Belladonna Amaryllis

Hi all,
What does this bulb want? I have several that I planted 2 years ago. Twice I got no flowers, but again I have the green foliage. Any clues?

I have them in a dry, hot almost full sun area that happily supports roses.

I hope I've given you enough clues to solve this mystery, I planted several more in different areas.

thank you
cynthia

Cynthia,
I have read that they like to be crowded to bloom well and may take 2 yrs to bloom after planting/transplanting. You said they're growing near roses: Do you supplement water your roses? If so they may be getting too wet, as the 'ladies' like to be on the dry side. In my SL plant book it says "summer rains make it hard to grow in most of the south".
I planted some a few years ago and they never came up at all. I dug around and found black mush so I have since gave up on trying to grow them.

I wish you lots of luck with them.

ugh. that is not what I wanted to hear. I just planted some and am waiting on some I'm getting in trade. I hope my naked ladies are not a repeat experience of what I've gone thru with acidanthera. I planted about 100 and it is now 2 years and those dang things have not bloomed. They put out greens but no blooms. And they smell sooooooo divine!

Hang in there ~ if you have foliage, there is still hope. Naked Ladies really do not like to be disturbed. After they lose their foliage (and I forget where they are) if I accidentally get too close while planting something else, that's it for the flowers for that year. I have them in several spots and I make that mistake almost every year. Duh... you think I'd learn.

I've been puttying those little flags that electricians, et al use to mark land lines, and my smartalec neighbor asked me the other day if I was growing flags these days, lol

I have had these in a pot for a couple years and haven't had any blooms. One thing I did wrong was to keep watering them (outdoors). They never lost all their foliage.

Another problem may be the winter cold here. They seem to suffer from frost. I'm going to put them in the ground this spring.

Moby~
Do you have yours in the ground? Any mulch or protection?

Robert.

Thanks All
I guess I'm happy to see more green foliage this year....maybe they are getting crowded enough.

They are near roses, but in a place so dry that hardy hibiscus died about 2 ft away.

got fingers crossed for the future.

anyone have a Madonna Lily? Similar story with her....but still hoping

cynthia

I used to have some Madonna lilies. They got shaded and/or out by other plants one winter (and of course they were *not* weeds, either, ) and disappeared. :-(

But they were great, easy plants while I had them. I love the informal, loose kind of look they have and the form is reminescent of Easter lilies, but much smaller, less "in-your-face". Just a sweet lily. One of my faves.

Robert.

raydio ~ mine are in the ground. No protection other than the leaves that have collected and I leave them there until Spring.

Lilies sometimes disappear due to rot (too much moisture or poor drainage) or root eating critters such as voles. I understand slugs can be a problem too.

Oh, lawsy, don't mention those nasty voles! They are all over our yard. That's why I do *lots* of container gardening. Anything I don't want to lose, I keep potted and I hate it!

I have lots of hosta in containers and they find their way into the drainage hole and feast on the roots and even nest in the large tubs!.

After Hurricane Hugo swept through here in the late 80's, the voles just invaded our lot, whereas I hadn't noticed them at all before!

They *love* tulip bulbs, which I don't grow anymore after having 1 come up out of 2 dozen planted!

There are a couple spots they haven't found (yet). Maybe if I circle the plot with sharp grit, I can discourage the vile voles.....

It has really made gardening here a disheartening thing.

Thanks for the info, Moby.

Robert.

That's is disheartening! What a bummer.

Moby
Thanks for the tip re: do not disturb the nekkid ladies! I did not know that and being rather compulsive, I'll bet I've disturbed them each year.

I just learned about lilies and water. I have great soil for about 8 inches, then heavy clay, this year when I planted my lilies, I put them in a bed with lots of top amendments so the clay is further down, maybe I'll get more to return.

thanks for all the great info from all.

sorry about those voracious voles, I've never had them and hope to never get em. now slugs are another story, The only good thing about drought is they are down deep. I do still have brown snails. I put out Sluggo, several years ago I got some carnivorous snails (decolatte sp? snails) They really took the population down for several years, but you need to wait for them to come in the mail then wait for them to eat the brown snails. I didn't have that long.
cynthia

I saw some A. belladonna in a sale bag and they had a long neck. Is this right? I have only seen small new bulbs that didn't have much neck. I know that crinums will lose the neck above ground here due to winter kill, but will keep the long neck that is below the soil. Is it the same with A. belladonna? They looked like crinum bulbs.

