Forum newbie Interested in growing Hippeastrums better...
Hi there, this is not my usual forum (adeniums and cacti/succs are my normal haunt!) For quite some time now I've always had at least one bulb, now I seem to have acquired several as gifts etc. I've been keeping them indoors year round either in the house when in flower or in the g/h when not. I've never considered them tough enough to withstand the UK summer weather, especially in my rural open aspect garden which gets battered by wind and rain. I've read conflicting advise on how to grow them successfully and would like to ask the experts here for guidance on good cultural methods. What kind of soil mix and NPK ratio food is preferred? When exactly to feed, dry off, start back into growth mode....do you even let them go dormant?
Currently I have my reliable Apple Blossom in flower once again. In leaf I have Red Lion, a mystery orange whose name I don't recall, and some other mystery bulbs from offsets of larger ones. Whether they are the AB, RL or orange types I don't know! I should have been carefull and labelled them properly like all my other plants, but these have escaped my usual method for some reason! I also am growing on some reds from seeds kindly sent to me by Geoff aka ( hippiezep ) last year I think it was. Here's my four bloom Apple Blossom, one still to open at the moment....
Gill
Comments (13)
everado
6 years agogreenclaws UK, Zone 8a
6 years agoRelated Discussions
Newbie loving this forum!
Comments (1)Hi containergirl and welcome (although I know you've been posting around for a little bit now)!! :-D Regarding some ideas - what I tend to do is think in terms of plants that I like and then I look up the cultural requirements and hardiness, and only then do I begin to assess what to do for container culture of the plant. I think many people forget that when they go to a nursery to buy plants for their gardens, about 9 out of 10 times they buy something already growing in a container. The final 1 out 10 purchase might be a balled & burlaped specimen if they choose to go with a more mature specimen. In any case, there is a scotoma regarding the fact that most plants that people buy are already containerized and they can't seem to get past the fact that this should mean that the plant CAN grow in a container. Sometimes it boggles my mind when they insist that you "can't" grow a lilac in a container or you "can't" grow a tree in a container. You "can't" do this or you "can't" do that. It's just silly... But anyway... ;-) Many of us end up doing spur-of-the-moment or what we dubbed as "PJIC" ("Plants Jump Into the Cart"...LOL) when we buy for our container gardens. Having the internet available makes it quite easy to look up the cultural requirements and find out the hardiness. Then what's left is to right-size the container for the plant (based on size, age, vigor - and this may mean successive potting up for a time), coming up with a planting mix that best matches our cultural practices (usually watering practices), becoming aware of the environment that the plant is living in (amount of sun, wind, heat, cold), and finally, going through alot of experimentation (including many losses amongst the successes) to see the plant through a cold-temperate winter - whether we might find the plant needs protection from actual cold or perhaps (more often than realized) - from excessive moisture during winter. There are a number of Zone 5 posters, although not all from your area, but consider that you can become a pioneer and inspiration for others just by even giving it a try and posting your results! I have seen container gardeners posting on other forums who don't even realize this or the Container Forum even exist, so there are many of us out there. One thing I do always recommend is that you check out the other GW or alternate gardening forums just to get some generic info and experiences from other gardeners about a myriad of plants - whether annuals, perennials, shrubs, and trees. That way you'll discover what's actually available and can then fall in love with something, and only then make an effort to grow that plant in a container in your growing space! I'd personally rather do it that way because when you tell people that you are container growing, most times they'll steer you to 99¢ annuals because they don't know better....See MoreAmaryllis / Hippeastrum Forum
Comments (27)Hi Birgit, I am in N. Central Florida (Ocala)and Bren, Countrynest, & pinakbet are probably my closest neighbors. We have the Amaryllis Study Group meetings. One of the main difficulties in international groups is the different laws and beauracracies because sooner or later people want to trade bulbs or plants ( since seeds of hybrids don't breed true). We are very lucky since all the hybrids I have ever heard of will almost naturalize here. We have 2 old yards of amaryllis that go back to the '60s with a thousand Red Lyons in the front yard of each. Locals have been going to look at these yards each May for 25 to 30 years and they probably started with 5 or 10 bulbs. The important thing to learn from these 2 yards is one is 100% sun and one is 100% shade. I don't grow my amaryllis in pots except for seminars. The people I correspond with in northern climates have a very different culture for amaryllis. Do you plant the pots with bulbs in them in the spring or do you plant the bulbs and then dig & store them in the winter, or do you grow them completely inside? Bill...See MoreNewbie to potager garden & potager forum, Hi
Comments (6)We've got very heavy clay soil here in central Texas as well. The soil looks suitable for making pots and bowls... I am in my second year of amending the soil, mainly through the use of generous amounts of compost mixed in with a tiller. Last year my garden yields were not so great, in part because I got a late start (due to the date we moved into the house) and in part because of record drought. My best harvests last year were okra and basil; most other plants limped along feebly through the > 100 F heat. This year has been much, much better. I had a cover crop, and that also helped break up the heavy soil. One part of the garden got planted with a cover crop mix of vetches, oats, and bell beans in September, and this got tilled under in January. The other part got planted in January with fava beans, and the fave beans were harvested and pulled out last month. This year, in addition to tilling compost in, I have also made small holes or trenches of compost in which I have directly planted the seeds or transplants, to give them extra nutrients as they start. This year the amended garden has been yielding very well. The soil texture is better than last year, though it will probably take another couple of seasons to achieve the nice "chocolate cake" type soil that is possible after amendment. My clay + compost garden has far out-performed my trial 4' x 4' square garden raised bed, probably because the clay provides nutrients not present in the mix used in the raised bed. I am continuing to experiment with the raised beds as well by adding more compost and organic fertilizer....See MoreFor fun, what us newbies have learned from this forum. :)
