We hope you have enjoyed the SRGC Forum. You can make a Paypal donation to the SRGC by clicking the above button

Author Topic: Bulbs spring fertilizing  (Read 8122 times)

Lesley Cox

  • way down south !
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 16348
  • Country: nz
  • Gardening forever, house work.....whenever!
Re: Bulbs spring fertilizing
« Reply #15 on: March 22, 2008, 10:38:59 PM »
I wish you could see Don Schofield's Australian hybrids. They are outstanding, in every possible shade of pinks, oranges, reds, purples and white, with picotees, silver and gold dusting etc. I don't know the Smithers Nerines, where do they come from? but it seems that people in several parts of the world are achieving perhaps similar results with new forms and colour breaks.
Lesley Cox - near Dunedin, lower east coast, South Island of New Zealand - Zone 9

rob krejzl

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 535
  • One-Eyed About Plants
Re: Bulbs spring fertilizing
« Reply #16 on: March 23, 2008, 12:05:37 AM »
Quote
I don't know the Smithers Nerines

Sir Peter Smithers: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2006/jun/15/guardianobituaries.obituaries
Southern Tasmania

USDA Zone 8/9

mark smyth

  • Hopeless Galanthophile
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 15254
  • Country: gb
Re: Bulbs spring fertilizing
« Reply #17 on: March 23, 2008, 12:23:46 AM »
Some Vico Nerines here http://www.nerines.com/
Antrim, Northern Ireland Z8
www.snowdropinfo.com / www.marksgardenplants.com / www.saveourswifts.co.uk

When the swifts arrive empty the green house

All photos taken with a Canon 900T and 230

Lesley Cox

  • way down south !
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 16348
  • Country: nz
  • Gardening forever, house work.....whenever!
Re: Bulbs spring fertilizing
« Reply #18 on: March 23, 2008, 03:04:42 AM »
Thanks Rob. I had heard of that Smithers but hadn't connected him with Nerines. Mark I think you put this link up some months ago? I remember thinking then that they were Faaaaaaabulous, as Anna Russell would have said.
Lesley Cox - near Dunedin, lower east coast, South Island of New Zealand - Zone 9

mark smyth

  • Hopeless Galanthophile
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 15254
  • Country: gb
Re: Bulbs spring fertilizing
« Reply #19 on: March 23, 2008, 08:49:40 AM »
Yes I did. The web site has changed. Back then he had all his colours on seperate pages but he now only has the named Nerines. They are unbelievable. I'll have to save a few pennies for his sales list this August
Antrim, Northern Ireland Z8
www.snowdropinfo.com / www.marksgardenplants.com / www.saveourswifts.co.uk

When the swifts arrive empty the green house

All photos taken with a Canon 900T and 230

johnw

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 6695
  • Country: 00
  • rhodo-galantho-etc-phile
Re: Bulbs spring fertilizing
« Reply #20 on: March 23, 2008, 02:06:36 PM »
Mark - Thanks for that super link on nerines.

And Leslie - I love to see some of your dwarves.

If I recall without consulting the book, Smithers took over the Exbury collection years ago and continued the hybridization to lofty heights. A few years before he died he gave his collection back to them and they continue on.

I was fortunate as we had been corresponding and wrote to him one time about the results of some op seed he had sent. The timing was impeccable as he had just collected his last hp seed and decided he couldn't cope with it. So he sent the lot to me. I wasn't quite prepared to grow so many - 19 crosses in all. Many had sprouted in the envelope so they got planted. I haven't had much luck photographing them as that sparkling surface is very hard to capture. I don't think anyone has matched Smithers' photography using Zone VI field camera or his impeccable long-term record keeping for that matter.

johnw - hideous weather here, -6c at the moment.
John in coastal Nova Scotia

johnw

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 6695
  • Country: 00
  • rhodo-galantho-etc-phile
Re: Bulbs spring fertilizing
« Reply #21 on: March 23, 2008, 03:15:50 PM »
I've just had a good look at the Nerine site.  They seem to concur that nitrogen is to be avoided.  Puzzling is their recommendation of bulb fibre in the potting mix. Can anyone tell me what is meant by that?