The above phemomenon makes me think that this is where some of the variation in planting depth advice comes from. Directions usually say to have the neck just at the soil level and depending on how long the neck is, the resulting depth that the bulb will find itself at will vary quite a bit.

Late-breaking update: Earlier in the thread I said that my Madonna lilies had been crowded out. Well, I was rooting around in the weedy bed and found one small one that had survived! Yea! I moved it to a much better area. I'm so happy.

Robert.

think A. belladonna likes porous, free draining soil. They will tolerate arid conditions, but I'm not so sure that is what they prefer. I would say moist is the key word.

I have got some young plants from a National collection holder here, he said they would like a bit of shade. I am growing mine in an organic mix with gritty river soil in a cold greenhouse until they are big enough, they are green and growing even though winter has been quite cold. Bulbs that have been dried such as these will always take longer to establish, but it is often a good idea to give them a head start by growing in a pot so they can establish a healthy root system first.

I have recently bought a large bulb, it has a very long neck, and I intend on putting it so the soil is close to the top of it. I will also grow it in a pot for some time before trying it outside, water can be regulated much easier that way, and in winter under cover of glass it won't get too wet.

http://www.plantzafrica.com/plantab/amarylbella.htm

I also bought some seed of one called Kimberley recently, they were already germinated and are growing nicely indoors

Like Vossner said, I too have had NO LUCK getting my Naked Ladies to bloom. I got foliage every year...tons of it...and not one bloom. I see them growing here in the weirdest places and they bloom like crazy. When I DO see them in flower, they are most always in yards where they appear to be neglected...along with everything else around them...I finally dug all of mine up and gave them to a friend who has a vacation house up in the desert. He had a ton load of flowers the year he planted them. This guy couldn't grow a weed if his life depended on it...!!!! So, I can only assume like everyone else has said, that they don't like cultivated places and regular watering.

There is a HUGE crop of them that grows and blooms profusely in the embankment of a freeway interchange here...there must be 500 of them when they are blooming. They come up through the English Ivy and then they disappear until next year...I've seen people get out of their cars and pick them when the traffic is backed up !!!

There was a couple who lived on our street when I was a kid. They had these incredible gardens. The wife hated these amaryllis, so she would dig them up and throw them over the fence into a vacant lot. Come Summer, they would be blooming to beat the band and they weren't even in the ground....

So. if you want them to bloom and you have a vacant lot behind you, throw them over the fence and forget about them. Go back there in August and they'll be blooming...in spite of you !!!!!

Thanks Wallaby1 and JasperDale.

I have my A. belladonna in a pot of Miracle-gro soil and they're currently indoors. Last year when summer set in, I made the mistake of keeping them somewhat watered. They kept some short foliage just at ground level. Though mine may only now be getting to blooming size, I will *not* water be watering them this year when they rest..

Why? I have since found out that they nedd to be kept *very* dry and quite hot (sunny locale) in order to bloom. So I'm not even going to allow any rain to hit my pot this year. I may plant them in the ground eventually. Keeping them on the dry side is usually not a problem here in the summer. Then too, I can always cover the ground in periods of heavy rain to help.

So, you're right about then in Long Beach, JD, they need to be ignored not pampered at all. The scene you describe sounds gorgeous! Hope you'll stop traffic to get a few pix to post when they bloom!

Robert.

I did try to take pictures a few times but they came out all blurry. When I WANT to get stuck in traffic, I can't !!!! There is no way to get to them other than the freeway...When I figure out how to work my digital camera I will definitely take some pictures and post them...this gives me until August to "practice"...

BTW Raydio, I have a friend in New Bern who grows them and they bloom. She just completely ignores them and they do fine...I don't know if you live near there, but she claims the rain and snow don't phase them...she says she NEVER waters them at all.
They just come up and bloom. They are on part of her property that is "wild"...she doesn't cultivate that area as she keeps it natural for her birds and butterflies.

JasperDale~

Good luck with the pix. Don't get run over!

