Re: Nerine masonorum

Catherine Ratner wrote:
Hi everybody,

Has anyone been successful with Nerine masonorum?  I have had this bulbous
plant for many years.  It grows but I can't get it to bloom, even though it
has been in a pot, in the ground, in the sun, in the shade, etc.  I think
there have been three flowers in all these years.  I have lost patience and
am about to give it to one of my enemies!

Hi Catherine
I am going to be that annoying type who declares smugly "I have had no trouble ever getting mine to flower".

For many years I grew them in a pocket of my scree bed up on a terrace near the top of my garden. Alas, I had eventually to change the planting of this site when growing trees finally denied it sufficient sun for the alpines and Med. style plants which originally inhabited it. For most of this time these charming small Nerines grow and flowered faithfully in their pocket in autumn every year and also reproduced so prodigiously that I once traded 100 surplus bulbs with an alpine nursery. only in the last few years were they finally choked with weeds, though I recently found a sprinkling of the bulbs have survived and plan a rescue operation next (southern) summer with relocation to a site which is still decently sunny. Not that they actually need to be in sun all day. A half day's sunshine is just about sufficient..

Anyway, I did not write just to gloat, but to make a suggestion which might possibly solve your problem. One of my books in making a general remark about nerines warns that flowering can be suppressed if the plants are given extra nitrogen. When I think of it, my plants were in what was termed by its inventor a "rich scree" .This is a growing medium consisting of half good garden soil and half coarse gravel. This was almost never fed. Very occasionally it would receive a light topdresing of compost over winter, but definitely no other extra fertilizer of any kind. The stems were not very tall, actually well below the bottom of the quoted range, but the flowers were always profuse and formed a bright patch of rich pink which was very attractive.

Moira
-
Tony & Moira Ryan,
Wainuiomata, North Island, NZ.     Pictures of our garden at:-
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/cherie1/Garden/TonyandMoira/index.htm
NEW PICTURES ADDED 4/Feb/2004

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