Gloriosa supurba (Fire Lily) bloom issue.

This is my first successful year at growing Fire Lilies. I have two growing now and I am generally pleased with the outcome.

Since it was such a cold spring this year, I chose to start them indoors. Once they started growing, they really took off, one in particular...it is just over 5' high. The other, is a mere 3'. Both have branched and are starting to get flower buds on them. The 3' plant has one very healthy flower growing so far, the rest that are coming up darken and stop growing.

With the 5' plant, however, all the flower buds that have begun to grow, have, so far, turned dark and stopped growing for some reason. I water regularly, checking the soil first to see if they do need watering. I feed them a 24-8-16 all purpose plant food when I do water them. The rest of the plant is very healthy, I check it daily for any pests that may have made a home in them and I have found nothing.

(They are in direct sunlight from early morning until about midday then are in partial to full shade during the hottest period of the day. Since I live in a high rise, there is usually a breeze.)

Am I doing something wrong?

Hi Len, It looks to me like you are allowing the plant to be blown by the wind a bit too much, these plants/tubers need a really sheltered site away from wind, they need a fair bit of sun also, in the growing/flowering time you should feed maybe every second week and go easy on the water, as being a tuber, in a pot, makes them suseptable to rot, after watering, dont let it sit in a dish of water at the roots, did you know that they need supported with a trellis or canes, they get really top heavy as the plants mature, in there native Africa, they are classed as climbers, also as you water, try not get the foliage wet, just give a mist from time to time. how large is the pot, if you have had it a couple of years, then I would concider giving it a larger pot, but as it is flowering now, then wait till the end of the season and repot it then, when you pot it, you should find some little baby tubers, you can leave them with the parent plant, or pot them into their own pots and treat them the same. Hope this helps, because I live by the coast, I can only grow these indoors in my greenhouse as they need shelter from wind and cool changable conditions Good luck, Weenel.

Thanks for your reply WeeNel. The wind could be a possible factor, but the blackening of the flower buds started before I set them outside. They aren't dry, but still moist. I will be taking your advice on the watering schedule. My failure with them before was too much water so I did learn at least that much.

I have them growing up along a bamboo trellis. To keep them supported, I've used grafting tape, loosely looped around the stem and the trellis and the tape stapled together on the trellis side. It's working very well as they are nice and straight and there's no fear of the tape being too tight around the stem. I've had to add a secondary piece of straight bamboo to the 5' plant to help support the top.

I do my best to not allow any foliage to get wet when watering my plants. (I also have over 12 different varieties of lillium on my balcony.) These tubers are only in their first year with me. The pots measure 8" across by 7" deep. The tubers are buried about 4" deep. They are both in separate pots.

Thanks again for the advice.

My thought (which is something WeeNel also mentioned) is the fertilizer--if you're fertilizing every time you water that is probably too much for the plant, especially since your fertilizer is high in nitrogen (the first number), that can burn plants if they get too much. So I would back off on the fertilizer and see if that helps things.

I was thinking the same thing, ecrane...thank you for your reply & for verifying. :-)

While I'm here, how do I get the soil alkaline level up to the suggested 8.6 to 9.0?

This message was edited Jul 5, 2007 10:50 PM

Hi Len, your doing good, it is always difficult to get everything right when we try new plants etc, especialy if we have some conditions that the plants dont like in there natural environment, but I think to even get where you are with these is great, it will just take time to alter the conditions and you will learn for future seasons, they are tough tubers, I have seen them grow in the roadsides without all the fuss we give them and they really are a sight to behold, I have to agree with Ecrane about the feeding regime, dont overfeed as it normally takes at least a week for a plant to take up the food for any benificial changes to our eyes, but it is all happening under the soil, so if we add more the next week, the plant gets a double dose, so maybe slow down on that as it sometimes causes too soft growth and also the flowers cant harden up enough and can just give up or go brown, you'll get there I'm sure, just be patient and dont kill with kindness, you will notice if the plants need watered, the lush leaves will look a wee bit droopy, wish I had a view of your balcony, it sound a real little perfumed oasis, good luck. WeeNel.

WeeNel...thank you for the encouragement. I'm doing very well with my other lilies except for the fact that I didn't pull the pots away from the edge and the soils stayed too wet for most of the winter and I lost a lot of parent bulbs. I lesson learned there. It did, however give me a good excuse to buy more bulbs this year.

I will be holding off on the feeding of the gloriosa for this week and maybe next, depending on what I see on the plants. The taller plant has two more flower buds growing and I'm keeping a close eye on them to see how they are fairing. I do, however, have one bloom on the smaller plant that has matured beautifully. I've included a picture for all to see.

Thanks again for your encouragement.

Hi All,

I'm new to this forum and have a question. I planted a bean tree last year and it is doing great this season. I noticed something growning on it - a climing flower. I think it's a Fire Lily, but have no idea how it got there! i don't think it will hurt the tree, but i'm wondering if i should replant it. it's quite lovely! I've attached a photo

Thanks,
Lynn