New Bern is on the coast and I'm in the foothills near Charlotte.

I'm in zone 7b. New Bern may be the same or zone 8. I know a lot of things do better on the coast of NC and SC than they do here.

I have found that plants become more acclimatized by the year and can do with less protection as time goes by. I have a very nice wall with creeping fig (Ficus pumila) that I never protect anymore and its 12+ feet up the side of the house! It was a greenhouse purchase from Florida. At first, it would get cut nearly to the ground. I only protected it for 2 years. It suffered a lot those next few years but now takes nights in the 20's with moderate damage.

Maybe I'll work my belladonnas up to staying out year-round too. I plan to do some hippis too. Some day.

Robert.

Ficus pumilla??? ARE YOU CRAZY ??? !!!!!!! We had that stuff and couldn't get rid of it...it grew right through the wood siding and the stucco...They plant that stuff on the freeways here...then some idiot tries to climb it (trying to get to the amaryllis !!!) and it peels off the walls in HUGE sheets about 12 feet high and 20 feet long...beware...it's like the vine from hell !!!!

raydio did you see the A. belladonna growing on the steep rocky slopes in the plantzafrica link above? If you hold the arrow over the pic it says growing on the Cape peninsula, you can see the sea behind. It would get lots of wind and probably rain at certain times of the year, but is growing in shallow, rocky slopes. The rocks will provide a shelter for the roots, the long roots of this type of bulb are designed to seek out water under rocks, where it will stay moist and not waterlogged, while the bulb itself is allowed to keep dry. This is from the link:

" Amaryllis belladonna in its natural habitat is found in small dense groups among rocks. Therefore the best place to plant them would be in a rock garden. In a created landscape, Amaryllis can be used mixed in between blue Agapanthus as a good combination, as the evergreen leaves of the Agapanthus provide skirts for the naked ladies. They can also be grown between a ground cover or mixed annual or herbaceous border."

Wallaby1~

Yes I saw the pic. Beautiful. I love to see plants in their native situations.

I have been looking up various Hippeastrums and have read about them growing in the crotches of trees. Epiphytic lilies!

Thanks for the link.

Robert.

JasperDale~

Now calm down.....Here in 7b it doesn't go so crazy. I don't know of anyone else who's even attempted it here. Common ivy (Hedera) is more to be watched.

Funny to think about the climbers and the peeling sheets of foliage!

I've noticed that it does creep through small cracks so I can relate to it's being a pest if not regularly "disciplined". It has wound it's way around the drainpipe and I'm concerned that it might push it out from the wall. I may cut it back a lot this spring because about 4 feet of the top has died back and though I know it will be covered over by the season's growth, it looks a bit nasty at the moment. It doesn't have far to go to reach the roof and I certainly don't want that!

I first planted it to get a nice retaining wall covered with it after reading about walled gardens in Charleston or Savannah having it on them.

Have you seen any with mature foliage on it? Even though mine has grown for 15 or more years, I don't see what I would call mature foliage as I understand it. The leaves do get larger and more elongated but are still ovoidish (technical botanic term). never have seen any fruit or blossoms on it either.

Robert.

Robert...
Yes I have seen the mature foliage...it can get about 5 inches long and about 3 inches wide...not at all what it looks like in it's infancy...

The fruit can get about 3 1/2 inches long....and is sort of bell shaped...it get's real leathery...the raccoons and possums love it...obviously it is full of seeds...luckily they don't seem to sprout...
The vine here gets VERY woody...to the point that even electric hedge shears won't cut it...it jams the blades...

I used to work in the landscaping dept. at Disneyland...this vine was growing on a bridge in Storybook Land... One year part of it got diseased and died...we had to remove it...and when we pulled it off, it pulled off plaster, bricks etc down to the wood foundation of the bridge..... the roots even grew in the water of the moat....we were constantly having to pull the roots out of the water because they would attach themselves to the walls of the "lake" and when we'd pull them off , they had to resurface the walls...(another reason we'd put that green dye in the water to make it murky...)( it hid a multitude of sins...leeches, cocaine bottles, mud hen eggs... to name a few...)

Maybe given your climate it won't run amok like it does here...pray that it doesn't...!!!