Comments (12)@Donna-Yeah, I THOUGHT the peat pots to be a good idea this year. I had read on here people using plastic cups, but thought it was just to save money. WELL, after learning their ridiculous moisture wicking properties(so it's harder to know how much to water the plants), and the size I got this year worked, but were probably too small, I'm going with the cups next year. ;) Also, I was worried about the roots growing through before I was ready. Though the tomatoes were decent enough in not growing through to bad, some of my other plants, like the broccoli if my memory serves me right, had grown through too much, in my opinion, to think to take off the pots before planting. @Rabbit-LoL! Love it. ;) But yeah, I forgot to put that! Gosh, I try so hard to not talk my husband's ear off about my plants, but it's so hard when you're so happy and excited...or nervous and worried(damping off scare anyone? ;) ). I love talking plants, even though this is my first year gardening. ESPECIALLY tomatoes! My husband is quite perplexed as to my unusually high interest in a vegetable that we're not even big eaters of. Well, fresh anyways. But we use a ton of pizza sauce and also other tomato products(soup, paste, etc.). I think I might have told him, but out of all my plants I'm most excited for tomatoes because there's so much variety! Like yeah, there's probably a dozen heirloom broccoli you could find on the internet, but tomatoes, there's thousands! I wanna be a collector/taste tester of every heirloom variety! ;) That's why, like you're saying, this forum's great because all us tomato fans can chat it up. @Missingtheobvious-About the potato leaf varieties. I was all perplexed when some of my tomatoes came up normal and others were potato leaf. I had read about it previously, but hadn't seen pics, and I hadn't thought to check what kind of leaves the varieties I was planting had. I was all wondering when the normal leaves would come! lol Weird thing is, I don't know if it's related to the varieties I chose or what I'm fixin' to say, but this year two of my varieties of reg. leaf looked awful, had issues, etc., but I hardly lost sleep over the potato leaf varieties. Again, I don't know if it was related to varieties or not, but I can't help but now be more partial to the potato leaf tomatoes. ;) @Homegarden-That's so cool that you had never had a tomato with a different color than red but now you're branching out. ^_^ I guess I too, when I think about it, hadn't known there was different color tomatoes until this year. I have never tasted a different colored tomato, but I have Sun Gold, Sunsugar, and Paul Robeson(or Rambling Red Stripe, label issue) growing this year, so it'll be neat to see if I taste a difference. :) That's cool you got some people hooked on your Golden Queen so they request 'em. I hope to have a taste test this year for friends and family with my twelve varieties(and others if friends or family wanna donate a tom or two to the mini event). If I got requests as to what to grow next year, I'd be so flattered! ^_^ @Cdon-I hope that's not true about pepper plants! I've been trying to water more because I thought I had read somewhere that, by doing so, you create a hotter pepper. But maybe someone else might know for sure. By the way, like the slogan. I'll have to remember it....See Moreeverado
6 years ago
jstropic (10a)
6 years agoeverado
6 years agojstropic (10a)
6 years agogreenclaws UK, Zone 8a
6 years agoOops, forgot I'd posted here so sorry for not getting back to you good folks before now!
I do use perlite but it's not my fav ingredient as I find it can sometimes go green with algae when it works it's way up to the surface. It's floaty nature can be annoying also, it washes out if the mix given time and I end up with a top layer of pumice especially when watering overhead. Also, for taller plants it doesn't give stability to the pots so I tend to use it in lesser amounts these days.
I tend to use whatever I have available here in the U.K., mainly bagged potting mixes which I amend with various other bits and pieces as mentioned above. The bark I get in handy sized bags from the big pet warehouse style stores. It's small grade so no need to break it up and is sold as reptile substrate. Aquarium gravel is also a good ingredient as I have a supply from our redundant tropical fish tank.
I grow mainly Crassula/Jade trees in their many different forms, a few stapelias, holiday cacti, as I believe they as referred to in the US, and 'Compton Carousel' Echeverias.
BTW, another hippie is in bloom....can't for the life of me remember it's name....(scratches head). I don't think this is Red Lion, it's too orange, no doubt it's the mother bulb of my other mystery orange! Will have to try and find some names to look through and maybe jog my memory....any suggestions?
Regards, Gill
greenclaws UK, Zone 8a
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agoeverado
6 years agogreenclaws UK, Zone 8a
6 years agolast modified: 6 years ago
Julie Wignell
6 years agoJulie Wignell
6 years ago
In case you are interested, here is an example of what I think will turn out to be my first 'Orange Sovereign'. It was such a poor specimen that came to me as a mislabel that I can not be positive until the next flowering, but I'm pretty convinced it will turn out to be an O.S. with it's deep, rich orange colour. But take note of the rounded ends to the leaves.....a good indication that the ID may well be correct. Good luck looking through the gallery photos- I'm sure a few new bulbs will be added to your growing collection after seeing so many lovely varieties available!
greenclaws UK, Zone 8aOriginal Author