Haemanthus 2015

[Jon Evans]

I have been loving this thread – lots of favourites – the fabulous colour of the species from Bushmanland, H. barkerae and the tiny form of H. pubescens, and not least the different forms of H. crispus, particularly the pink.  It seems to have been a good year for them – most of mine have flowered, though I don’t have anything like the collection shown here.  I have added a few more photos of my own plants on the AGS website:

http://www.alpinegardensociety.net/discussion/underglass/Summer+Bulbs+/19937/

Not sure what happened inserting the URL - hope this fixes it. J

[Chris Johnson]

Got it now. It's a duplicate url but linked together.

[Maggi Young]

 Yes, Link perfect now, Jon.

[ashley]

Wonderful plants Jon, and how satisfying to have grown them from seed.
My 2-year old seedlings have a long, long way to go.

[Jon Evans]

Thank you Ashley.  Yes it is very exciting when a plant you have been looking after for that length of time produces a bud for the first time.  In fact several of these plants surprised me by flowering this year when I thought they were still much too small to do so.  7-8 years to get to flowering size is a lot quicker than I was expecting. 

We have generally had a long dry summer, if not particularly hot, so the sand plunges have dried out properly, and we have had two separate weeks with temperatures consistently up in the 30s.  I can only guess that this hot weather is what has triggered the unexpected flowers; the Sternbergias are flowering much better than usual as well the Haemanthus and other South African bulbs.

[Hans J]

Hi all ,

I'm just ready with collecting my Haemanthus humilis seeds ...
I will have in few days seeds of :
Haemanthus humilis
                   humilis Giant
                   humilis Keibolo
                   humilis pale form - sorry all gone
If anybody is interested to swap with me or to buy some seeds please send me a PM ...than I can reservate seeds ( from some I have only few )

For pictures please look here :
http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=11605.msg309491#msg309491

Hans

[johnstephen29]

I have managed to get my first haemanthus to flower, this one is H. Deformis. It's sitting pride of place on the kitchen windowsill. Chuffed to bits

[brianw]

Looks like my H. albifloss. John Grimshaw notes the similarities here. http://johngrimshawsgardendiary.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/haemanthus-deformis.html

[johnw]

Haemanthus albiflos (had it labelled H. albifos) came into flower here this past week.  This one was from Don Armstrong in the 80's, likely the first plant he ever gave me, it has been torn apart many times since then.  This year the leaves have not died down, I should have baked it a bit more.  I guess I will have to cut the old leaves back in a few months.

johnw

[brianw]

Mine are always in leaf. They lose some and can look a bit tatty but never all the leaves. Well in flower at present.

[johnstephen29]

They are similar arn't they Brian

[Chris Johnson]

I have managed to get my first haemanthus to flower, this one is H. Deformis. It's sitting pride of place on the kitchen windowsill. Chuffed to bits

Well done John.

I was going to say it looks similar to Haemanthus albiflos, but Brian has made the comment and added a useful link.

Most of ours live in the polytunnel where they appreciate the light and heat (not this year ) but the leaves suffer from fading. A couple in the house stay green and flower equally well.

I recently split ours to refresh the soil and remove some of the dead foliage.

[johnstephen29]

Hi Chris thanks for your comments, I have had a look at the web page Brian sent me and I'm not sure now. Angie sent me a few albiflos plants which are not in flower, I also have had a look at the Pacific bulb society section on haemanthus and it gives different flowering times for the two species, so I'm not sure what I've got now. All said and done I've still managed to get a great little plant to flower, so still chuffed 

I've just taken another look at the pictures of these two species and it looks like I've been had, I've another albiflos plant, oh well.

[Hans J]

John ,

your plant is sure H.albiflos

I have just looked my H.deformis
My ruler says :
My biggest H.deformis has 15 cm broad leaves
The others have 10cm - 12 cm -13 cm ....
H.albiflos startet with flowers always first - the other evergreen ( deformis + pauculifolius ) are much later
Maybe I will have later in year seeds from my H.deformis ....

Hans

[johnstephen29]

Cheers Hans, as I said I looked at the pbs wed site and I knew my plant was not deformis, I've tried to get I touch with the person who I bought it off, but they have not answered me back surprise, surprise.