Hippeastrum papilio

Big and blowsy, the florist's Amaryllis are highly bred cultivars of South American Hippeastrum bulbs.  Definitely decorative as house and greenhouse plants and easy to prepare and flower for Christmas or the early new year they are very popular at this time of year.  But they do lack a little elegance.

Enter the butterfly Amaryllis, Hippeastrum papilio.

Heavily marked with red streaks and flashes against a green and cream base, it lacks the flamboyance of its blowsier cousins but more than makes up for it in elegance.  

I bought my plant a couple of years ago as a potful of small bulbs from Plant World, Devon. It's taken a little while to build up to flowering size but the end result has been well worthwhile.

Care and maintenance has been surprisingly simple.  Unlike it's larger cousins it's almost evergreen and doesn't need a dormant period in autumn to trigger flowering.  Mine goes outside for the warmer months and onto a sunny windowsill for the colder months.  A regular feeding regime - I use a high potash liquid tomato fertiliser - keeps the plant in good health.  Offset bulbs are regularly produced to generate a thicket of strap like leaves outwith the flowering period.  A decent size pot is needed to accomodate it's offset producing habit  - but not too big, the roots do need some restriction.

Endangered in the wild, but readily available in cultivation, it's definitely worth the time and effort to grow.  The results are their own reward.

How fast do Dicksonia antartica tree ferns grow in the UK - 2022 update

Triggered by a timely comment on an earlier post I've decided to do an update on my tree fern growth saga.  In previous postings I've catalogued the growth rate of a Dicksonia antarctica tree fern.  Bought as a baby fern - no trunk, just a few fronds - in an end of season sale at a local garden centre, it cost me the princely sum of £2 in 2002. 

Twenty years on it's grown a little:

It now stands at 60.5in / 154cm of trunk from ground level to the point where  the new fronds sprout.  I feel that growth is slowing down a little bit as it is now in almost full sun with the attendant risk of drying of the root mass that forms the trunk.  Even so, it's added another 7in / 18 cm in three years.  It gets no special attention other than watering the trunk in the driest times of the year and removing excess growth of ivy which I allow to provide some insulation against dessication. Using a wide angle lens may exaggerate the perspective a little but it still dominates my little pool garden.

All in all, a good investment!.

The dwarf winter irises

Have you ever bought a packet of the dwarf, winter flowering irises, planted them out in a nice sunny spot in Autumn, watched them flower the first year and then dwindle away?  If that's the case you're not alone.  It's a common lament amongst gardeners.  No wonder we treat beauties such as Iris reticulata 'Katherine Hodgkin' as temporary treats, re-bought annually.

Iris reticulata 'Katherine Hodgkin'

At The Garden House they treat them a little differently.  The Bulb Meadow is an area of the garden on a North facing slope, well drained with the addition of grit to the underlying shale soil, and annually mulched with shredded bracken from local Dartmoor farms.  Summer herbaceous planting - hardy geraniums and begonias - ensure the roots remain cool and dry and this enables the bulbs to increase rather than diminish year on year.  They're also grown in cool beds that will be shaded by shrubs in the summer.  It's a policy also advocated by Broadleigh Bulbs, a prominent UK grower of these pretty little treasures.

The net result is a display of these winter treasures that recurs year after year.  Long may it continue.

Iris reticulata 'Katherine Hodgkin'

Iris reticulata 'Alida'

Iris histrioides 'Angel's Tears'

Iris histrioides 'George'