[pbs] Re: TOW - Ferraria
John Bryan
johnbryan at worldnet.att.net
Mon Dec 27 12:58:17 EST 2004
Dear David:
It would be interesting to know the temperature in the pots after a cold
night, any way you can find out just how cold the soil mix was in the
pots? Cheers, John E. Bryan
David Victor wrote:
>
> Dear all,
>
> I was away most of last week and have only just caught up on this
> topic. As Ferraria are one of the genera with which I have a love affair,
> I thought that I might add a few comments, even if they are very late.
>
> I grow around ten collections of Ferraria, mainly ones collected by Rod and
> Rachel Saunders, though some come from other sources. F. crispa flowers
> regularly for me, normally around February. A strong perfume, which I find
> the ladies particularly dislike. It has a smell somewhere between musk and
> cat, with sweet overtones and fills the whole greenhouse. I have two
> collections of F. ferrariola in bud at present and two others that I just
> have as F. species. I have yet to see the latter flower.
>
> I grow all of my Ferraria in one litre pots. These are deep plastic pots,
> with a 4 inch diameter top. They live in a cold greenhouse, as do most of
> my South African bulbs, which drops to minus five Centigrade on really cold
> nights. They sit on the plunge and on the cold nights I raise a canopy of
> fleece over them to protect them from the worst.
>
> This question of temperature is an interesting one. Its been cold the last
> few nights and I recorded minus three in the greenhouse. Whilst some of
> the bulbs had the extra protection, I have lots of pots of Oxalis, Nerine,
> Haemanthus and seedlings of Leucoryne and Tristagma on unprotected metal
> staging that are undamaged. The books would suggest that such plants would
> not come through this regime, yet they do year after year with me. I feel
> that my practice of only watering at the start of mild periods helps the
> situation. Also, day-time temperatures normally rise above freezing so that
> the plants only have such cold for short periods. Any thoughts?
>
> Best regards,
> David Victor
>
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