Rhodophiala seed

Johannes Ulrich Urban johannes-ulrich-urban@t-online.de
Fri, 03 Mar 2017 09:50:05 PST
Hello Anita,

Welcome to our society. You will find a lot of information, good seeds 
and bulbs and maybe even friends. I have been a member for a very long 
time and still find it very worth it.

We have probably ordered the same Rhodophiala seed from one of the last 
BX, my seedlings look exactly like the ones you describe. This is how 
Rhodophiala seedlings look like, just one thin grass or chive like leaf. 
Rhodophiala is a winter growing bulb and will go dormant in summer. They 
flower in autumn before the leaves appear, the foliage will last through 
winter and needs frost free conditions and dormancy is induced by warm 
temperatures and lack of rain. It is good you mention that your 
background is a perennial plant propagator. Perennial plants need 
potting on even in a seedling stage to develop uniformly but bulb 
seedlings do not at all like that. Gesneriads are an exception and 
benefit from frequent potting on. What I do with these bulb seedlings: 
leave them in their original pot for at least one season, better two or 
even three seasons without repotting.  Sometimes a first year old 
seedling will not go fully dormant like a mature bulb of the same 
species so in this case keep watering gently during "dormancy" If these 
seedlings go dormant their bulbs may be very tiny, mostly on the very 
bottom of the pot, and, if the pot would be in a sand plunge even under 
the pot in the sand. So don't plunge them. And use relatively deep pots. 
Bulbs may be so tiny that they can be missed when repotting. Most bulbs 
like to grow crowded, so not to worry about a densely populated pot.  If 
you use plastic pots which I recommend because their moisture behaviour 
is much more stable than small clay pots you can feel growing bulbs 
bulding the pot. That would be a moment to repot. I repot my bulbs at 
the end of the dormant period so they can immediately start into growth. 
For seedlings it is best to try to keep them going as long as possible 
during their first season. Which means to avoid the stimulus for 
dormancy: too much heat, too bright sun and lack of water. Good light 
and even moisture without excess is the best recipe, Seedlings do 
benefit from careful low dose fertilizing.

Are you sure about your hardiness zone? You describe a Hippeastrum in 
the neighbour's garden not a Rhodophiala. Hippeastrum are summer growing 
, spring flowering and winter dormant but not very frost hardy.  If you 
have regular frost in your area, Rhodophiala is not the plant to grow in 
the open garden because the leaves would freeze during their growing 
period. Rhodophiala is perfect for mediterranean climate gardens.

If you look or ask around in your neighbourhood, there might be more of 
those Hippeastrum you liked. In some parts of the world they are very 
popular garden bulbs. There is also an old hybrid called Hippeastrum X 
Johnsonii which is very nice and which is widely grown in some parts of 
the US.

bye for today


Uli




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