The MGS Forum
Plants for mediterranean gardens => Bulbs (including other geophytes with corms, tubers, rhizomes etc) => Topic started by: Fermi on March 10, 2019, 10:48:13 AM
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This is what is grown in southern Australia as Lycoris radiata.
There is some conjecture that it might be a hybrid.
I grow it in 2 different places - in a hot sunny rock garden and in a shady garden bed.
The first to flower this year are the ones in shade (which have been getting some summer water).
Although they seem similar to nerines, the flowers don't last as long,
cheers
fermi
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Fermi, this is what I've been growing in Greece as Lycoris radiata, much less showy than your plant but does seem to key out as that. It was a direct import from China about 15 years ago, and has been increasing ever since, but as you say it doesn't stay in flower for long, and we're very rarely there at the right time to see them flower. It may get water in summer from some irrigation some way away, but very little.
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Hi Alistair,
does your Lycoris radiata set seed? Ours appears to be sterile and that might be another indication that it's a hybrid.
Usually the first to flower is Lycoris incarnata but it's been beaten into third place this year!
Here it is in bud on 8-03-2019, then in flower 2 days later
cheers
fermi
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Another pic taken today, a day after the last pic
cheers
fermi
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Lovely, Fermi! Lycorises are so fast to come into flower, you can almost see the budding stems grow moment by moment, can't you.
If my radiata do set seed, they've all gone by the time we get out there. I suspect it's possible, as I started with one small group in a particular place then lifted it and moved it en masse into a different one. But now there are individual plants or small clumps in several places, including one or two very unlikely spots that ants might have taken seeds to.
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The latest to flower is Lycoris x elsiae ( syn x albiflora) which is multiplying slowly in our garden.
In bud on 15-03-2019;
Starting to open 16-03-2019;
In full flower 17-03-2019;
About to "go over" 19-03-2019
cheers
fermi
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This year the first to flower is Lycoris sprengeri and though I missed the first one, a second in another bed came into flower today! I love the way the tips of the petals look like they are ink-stained
cheers
fermi
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Lycoris incarnata has only one stem up so far but hopefully more will be develop as the season progresses
cheers
fermi
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Hi
I have no luck with getting Nerines to flower at all. I have several different varieties. Both pink and white of Nerine bowdenii, a red hybrid with no name and Nerine sarniensis. I have had some bulbs for over 5 years. They atre packed close together in pots and placed in full sun. Nothing, not even a hint of a bud. Leaves galore. Maybe I should let them dry out completely over summer and let the autumn rains get them to flower? It seems I might be better abandoning them completely and moving over to Lycoris?
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Hi David,
I think climate has a lot to do with getting nerines and lycoris to flower.
Melbourne's climate is ideal for nerines and they grow without any care! Here in Central Victoria they are a little trickier - some types such as N. fothergilla 'Major' and N. rosea do well and are frost hardy whereas N. sarniensis tends to be frost tender (which is why I don't believe in the taxonomic "lumping" of the first two in with N. sarniensis). Nerine flexuosa "Alba" tolerates more shade though I think it's now classified as either N. humilis or N.undulata and is more reliable.
I think the species that come from winter rainfall areas do better here but some such as N. filifolia can do well if provided with water over the summer.
The sarniensis and other hybrids appear to appreciate being hot and dry over the summer with water in autumn and winter.
Lycoris are another story altogether! I have no idea what conditions promote flowering - I have some in full sun, dry over summer and others in light shade with summer water and either will flower or not at their own whim!
cheers
fermi
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Thanks Fermi. Useful information, which is one of the great things about this forum.
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David, I have Lycoris radiata and L. aurea in Greece, in unwatered parts of our hot frost-free garden. Both, particularly radiata, have increased well there, and I think radiata has seeded itself around slightly; I'm never there myself at their flowering time but am told that it certainly flowers.
Here I still have the parent clump of L. aurea which must be about 20 years old now, in a big box of compost under frost-free glass, where it gets some water all year (because it shares the box with allegedly Lilium wallichianum). It always flowers well, and usually sets seed.