Hi Marguerite,
My Ferraria crispa (I have the "regular" form and yellow form) blooms and
multiplies well in all years and mine are planted quite deeply in pots or "in
the ground" in my raised concrete block planters that are 25 inches tall. I put
the larger corms in trenches in the planters with a fair amount of kelp meal and
dried bulb food. The smaller ones go into pots using the same method. All are
exposed to summer rainfall and those in the "ground" get some summer
irrigation. Here the corms that I've dug and stored for the summer start
putting on growth in August and roots appear later. Treating the larger and
smaller corms differently seems to make no difference. I've also removed old
corms as well as left them on them with no noticeable difference. I don't baby
any of them and here they survive minot frost with no damage. Perhaps summer
water would be helpful for your situation.
While many are offended by the odor of the flowers, I'm not, perhaps because
they're in a well ventilated situation....and compared to other plants such as
Caralluma socotrana that literally drive one from the area, these are minor.
I have yet to have a flower from F. divaricata but hopefully one of these
years...even so, the corms are multiplying.at the rate of two per year. If any
of you list members have had this flower for you, please let me know if I should
treat this one differently.
Pam
Pamela Slate
P.O. Box 5316
Carefree AZ 85377