Nerine 2008

[Hans J]

Paddy ,

yes they are nice plants .....
I try always to get the white flowered form ....but until no succsess 

[mark smyth]

Johnw you arent alone to have Nerines in leaf and flower bud showing

[mark smyth]

Here are mine

Can I give them a liquid feed at this stage?

[johnw]

Mark  - Your leaves are far more advanced than mine. Here they are still just peaking out. I gave them Ian's potash treatment twice last Spring and they didn't seem to mind it. Just be extremely cautious with the nitrogen, if I recall I mixed at about 1/10 the recommended rate or even less - the fertilizer was something like 3-0-8 - I wasn't very brave. I'll repeat Ian's treatment in the late autumn and every month or two after that. Since they were just repotted that will be it until next year.

A few are ready to bloom ... undulata, flexuosa Alba, sarniensis v. corusca 'Major', v. fothergillii Major and a few Smithers seedlings. The bulk bloom in mid October on.

Would love to see yours in bloom.

johnw

[David Nicholson]

I have never had any success with Nerines in the garden but a friend brought me a selection of unnamed bulbs back from a holiday in Madeira. Two of them looked like Nerines to me and I potted them up (the others are possibly a couple of Watsonias and an Hippeastrum!).

Here's a pic of one of the Nerine pots today.

[Gerdk]

Here is Nerine bowdenii - a high mountain form from Mont aux Sources -
seeds received long ago from the AGS - Donor was Harry Hay
This form is completely hardy here

Gerd

[Hans J]

Hi all ,

now today after some days of cold and fog wether :

Nerine sarniensis f. alba

enjoy
Hans 

[David Nicholson]

now today after some days of cold and fog wether :

....... really Hans, in the banana belt?

[Hans J]

David :

yes really ....since the day on which I made the pics of the bananas have we cold and ugly wether - today is the first day of this autuum that we use our chimney ...last nights we had 4 ° ....
I hope for better wether 

[Paddy Tobin]

Great Nerines, Hans.

The white cultivars always seem to be more difficult to grow here in Ireland. The more common Nerine bowdenii, the pink-flowered plant grows with great ease and increases very well. It is now just about to open in the garden.

Here is a red cultivar which is pot grown in the glasshouse.

Paddy

[Hans J]

Paddy ,

the reason for some problems with Nerines could be that some are summergrowing - and some wintergrowing
...p.e. N.lacticoma is summergrowing
and N.sarniensis is wintergrowing

[johnw]

A spectacular white N. sarniensis there Hans and a very nice red Paddy.

What a surprise to return home and find so many flower stalks shooting up on the Nerines - mainly hand-pollinated crosses from Sir Peter Smithers.  These were all cleaned up and repotted only a few weeks ago and seem firmly anchored already.

The flower is N. 'Fothergillii Major' - a tad more orange than as pictured.

Excuse the necklaces on the bulbs, it's the only way I've figured out to keep track of individual flower colours. Quite extraordinary to compare the colour from year to year and the sometimes inexplicable variation.

johnw

[mark smyth]

John why not give them individual pots? What's going to happen when daughter bulbs appear in the pots?

This is the congestion after only two years

[johnw]

John why not give them individual pots? What's going to happen when daughter bulbs appear in the pots?

Mark - I have about 35 pots with 6-25+ bulbs per pot. Do the math, if I repot them all into 4" pots which would be ideal there is simply not enough space in the greenhouse. I need a wealthy benefactor with a huge greenhouse! It's always a juggling act waiting for things to go dormant so they can be moved out and new emerging pots moved in.

johnw

[mark smyth]

I grow mine in 2L pots and dread they day I'll need to repot and divide. Nerine roots are active all year and dont die back every year like, for example, Narcissus. My pots are already a mass of roots