South African bulbose plants 2009

[Michael J Campbell]

Darren,does your Polyxena pygmaea set any seed?

[Lvandelft]

Darren, what a display of your beautiful plants!
You are demonstrating such great skill in growing these plants. Thanks for showing!

[Paul T]

 

Glorious display, Darren.  I still love the "silver leaf" although fading, that pink jasminiflora looks wonderful, and I can't get over the offsetting on the echinata.  Makes a spectacular clump, doesn't it?  You must just have a clone that does it.  Absolutely brilliant.  Wow!! 

[BULBISSIME]

Darren, I've no word to qualify your pics and plants !!!!!
simply STUNNING !
The display is superb, and the plants so healthy !!!
I love this plants .
Please can you give us some words regarding your cultural tips

Thank's again for sharing

[angie]

Darren
I also would be grateful for some of your cultural tips on growing massonia too.
Angie

[Rogan]

Words fail me Darren, I've NEVER seen a collection as good as your's before - fantastic!

This is a picture I've displayed on these pages before - any idea what it may be? To me it looks very Massonia-like (except for the flowers!) and is extremely rare occurring only on the top of the highest Drakensberg mountains:

[Darren]

What kind comments, thank you!

I'm a bit stuck for time this morning but will respond with some cultural info this evening.

Michael - The Polyxena pygmaea is one clone and i don't get seed but I do have some newly germinated seedlings from South African seed so I expect to produce my own seed in 2-3 years.

Rogan - I will have a think about your pic. It doesn't look like the only Drakensberg Massonia I know (a rather squinny summer growing form of jasminiflora, which I no longer have).

D.

[Darren]

I've been thinking about cultural tips and can't add much to Paul Cumbletons excellent advice on the Wisley log last year. But my regime is basically:

Compost: About half lime-free grit, one quarter John Innes No2 and one quarter John Innes Ericaceous.

Housing:  All are kept in my 7m x 2.5 m greenhouse, which is managed as an alpine house and has doors at both ends. Only ever closed up in the event of frost or gales. On frosty nights there is an electric fan heater with a thermostat set at 1C, just enough to stop things freezing through but still cold enough for ice to form on the inside of the glass. All my cape bulbs have survived a night at -3C when the heater failed - the pots didn't freeze but many leaves were 'down' and frozen. All revived in a few hours with no losses or damage. In long cold spells like last winter I apply a thick layer of bubble insulation to keep the heat bill down, the low light is not so important if it is too cold for plants to grow anyway. As soon as the mild weather reappears it is essential to take this off on the sunny side of the greenhouse to admit as much light as possible. Part of the north side of my greenhouse is actually lined with old mirrors to bounce the light back as I reckon this gives more light than having clear glass on this side.

Pots: My bigger and nicer Massonia are potted individually (except that echinata clump) in clay pots big enough to allow the leaf spread without obstruction. These are kept in a sand plunge. Those which demand too much space (M. depressa especially) are in plastics and not plunged. A 12cm plastic pot is quite big enough for a mature bulb but expect the leaves to overhang the sides! Small seedlings are in plastic pots on capillary matting with my other seedlings beneath the bench.

Repotting & watering cycle: I repot these annually in early august at the latest - the roots have often started to grow by then so I don't like leaving it later. First watering for Massonia is therefore a little earlier than for most of my bulbs - on or around august 20th (my birthday so easy to remember). The first sign of life is usually M.pustulata in mid september but the first to flower here is the last to emerge (!) , M.pygmaea which flowers as the leaves first pop up in early-mid October. Watering is applied to keep the compost moist through the winter months. Around the end of April I withhold water and force the Massonia to go dormant (some will try to be tatty evergreens unless I get assertive!). With the plunged plants in clays it helps to break the capillary connection with the sand by lifting the pot and putting a pebble under it to hold it away from the sand - the plunge will stay damp for a few more weeks to keep some other occupants happy and this moisture is undesirable for the Massonia. Once the plunge is dry I remove the pebble and sit the dry pot back until repotting time - this prevents the bulb getting to hot & possibly shrivelling. Brian Mathew reports losing Massonia bulbs to shrivelling in hot weather but of course that was down south in the UK Banana Belt. Better safe than sorry though.

Pests: Very few! Mice are sometimes attracted to the flowers but seem not to bother the plants beyond leaving droppings or claw scratches on the leaves or tasting the odd flower. M. depressa is rodent pollinated in the wild of course. Paul Cumbleton makes the point that faded flowers readily attract botrytis and must be removed - I emphasise this too! I usually go as far as then dusting the crown with sulphur to be on the safe side.

