Scadoxus multiflorus Katherinae - it's all happening

Matt Mattus mmattus@charter.net
Tue, 10 Jan 2012 04:00:13 PST
I keep a few containers of Scadoxus katherinae which I have had for about
ten years. One plant, I grew from seed that Jim Shields had sent me in 1999,
the others came from various sources (Logees, etc).

The first few years I grew them as house plants, they never went dormant,
spent summers outdoors, yet never bloomed. Once we built our greenhouse,
they started going dormant just as the autumn temperature shift required
that they be brought back into the greenhouse.

Very much like our Clivia, they spend their winter very cold, and wet since
they are under the mesh benches, where they lose their foliage entirely. In
the spring, the large containers are dragged out onto a gravel walk where
they they spend the summer, always blooming in July or August - they have
never missed a year blooming.

This gravel walk/terrace is gets very hot, and sunny, yet gets shade in the
late afternoon after 4:00PM. Some pots are also placed in a perennial bed
against the front of the greenhouse which also is is bright sun, but one
which becomes shaded earlier in the afternoon. This bed is also near the
hose, and is naturally damp, and these plant grow larger, and greener
seeming to enjoy the bit of extra shade and their neighbors of Alocasia,
bananas that provide even more shade.

The gravel bed pots which dry out daily yet perform very well, the plants
can fill a 12 inch pot in two years, affecting the size of the floral
scapes. They are divided every three years, resulting in much larger flower
heads the first year after division.

Matt Mattus
Worcester, MA
USDA Zone 5b


On 1/9/12 11:00 PM, "Ina Crossley" <klazina1@gmail.com> wrote:

> I found that mine didn't like ANY sun.  And I don't know how they cope
> with the high temperatures.   Does it get that hot around the shady side
> of your place?
> 
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