There certainly are some spectacular oranges on the site.

johnw
« Last Edit: March 23, 2008, 03:26:00 PM by johnw »
John in coastal Nova Scotia

David Nicholson

  • Hawkeye
  • Journal Access Group
  • Hero Member
  • ******
  • Posts: 13117
  • Country: england
  • Why can't I play like Clapton
Re: Bulbs spring fertilizing
« Reply #22 on: March 23, 2008, 03:26:34 PM »
Maybe for the added humus? Bulb fibre usually contains some charcoal, so it would help to keep the potting mix 'sweet'??
David Nicholson
in Devon, UK  Zone 9b
"Victims of satire who are overly defensive, who cry "foul" or just winge to high heaven, might take pause and consider what exactly it is that leaves them so sensitive, when they were happy with satire when they were on the side dishing it out"

johnw

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 6695
  • Country: 00
  • rhodo-galantho-etc-phile
Re: Bulbs spring fertilizing
« Reply #23 on: March 23, 2008, 03:31:00 PM »
David - But what is bulb fibre?  A mix containing coir?  We in North America are often puzzled by some of the UK ingredients, in cooking as well!

johnw
John in coastal Nova Scotia

David Nicholson

  • Hawkeye
  • Journal Access Group
  • Hero Member
  • ******
  • Posts: 13117
  • Country: england
  • Why can't I play like Clapton
Re: Bulbs spring fertilizing
« Reply #24 on: March 23, 2008, 04:04:43 PM »
John, it is a mix of sedge peat to retain moisture, with added nutrients, together with some oyster shell and charcoal. It is marketed for use with potted bulbs that are intended to be forced indoors, and those grown in pots without drainage holes. I don't use it all I much prefer my variation on our beloved Bulb Despot's potting mix! ;D

Believe it or not, we don't use it for cooking either :P
David Nicholson
in Devon, UK  Zone 9b
"Victims of satire who are overly defensive, who cry "foul" or just winge to high heaven, might take pause and consider what exactly it is that leaves them so sensitive, when they were happy with satire when they were on the side dishing it out"

Ezeiza

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1061
Re: Bulbs spring fertilizing
« Reply #25 on: March 23, 2008, 07:10:09 PM »
Hi Ian:

I can add to the effect of potassium to South Africans and South Americans, of which we grow many hundreds of species.  We have used it for every known genus with extraordinary results for some 30 years now. Including Nerines of course, both winter and summer growers.

Since we do not repot, the plants receive some three foliar feeding with a complete formula during the season to cover their possible nitrogen defficiency.

The element that has been found hard to handle for African bulbs (and plants like Proteas, etc.), is phosphorous that seem to act as a poison even in minute doses when added to the mix.

As for Puyas, South Americans, they come from a region when mineral content is high in the soils and do not seem to resent high alkaline salts.

As for Sir P. Smithers comment on "fertilizer" I have often wondered if it was no tused in the American sense of the word, that is manure. For on the contrary, Nerines fed on high potassium and low nitrogen are healthy, robust, pest free, and flower their hearts out. 

Potassium sulphate is available here as
"commercial" Potassium sulphate, crumbly, a creamy white, obviously containing impurities, or

"pure for analysis", the laboratory product, very expensive, like snow white salt.

Needless to explain, we use the first presentation, that has the added minerals that "stain" the product. Each 5 gallon container is given a pinch sprinkling once a month during the season of growth to be leached down by waterings of rain.

Regards
Alberto
Alberto Castillo, in south America, near buenos Aires, Argentina.

Lesley Cox

  • way down south !
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 16348
  • Country: nz
  • Gardening forever, house work.....whenever!
Re: Bulbs spring fertilizing
« Reply #26 on: March 23, 2008, 08:30:18 PM »
Well that sounds pretty definitive Alberto. So if Nerines are happy with high potassium and nil phosphorus, I'll apply my new lot probably as soon as the flowers are finished, a small sprinkling then watered in, and maybe a little more in the spring.
Lesley Cox - near Dunedin, lower east coast, South Island of New Zealand - Zone 9

Lesley Cox

  • way down south !
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 16348
  • Country: nz
  • Gardening forever, house work.....whenever!
Re: Bulbs spring fertilizing
« Reply #27 on: April 13, 2008, 10:58:30 PM »
I promised some pictures of my dwarf nerines, and I'm putting them on the "April 2008 in the Southern Hemisphere" thread.
Lesley Cox - near Dunedin, lower east coast, South Island of New Zealand - Zone 9

Maggi Young

  • Forum Dogsbody
  • Global Moderator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 44562
  • Country: scotland
  • "There's often a clue"
    • International Rock Gardener e-magazine
Re: Bulbs spring fertilizing
« Reply #28 on: April 13, 2008, 11:02:07 PM »
Quote
I'm putting them on the "April 2008 in the Southern Hemisphere" thread.
Excellent, Lesley, thanks... I'm off for a look!
Margaret Young in Aberdeen, North East Scotland Zone 7 -ish!

Editor: International Rock Gardener e-magazine

 


Scottish Rock Garden Club is a Charity registered with Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR): SC000942
SimplePortal 2.3.5 © 2008-2012, SimplePortal