Propagation: Seed is usually the only way. I've only been organised in my propagation from my own plants for a few years and don't have much experience to share. Germination is triggered by warm days & cool nights in late summer & early autumn so I sow all my bulb seed around the end of august (my birthday again!). I have noticed that some years only a few in each pot will germinate. If I then dry out the pot undisturbed for the following summer many more will germinate in year two. I speculate that this is to do with poor (too cool?) conditions for the seed to ripen during summer (after harvesting) in year one, with them catching up in year two. Older seed stored at room temp for a full year often germinates immediately upon sowing. I mean to experiment more with this.

Phew, that was rather more than I'd intended! Hope it helps.

D.

[Maggi Young]

Darren, a superb post.... I've turned it blue to make it stand out!!

[Darren]

Thank you Maggi, I'm flattered again!

Rogan - I notice your mystery massonia has had some debate on the Pacific Bulb Soc forum? I can't add anything except I'm pretty sure that the verdict about it being an undescribed Massonia species is probably correct. It doesn't resemble any other Massonia with those campanulate flowers but it still has the 'feel' of the genus. Unscientific I know.  Fantastic foliage colour too - one to be added to the list of desiderata for sure.

[angie]

Thanks Darren

GREAT, GREAT, GREAT,
What a lot of information. Got my husband to copy it all into my plant file, that will allow me to gain this information easy.  Thanks for taking the time and sharing all your tips, liked the idea of the pebble and also the mirrors on the wall, I just threw out mirror wardrobes a few weeks ago, what a pity, still my husband is in construction so he will keep a look out for me ( get it before it goes in the skip ).
I am glad to hear what you thought about the light levels. I was struggling with that and didn't now what to do .I have put one growlight in but maybe like you said if they are not growing I might not need this .
There was so much information in your posting it will be a great help for me.
I heard before that you should never throw out your seeds to soon as they might take a year or two to germinate,so I have trays everywhere ( just peony seeds and trillium's) nothing as rare as your plants.
There was so much information in your posting it will be a great help for me.
I keep going back and looking at your plants, I like everyone else was amazed at your display.
Thanks Darren
Angie

[Darren]

Hi Angie,

Some further thoughts re: light. I notice that Roma reported flowering Ferraria crispa last year, and not a million miles from you. The South African Irids like Ferraria and some Moraea seem to need better light than Massonia to induce flowering so I'm pretty confident that if you keep your south african bulbs cool and just ticking over in winter then there are probably many you could grow without artificial light. And being that bit further north you may get an extra few weeks growth in spring before temperatures are high enough to send things dormant. I'd be interested in knowing how you get on. I see prevention of freezing as being a bigger issue for you, and a more expensive one. Our mirrors came from the 'Big Shed' (which appeared on the old forum). The previous owners of our house had a body-building son so there were mirrors everywhere, and I mean everywhere.
I have some lecture notes from a respected orchid grower who declared that light intensity north of southern europe was too poor to induce flowering of the Australian Thelymitra orchids. Nobody told mine! Half the fun of our hobby is challenging the 'rules' and learning from it.

There are usually some Massonia & Polyxena seed in the SRGC and AGS seed exchanges. If you get some just keep the packets in a drawer in the house until next August & sow them then.

Don't follow my advice in the above post for the Peony & Trillium seeds - don't dry these out if they don't germinate, keep them moist. Many true bulbs I think would be OK to dry out & try again next year but most other seeds won't like it.  Good luck.

[angie]

Thanks Darren

I keep my greenhouse around between 3- 5c ( this is only my second winter I might be broke after this one ) and I try and not think about the cost, like you say its my hobby and I get so much joy when I see my plants growing. My husband laughs at me in the winter he is always saying have you tucked your babies up for the night, don't want them getting cold.
I shall quiz Roma at the next meeting, she is another SRGC member that has so much knowledge. Thanks again Darren I will keep you posted, hope you have lots of patience.

Angie

[Paul T]

Brilliant and very useful posts Darren.  I'm again thankful for living where I do (and given the heat we get in summer I need to be reminded there is something to be thankful for at times  ..... definitely hot enough here in summer to give a full dormancy, mature seeds etc.    Still, there are a couple of experiments I might make after your post.  Thanks heaps!! 

[BULBISSIME]

Many many thank's Darren for all your informations !
I'm glad to listen that your SA bulbs will survive below 0°C; If I didn't have lot of Caudex in my greenhouse, I would decrease the heating