Dan,
Great photos congratulations on being published. Where do find your pots they are so unique? Do you also have boophane Ernesti rushi spelling?

Dan, you such such wonderful specimens :) I would love to have a B. josephine that large but I couldn't spend 115 on one, I think after I build my collection of species Hippeastrum to where I want it I'll spring for it as it's a wonderful size!

Your Boophone h. are incredible and I love how you display them as Caudex plants as opposed to planting the bulb underneath the potting mixture, do any of the plants try to pull themselves down into the mix? They're so large you probably wouldn't miss much lol.

Josh

Dan, very cool pictures (as always!). Thanks for posting. (And I have no idea why these bulbs would be shown in a org chem textbook, but honestly that wasn't my most favorite class and it might be a mental block ;-)

Alana

Glad you all liked the pics!

Radar, I just find pots at the local stores.....whatever they happen to have. Yes, I have ernesti-ruschii that I am growing from seed I got about 18 months ago.....very tiny bulbs!!

Josh, one of the reasons I like these are the amazing bulbs...as I say, they are really architectural in nature....more impressive than the flowers for the most part, which are far too short-lived. Since mine are potted in pure pumice or volcanic cinder or river rock they would have to be pretty tough to pull themselves in to the pot any deeper.

Alana, as you may recall from your days in Organic Chem. many natural products are modified for clinical benefit. Since these bulbs are used for their poison they produce by indigenous people in South Africa and Namibia these toxins were isolated and it turns out that they are useful in treating cancer. The guy writing the textbook wanted a pic of the plant for illustration purposes as he talked about the medicinal chemistry efforts to make better anti-cancer compounds.....who knew :o) Dan

Dan, very cool. And no, I don't remember much from organic chem except mostly the professor. Lots of good stories there ;-) Alana

I remember the first day of class the professor walked in and said he had been teaching the class for 30 years so he knew his tests were fair....therefore, if everyone failed he knew it was because we were totally clueless as opposed to his tests being too hard or unfair!! I have to admit, that got your attention right up front :o) Dan

Dan,

They're just beautiful and you're one amazing grower and photographer! It's great that we've so many focuses on Amaryllids, they're such a spectacular family of plants. Were you successful in obtaining the Scadoxus nutans seed? Mine are about an inch tall now!

Anyways, where did you find pure pumice, I'm very jealous, no where sells it around here! It has wonderful ability to obtain moisture as it's porus and great drainage at the same time. I use a lot of crushed granite but I find it not to be "chunky" enough and most orchid mixes are TOO chunky and TOO organic for some plants.

Thanks Dan for sharing these wonderful plants ;)
Josh

Loved the pics...

Wow, I know I typed this in before, but it seems to have gone to cyberspace heaven!! Anyway, Josh, yes, I got the seed of S. nutans and E. mirabilis and they are all germinated and doing great.....thanks so much for that source.

I purchase my pumice and volcanic cinder from sources that were originally on ebay to be honest. I really like the volcanic cinder since it breaks down over time and I think that since I pot many of my plants in pure cinder (caudiciforms and really large geophyte bulbs) that is useful. Also, I think that ends up releasing lots of good minerals for the plants.....pumice does not break down at all. Other plants get a mix of 2:2:1 cinder, perlite and potting mix and ones like my Gethyllis get 2:2:0.5 of the same to increase drainage even further.

Glad everyone liked them :o) Dan

Hello to all the past posters. I want to revive this thread, hopefullt to gain some new information about growing these amazing bulbs, and plants.

I'm thinking about buying a nice bulb of Boophane haemanthoides, and I need a Reader's Digest version of the cultural requirements....potting mix, watering, dormancy-period...how long, temps. and is a dormancy period necessary.

Also, the bulbs look like they develop some kind of rough, flaky, papery, bark. Is this what happens as they age, and is it papery and flaky in texture...or, hard and bark-like?

I plan to grow them in full, summer sun in the warmer months and then indoors in full sun in the cooler months. When do these bulbs go dormant....cool weather/short days?

Can I grow them in gravel, and Turface-MVP with a program of "Foliage-Pro 9-6-3"? Do I bury bulb to increase size, then expose? Should I over-pot to increase bulb size?

Any help with cultural suggestions would really help.

Thanks,

Frank/BronxFigs