The MGS Forum
Members' notice-board => Notices => Topic started by: Peri-kalas on August 26, 2018, 06:48:23 PM
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Hello,
Some days ago I was watering my garden pots and I stumbled across a plant that I can't identify, I could tell that's it looks like amaryllis or crinum or even amacrinum?
Need some help! Image attached! Thanks
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Cyrtanthus elatus?
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Thanks JTh
That's it! At least I was close at the family..
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Hi Peri-kalas.
Lucky you. I have tried many times to grow this in Rome. I get it to flower but then it dies. Mostly bulbs that I brought back from the UK. Now that I have a small garden rather than a sun-baked balcony I might try again with C elatus, What conditions do you grow it in?
To my surprise and joy I found it for sale one time at a plant fair in Rome. I waited for the flowers to arrive but they seemed to take forever. Imagine my disappointment when out came C mackenii (I think) though I have had those bulbs for several years now and have grown fond of them. Fond enough for me to have bought a white form last autumn. Unless, of course, something different pops up. I have attached an old photo of one of the C elatus which died and of the C mackenii which flowers every year for me.
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Lucky both of you!
I must admit I didn't know anything about this genus before I saw your photo, Peri-Kalas, but I was so intrigued by it that I couldn't give up before I had found out what it was. Certainly something I would love to have but I'll probably never find.
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Hi David,
The information above is really interesting...
The point is that the specimen in the image i initially posted is from my roof terrace in Dublin, I grow them in a well drained pot in full sun. I have never tried to grow them in Greece though..
I really like the C mackenii, I have a pot growing indoors here in Dublin but I would love to grow some of them outdoors in Greece. Are they evergreen or behave as bulbs? Moreover do you grow them in sun or shade?
From your picture i can see that you are also growing a Mahonia plant. Is it doing well in Rome?
Regards,
Periklis
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Hi JTH,
It is beautiful plant and the nicest thing is that flowers in late summer where everything else has finished...
My plant is still very small but I would be happy to post baby bulbs when it grows in the following years..
Regards,
Periklis
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I grow C mackenii in shade in a vase under a lemon tree. It gets some filtered light but not a lot. I have read that the more bulbs there are crammed together the happier it is. I left mine crammed in a pot until earlier this year when the little ones which had been produced were really bursting out of the soil. I transferred them into a pot which is only just bigger and let's see if they flower again for me this autumn. They are evergreen for me even in the -7°C of this winter. Though the leaves did not look too good.
The Mahonia that you spotted was one I tried to grow on my old balcony. The leaves got badly scorched so I gave it to a friend who planted it in his garden under the shade of a pine tree. It grew and flowered. He left that house a couple of years ago so I don't know the fate of the plant. However, as he had had success, and I now have a small garden I brought one back from the UK this spring. It is in soil in almost total shade (an hour of direct sunlight in the early morning and the same again in the late evening but only in summer. In winter the sun is too low in the sky to reach this part of the garden. It is alive and green even though it hasn't really grown. Just one new leaf. Hopefully autumn and spring might see some action?
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Peri-kalas, that was a wonderful and generous offer, something to look forward to.