full
			cycle round the bulb.

The two year cycle for the development of flower buds in Amaryllidaceae 
seems to be common.
Even daffodils will often give a good flowering the spring after planting 
and then little the following year  with general recovery to flowering the 
third year.
Presume the younger bud is lost due to dryness or rootor nourishment loss 
during 'harvesting' by the grower.

Nerine do not like to be overshadowed by other plants - shrubs or bulbs 
such as Dutch iris or daffodils or summer bedding or perennials - 
especially when in leaf. Aspect does not seem to matter for N. bowdenii. I 
have seen N. bowdenii in the UK flowering at the base of a house wall 
facing any of North, East, South or West. So, as far as UK is concerned, 
intensity of light or direct sunshine does not matter, but flowering only 
occurs from my observations, where there are no other coverings at any time 
of the year. Worth bearing in mind that in South Africa, N. bowdenii grows 
largely on the southern side of the mountains so far as I am aware, i.e. 
the side away from the sun in those hotter climes. So might be that it can 
be too hot for nerine! If you live somewhere where it gets hot in summer, 
try a Northern aspect. Or perhaps a Western one - the Clivia mirabilis, 
which is the only clivia species that grows away from (at least light) 
shade, grows on the Eastern side of a rocky gorge, so that it does not get 
morning sunshine.

*****************

Another point - Crinum pedunculatum has been flowering well for me for the 
past five years. Having been given a mature bulb, in a somewhat cramped   
pot, I planted it out in a greenhouse bed and have had annual flowering 
since of 1, 2, 1, 2 and 2 scapes, all generally with 25 to 33 florets, 
there being usually about eight fully open at one time. Wanting to 
rearrange that part of my greenhouse, I had moved the plant into a large 
tub (32 litre). It gave me the last 2 scapes in the list above, which 
delighted me as I feared I might even lose the lot, bulb and all. The 
second of those two scapes did not have the usual (?) number of florets, 
being down to 18. The first of those two scapes was my 33 florets example. 
It will be interesting to see if I have lost scapes for next year.

Another factor may interfere. There has been no sign of offsets from this 
bulb. ( I have had one seed and succesfully germinated it so far - it is 
growing like the clappers, being about 1.5 inches diameter in one year - 
and am hoping to get two more seeds this year. This growth rate reminds me 
of C. moorei - from seed, bulbs at 2.5 inches diameter in one year, often 
with several offsets too.)  The C. pedunculatum bulb is growing vigorously 
despite the move into a tub, but there are signs that there appear to be 
two growing points developing as if the bulb is preparing to split into two 
bulbs. Anyone know if this is a usual mode of increase for C. p.? If so, it 
could affect flowering for a while.

Regards

Hamish Sloan
Central Southern England
About a wet zone 10 usually, though occasional lower frosts.



-----Original Message-----
From:	fierycloud2002 [smtp:///fierycloud2002@yahoo.com.tw]
Sent:	15 October 2007 14:02
To:	Pacific Bulb Society
Subject:	Re: [pbs] Nerine culture; was RE:  What promotes blooming?



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