Many years ago, Greg Pettit from South Africa asked me to scan some of his Cyrtanthus photos for him into computer files so that he could post them to the internet. He mailed me many, many photos, which I duly scanned and returned to him. The species and the colors that he grew were just exquisite!
This started my love for this species and I have grown them ever since, although I never acquired many of the species I saw in his marvellous photos.
My original stock came from a grower in Gosford and eventually, I found seed available in South Africa.
Cyrtanthus is another Southern African species that grows quite well in Gippsland and it does like the climate here.
About fifty species occur in Southern Africa but it does also grow in Tropical Africa. The main distribution is in the Cape Province and the Southern Cape, Transvaal and Natal.
Cyrtanthus is a member of the Amaryllidaceae family and comes from the Greek "kyrtos": curved and "anthos": flower. This is referring to the perianth tube. Some of their common names are Fire Lily, Dobo Lily, George Lily, Knysna Lily and Ifafa Lily.
Most of the species I grow remain evergreen, although this is probably because they are growing outside, as I do not have enough space here to keep them dry.
The mild frosts of Gippsland do not affect them but they would need protection in high frost areas.
They can be either evergreen, winter growing or summer growing. The bulb of Cyrtanthus are unusual to me as they have a long neck and although most of mine grow well into the pot, a lot of species can grow with their necks well out of the soil. The species has narrow to spreading or strap-shaped foliage. Their flowers are usually single or many and vary from tubular, pendulous or bell-shaped. The colours vary from white to pink, red, orange and other variations depending on hybrid crosses.
The fruit is a capsule of black, flattened, somewhat winged seeds. Cyrtanthus need a well-drained sandy medium which could contain organic matter. I have at least one species that grows well in pure sand, although I have never been able to get it to flower. Some require course gravel in the mix.
Give them a well-drained sandy medium and they should grow for you.
They multiply very easily from offsets but also germinate easily from fresh seed. Seed viability lessens with age and of course germination percentage will drop if the seed is not fresh. I have had a lot of success using the Flotation method of germination as you have better control over the final results.
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