Growing Babiana rubro-cyanea from seed

Michael Mace michaelcmace@gmail.com
Sun, 20 Mar 2016 01:23:10 PDT
Hi, Alcie.

Those Babiana are native to the mediterranean climate part of South Africa,
meaning they expect a wet winter and totally dry summer. As Mark pointed
out, you can start watering them in fall (around October). They will expect
night-time temperatures substantially lower than daytime, and can tolerate
overnight light frost. Below about 20F they may be damaged.

Give them bright light (half-day sun or more is great) or they will
over-grow and flop over.

Water should stop as they start to die back in spring, and they need to be
totally dry in summer. By totally dry I mean no moisture at all or they will
probably rot. They're probably not something you can naturalize outdoors in
Louisiana.

As long as you get the water right they are easy to grow, and the flowers
are spectacular. Mine are in flower right now, and they're a treat.

There's a lot more info on bulb culture here if you need it:

http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/…

Good luck!

Mike
San Jose, CA




More information about the pbs mailing list