Hesperantha Spp/S.Africans Abroad

Many thanks to Jana, Sean and Charles for their helping hand(s) to the
idiot ignoramus. Of course I was hoping that they were summer growers,
those being by and large easier to manage and more likely to succeed
here. That's what you get for being an idiot ignoramus. The winter
growers will probably have to be pot-plants under glass for me.
(Notice the blithe way I assume I'm going to get'em to germinate,
even.)

The two reliably hardy spp in the garden here are the ummer-flowering
H. baurii and H. huttonii. They stand both our small amounts of winter
cold and our large amounts of all-year-round wet, apparently quite
untroubled. H. huttonii, particularly, quickly makes large clumps and
the clear pink flowers are produced in quantities.

I had no trouble germinating H. vaginata, by the way. It came up
quickly and in cress-like quantities. The trouble began once it had
germinated. Yep, you guessed. It's a winter-grower and I germinated it
in the spring. I followed expert advice (thanks, Ian, if you're
listening!) and persuaded it to die down by drying it out completely -
but when I came to try to start it into growth again in the autumn,
the cupboard was bare - the tiny corms had all gone to the
great-Cape-in-the-sky. Pity. Photographs of the yellow-and-black
flowers look spectacular. One to try again...

Sean's comments about the S.A. climate are v. interesting. I'm
certainly never sure myself which plants from which S.A. climatic
regions are likely to succeed here - it's very much a matter of blind
faith/suck it and see - and even when I think I AM sure, the plants
usually prove me wrong. A book dealing simultaneously with (a) the
varieties of S.A. soil and climate and (b) the resulting cultivation
requirements of S.A. plants in other parts of the world would be a v.
useful addition to the bookshelf, IMO. Anyone listening?!

Tim Longville
Solway Coast Cumbria UK
back to the wind and wet
Tim Longville
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