Thursday, July 15, 2010

Crinum, giant potato tree and spider lily

It is a pleasure to be part of Garden bloggers bloom day once again. Thanks to Carol at May Dreams Gardens for hosting this wonderful event every month. These are all thumbnail images and you can click on each one to view full image.

The first bloom, and because fragrance is my first preference, is crinum lily. They are growing wild in the Lawrence gardens. They bloom in july-October here in lahore. wonderful fragrance.

With botanical name crinum latifolium and common name milk and wine lily they are easiest of perennial bulbs to grow. Two colors are common. The white one below and there is another one bicolor, pink and white crinum.

Another crinum having very interesting buds is Crinum asiaticum with common names spider lily, grand crinum lily. It has the largest bulbs i have ever seen. the fragrance is not very sweet and flowers not very showy but buds are worth capturing.

This is some unknown flower to me blooming profusely in lawrence gardens lahore. any help with the ID will be appreciated.

This is giant potato tree with botanical name Solanum macranthum . Like many other solanum plants, the color of flower changes and you will find many colors blooms on same plant at once. Flowers are very mildly fragrant. A close relative is Solanum seaforthianum with common name italian jasmine, more fragrant than this one, and which i intend to grow from seed very soon.

And last but not least, here comes murraya exotica orange jasmine. The fragrance is divine and unbeatable. Blooming on my terrace in a large clay pot. They bloom extensively in monsoon rains.

Monday, July 12, 2010

Gaillardia aristata

Welcome to another episode of macro monday, a weekly event hosted by Lisa.Visit her blog for more stunning macro shots. Gaillardia is very tough perennial here standing in the extreme summer heat of lahore. This plant is not common for sale in nurseries, may be because it has committed the sin of being COMMON.

Can you believe these species are not available at nurseries, seeds are available though with the name 'bicolor'.

The parent of all these species is probably gaillardia grandiflora. Various varieties are sold in other countries but the ones in this post have gone wild and self sow easily.

Friday, July 9, 2010

Growing Flowering bulbs in warm climates - Rain lily (zephyranthes)

This is 6th article in this series of growing warm climate bulbs. zephyranthes lily with synonyms rain lily, fairy lily, zephyr lily are very tough plants yet very aasy to flower warm climate bulbs. Not a true lily though,they are from amaryllis familly. Their flowering period is not confined, although they bloom after rains hence called rain lily. In my zone 10b, these bloom almost yer round but heavy blooming is in monsoon rains.Its local name is gul-e-nargis.

This is how the bulbs of pink rain lily looks like. It has the largest bulb as compared to the bulbs of white and yellow rain lilies.


Now they are mostly not available as bulbs but plants. And 1 plant includes many bulbs. They are best planted in groups. Sadly the flowers last just few days.

Growing conditions
Plant them in well drained soil so that they are just under the soil. Even the tip few centimeters above the soil is fine.
Give them full sun. Although they will benefit from shade in very hot afternoons like mine of 120 F.
They like being wet and then dry, then again wet and then dry again. This is how their blooming is triggered.
Give them some fertilizer off and on. I do not fertilize them at all and they bloom fine but this season i i will try some light fertilizer.

Winter protection
As long as temperature is over 4C they will do fine. Below that they might get damaged. Mine loose some of their leaves in winter (ours is mild around 4C) but most of foliage is retained.

Propagation
They are mostly grown from bulbs as bulbs keep producing offsets. For new varieties they are grown from seeds.

Varieties
 There are 3 common species. The most common and famous is pink rain lily, zephyranthes grandiflora. It blooms more easily and frequently as compared to other two. It has the largest flower of all species.
 
Then comes the white rain lily, zephyranthes candida. 

And the last one is yellow rain lily, Zephyranthes citrina or Zephyranthes sulphurea They are very common in lawrence gardens, self sow and pop up at odd places in summers.


There are some hybrids grown from seeds with some different colors including some bi colors but i am yet to find their seeds.

Update: Some varieties of rain lily i tried are following:
Zephyranthes labuffarosa:

Zephyranthes drummondii:

And last but not least here is a wonderful article on rain lilies by Zahrah Nasir. http://archives.dawn.com/archives/69398

Winner of best photo blogger