Amaryllis Graffiti and Kashmir Dahlia

Kashmir dahlia is also called indian dahlia here but it is not from india. It is from holland. It is propagated from cuttings. These are raised and grown in cool areas like hilly mountains of Murree and then brought to warm areas in winter. It needs protection from fog and sever winter. It likes to be fed well and needs lot of energy to put large flowers. It goes dormant in summer and keeping it in soil bed is best option instead of digging and storing. It will re sprout in late summer. Not every indian dahlia is dinner plate. Full sun is must for good flowers. Remove spent flowers as soon as possible. This one is flowering on my terrace in a clay pot.

Hippeastrum (common amaryllis) is very ideal for growing in hot climates. There are two most common sources. The south african hybird and dutch hybirds. Hadeco are very famous south african company in hybridizing amaryllis. This one is hadeco Graffiti i am growing in a pot. Double amaryllis can also multiply specially in pot. Remember to bury only 1/3rd of the bulb below the soil.
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Lady jane tulip, ranunculus, Dahlia and Petunia flowering

Spring is at full swing and you almost all the annuals are in bloom now. Here are some from my garden.

Tulipa clusiana Lady jane tulip in a container. This is my first warm climate species tulip to bloom for me this spring. I am due to write a post soon on growing tulips in warm climates.


Ranunculus. Remember those grown from seeds have larger flowers.






This dahlia is grown from a cutting. Dahlias are easy to grow from cutting as compared to tuber(flowering wise). This is what we call here indian dahlia.


This is Pakistani dahlia, it is grown from seed, mostly single and semi double flowers.

2nd Tulip flower show lahore 2012

Second tulip flower festival was held 16-19 February, 2012 at Royal palm golf club, Lahore, Pakistan. No tickets were required as it was an open event. There were not a lot of people there may be due to lack of publicity of the show but the flowers filled that gap. There were some new varieties of tulips which were not present in the first tulip show last year.Here are those.

This one is Monte. I think most of these are darwin hybirds. My guess is none of the tulips there was species.


The close up. My favorite picture of the tulip show.


This is monsella is a an early tulip which is also called peony tulip due to its resemblance with peony.




This is Gerrit Van Der Valk.








These tulips at the lahore flower show were meant for exhibition and not for naturalizing. Probably early blooming tulips are more suited to naturalizing because late flowering tulips in hot climates like ours never get the time to gather energy for next year survival, this extra time is what makes early blooming tulips more suitable for naturalizing in hot climates. You can check out the coverage of other tulips flower festival on my blog.

I guess the bulbs were pre-chilled as lahore climate requires pre-chilling for tulip flowers. My experiment with species tulips this year is still in progress, will let you know if i am successful in that.