Boophane Disticha was a plant I had been on the lookout for for a very long time, and was very happy to find it in spring 2008 from an anglish mailorder nursery (www.rareplants.co.uk). The bulbs offered where supposedly already flowered, "specimen sized" bulbs. The bulb i recieved was of good quality, and aproximately 7-9 cm in diameter and about 15cm tall. Does anyone know if this is flowering sized for boophane disticha? (photographs of boophane in the wild show them with much bigger looking bulbs)

I planted mine in a very large pot, in an extremely well drained mix with about 60% mixed gravel (both large and small) and the rest a mix of fertile "garden centre" normal compost and normal garden soil.

about a month or so after planting it started growing, and then grew at a very rapid rate, quickly producing its well known very spectacular leaf fan. What a show stopping sight! But no flower!..I whaited and whaited, but still no sign of a bud. in late september it unfortunately got a severe mealy bug attack, which unfortunately made it loose all its leaves. I believe that after several and various poison applications, the mealy bugs are now gone. The bulb itself is now dormant, but still looks fine, the roots also seem intact, so i am hoping it will resprout in spring. I am keeping it dry (in its pot) in a slightly heated garden shed outdoors (5-7°c) and it seems fine with that.

Pontus Wallstén