Amaryllis belladonna

, via pbs pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net
Sat, 09 Sep 2017 14:50:15 PDT
I have a rather large stretch of Amaryllis belladonna along our driveway and it blooms every year.  We've lived here 20 years and I don't think we have watered it 10 times.  It blooms every year and does spread itself by reseeding.  I'm sure it would probably re-seed itself faster  if we gave it water.  We are located in Los Gatos CA, part of Silicon Valley.  when we lived in So CA right by the ocean, same thing, there was a large patch near us, in our neighbor's yard and it was behind the garage where it never got watered.



-----Original Message-----
From: Jane McGary <janemcgary@earthlink.net>
To: oooOIOooo via pbs <pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net>
Sent: Sat, Sep 9, 2017 11:14 am
Subject: Re: [pbs] Amaryllis belladonna

Leo wrote,"I believe the cool-season rains in California are neither regular enough, nor plentiful enough, for Amaryllis belladonna to grow from seed without intentional watering by a gardener. I cannot imagine it would become established on its own more than extremely rarely, let alone invasive."One sees a colonies of Amaryllis on roadsides in coastal California, but I think they probably got there when soil or garden debris containing bulbs was dumped intentionally or deposited by heavy equipment that had picked it up from cultivated places. It reminds me of a colony of Kniphofia a Forest Service botanist told me about, which she had found growing at 4000 feet elevation in Mt. Hood National Forest. We speculated that it had reached there in the treads of logging equipment, which is also how Scotch broom is spread in these forests. After logging, the forest understory is usually severely damaged or even eliminated (especially if herbicide is applied to eliminate competition for the 
 seedling conifers that will be planted, a common practice on private forest), and the same is true of maintained roadsides.  There is or used to be a well-known population of Iris douglasiana, a coastal species, on a freeway bank east of Portland, quite distant from its normal range, that probably came via equipment; it was hybridizing with locally native I. tenax, a cross that can create some beautiful evergreen but extra-hardy cultivars.We will soon have an unhappy opportunity to see how heavily used forests beside an interstate freeway regrow, thanks to the criminal idiot who started the Eagle Creek fire by throwing fireworks off a trail. It has burnt about 35,000 acres so far and is not nearly controlled. The air here is heavy with smoke and even ash.Jane McGaryPortland, Oregon, USA_______________________________________________pbs mailing listpbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.nethttp://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/…
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