Question about Zephyranthes

mark akimoff via pbs pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net
Fri, 25 Sep 2020 08:50:37 PDT
Hello,

I work for a Historic Garden Conservancy dedicated to preserving the legacy
of the first two female landscape Architects to start a firm in Oregon in
the 1930's, Elizabeth Lord and Edith Schryver. One of their earliest
designs from 1929, recommended planting Pink Rain Lilies, in front of
Heliotrope as a foil for the roses in a parterre planting for a garden in
Tacoma, Washington.

The combination sounded pretty stunning so I set out to recreate this
design, obtaining Zephyranthes rosea and Zephyranthes grandiflora from
several different commercial online bulb sources. I planted these in May,
along with several flats of Heliotrope 'Marine'.  Several flowers appeared
immediately and I thought if this keeps up it will be a stunning sight. But
that ended up being all the flowers that showed on the rain lilies. I tried
trying drying the rain lilies out for a few weeks at a time, while trying
to keep the Heliotrope looking good and then introducing more water but no
blooms. Now the fall rains have started in earnest and still no blooms on
the rain lilies.

So i'm wondering if anyone with more experience with Zephryranthes would
have any recommendations about how to get better summer blooms with those
two selections? Or is there a better one to try? I have seedlings going of
Z. morrisclintii and and some small offsets of Z. 'labuffarosea' from one
of the exchanges but they are years away from making a show in the garden.

I have some bulb catalogs from the 1930's and they list Zephyranthes
robustus, with the following description "Large, bright pink flowers
appearing in late summer on 6-8" stems. foliage during winter and spring.
The flowers are long enough to be useful for cutting. It's adaptability to
culture in pots, rock gardens, and borders makes it a very useful member of
a well known group"

Any tips or tricks to recreating this floral show would be much appreciated?

Thanks,

Mark
Garden Manager/Curator
The Lord and Schryver Conservancy
Salem, Oregon
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