Mystery bulbous plant (Gianni Benetti)

Bruce Schroder silvertop1952@gmail.com
Thu, 18 Apr 2019 18:05:37 PDT
Gianni - I grow both Cyrtanthus herrei and Cyrtanthus obliquus here in
Melbourne, Australia under similar climatic conditions to you (cold, wet
winter, hot dry summer).  I am quite confident your bulb is C herrei (the
twists in the leaves are typical) and I have included a picture of one of
my 3 plants (taken in 2017).  This bulb I was given in 2014 as an offset
and it now has 3 of its own offsets.  It is obviously very happy in the
terracotta pot it is in and has been in this same pot and mix since 2014.
It is grown under cover all year round in a well lit position and only gets
artificial watering.  This is limited to a thorough soaking about every 6
weeks only in summer and a light watering about every 4 weeks during
winter.  It has no supplementary heating in winter but winter lows are
around 5C.  I have 2  seed grown bulbs which are about the same age (seed
sown in 2013 or 2014 I think).  They are in exactly the same conditions but
in slightly smaller terracotta pots and are growing strongly. In my
opinion, the bulbs should not be over potted - they prefer congestion.
According to everything I have read, Cyrtanthus herrei is notoriously shy
to flower.  The person I got my bulb from has only flowered hers once in 20
years!  NONE OF MY BULBS HAVE EVER FLOWERED!   You must remember this is an
evergreen species that grows in very harsh conditions where summer rainfall
is almost non-existent and temperatures are extreme.   It has thick,
fleshy, almost succulent leaves and combined with its natural climate and
habitat, suggests it should be virtually treated as a succulent.

Bruce Schroder
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: P1060096.JPG
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 5166080 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/pipermail/pbs/…>
_______________________________________________
pbs mailing list
pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net
http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/…


More information about the pbs mailing list