Nerine 2011

[majallison]

'Dingaan' is probably the darkest purple nerine available ~ Exbury Gardens sell it through their website nerines.com

[Maggi Young]

Here are some links for those of you falling under the spell of these plants....
http://www.nerines.com/ ....as just mentioned by Malcolm

http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1483610 .... a book to tempt you

http://nerineandamaryllidsociety.co.uk/      ....a club to join...it seems the Secretary is one Malcolm Allison 

[johnw]

Malcolm - This one here appears to be darker than Dingaan, without the smokiness of many of the grey purple and mauves but a tad squinny..  Dingaan has a much better shape and it would be wise to cross the one here with Dingaan.  The clear dark ones usually (at least here) have a red central stripe but not so with this one.  I have promised Exbury will get an offset should it ever decide to make one.  Perhaps I should get pollen to them if they're interested.

Mine is from seed of a hand-pollinated cross by Sir Peter Smithers. The cross is PS-9-7 ('David Lionel' x 25519a).  25519a = a sibling of 25519c =  Pantaloon x Bagdad.

johnw

[JoshY46013]

I cannot believe how much I've been missing in the world of Nerine hybrids!

[fermi de Sousa]

Malcolm - This one here appears to be darker than Dingaan, without the smokiness of many of the grey purple and mauves but a tad squinny..  Dingaan has a much better shape and it would be wise to cross the one here with Dingaan.  The clear dark ones usually (at least here) have a red central stripe but not so with this one.  I have promised Exbury will get an offset should it ever decide to make one.  Perhaps I should get pollen to them if they're interested.

Mine is from seed of a hand-pollinated cross by Sir Peter Smithers. The cross is PS-9-7 ('David Lionel' x 25519a).  25519a = a sibling of 25519c =  Pantaloon x Bagdad.

johnw

John,
I hope you are intending to dab a bit of pollen around as this purple one is outstanding!
As you noted before even a broken stem will produce flowers and even seeds so cutflowers are worth getting to keep for seed production
cheers
fermi

[Jean-Patrick AGIER]

Very nice pics indeed!
I only have 2 hybrids but no sign of flowers...
J-P

[majallison]

'Dingaan' has quite a clear purple colour, slightly wider petals than John's hybrid; however, they flower heads on 'Dingaan' tend to be a little on the meagre side (6-8 flowers per stem, rather than the 14-per-head that was Sir Peter Smithers' ideal); I would post a picture if I weren't such a duff photographer...

[Anthony Darby]

Gosh, 'Dingaan' is amazing!

[johnw]

'Dingaan' has quite a clear purple colour, slightly wider petals than John's hybrid; however, they flower heads on 'Dingaan' tend to be a little on the meagre side (6-8 flowers per stem, rather than the 14-per-head that was Sir Peter Smithers' ideal); I would post a picture if I weren't such a duff photographer...

Malcom - You're absolutely correct, meagre is the word.  We get 5-9 flower per stem here on all the purples, that varies by the year.  We could get 10 with ideal growing conditions I suppose but think genetics are against it in this generation.  The mauves & grey mauves are much more generous it seems.  It will take quite an imaginative breeding strategy to up the number of flowers per stem, hindered of course by the complexity of the crosses here.  Fourteen is a lofty goal, but then Sir Peter settled for nothing less than absolute excellence.

johnw

[Hans J]

new Nerine flowers from today :

Nerine undulata "Quasar Light"
Nerine X "Manselli"

Hans

[jshields]

Beautiful flowers!  I'm eager for my few sarniensis hybrids to bloom too.

I'm curious about what folks use for fertilizer, if any, on sarniensis and its hybrids.  How much?  How much nitrogen?  How often?

Jim

[Hans J]

Thank you Jim !

I use Phostrogen as fertilizer ( 14 - 10 -27 ) ,
and I give it all 2 weeks :15 gr. per 10 ltr.

Hans

[jshields]

Sir Peter used to worry about fertilizer, and especially nitrogen, causing release of an endogenous virus in the broad-leaf Nerine varieties.  Have you ever seen anything like that?

Jim

[Hans J]

Jim - I have not heard from this problem before.
Shure we should not give high nitrogen fertilizers ...
I'm not shure with virus ...but maybe this is a result of virused twin scaled nerines ?

It is strange in this year with flowers on my nerines - I had not flowers on N.krigei + N.laticoma ....but on the most of my smaller nerines - maybe a result of this strange summer ?

Hans

[johnw]

Sir Peter used to worry about fertilizer, and especially nitrogen, causing release of an endogenous virus in the broad-leaf Nerine varieties.  Have you ever seen anything like that?Jim

Jim - That is indeed what Sir Peter said both in the books and in letters.  I too use the same Phostrogen as Hans but 1/4 strength maybe twice a year.  I also give them a pinch of potassium as a top-dress.  I have seen this virus - streaking of leaves - i=once on one plant, I tagged the plant and no streaking appeared the next year.

johnw