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Bulbs in cool Areas.

© Paul Tyerman

Paul, in cold Canberra, do you have a special potting mix for your nerines or do you favour shelter from frosts?

In reply:

Nope on both counts. All my nerines basically get full frost, and get treated like everything else. My Cyclamen I tend to add more sand to their mix as I find they like that, plus depending on what potting mix I have I may make additions for Galanthus and Fritillarias. Otherwise, nothing gets special treatment (there are a few others that do, but not that I can think of off the top of my head).

The species nerines definitely are out in full sun and full frost, while the hybrids get a little bit of shelter in summer so that they don't get sun all day. They still get it in the hottest part of the day, but not for the full day so it isn't as hot for them..... those in this position seem to flower better than those that get the full sun at my place, but I emphasise that this is the hybrids not the species. The species tend to prefer the full sun I think, but aren't really a problem to flower anywhere as they are very tolerant.

I cannot recall losing any nerine yet, although I have a couple of hybrids that have never flowered for me. This year in particular is very good for flowering as I think they may have preferred the lower humidity. I water all summer where they are so they weren't drier this summer than usual (other than humidity). I have found that those hybrids that are watered all summer flower much better than those that are drier for summer, despite what we are traditionally told.

Nerine flexuosa 'Alba' will take absolutely anything (including being in the middle of the dog path... we used to have our doggies there and they ran over them all the time, but they still flowered) and will flower regardless of sun or shade. Also, the Nerine undulata seedlings that are flowering now have only had a VERY small amount of sun as they have been around in my seed-raising area which is shaded..... I hadn't expected them to flower this early in life so they hadn't been moved out into more sun. This year at least they'll be staying right where they were as they seemed happy. If I divide them next year I may move some around to see how they do.

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