My microworms are gone .........

I have found that Bulbous plants tend to be a bit easier to grow in general and they can usually survive colder weather too.

 

Yeah I got lots of babies from the seeds i collected over 2 years. Very easy to grow from seed and still waiting for them to flower.

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I don't know about indoors - they are rain lilies, meaning they only flower after a storm. The flowering process is triggered by the rain - keep them indoors and you'll probably never see them flower. I would rather keep them outdoors and however you want to plant them - in a nice mulched flower bed or a huge pot as you don't want to repot after 6 months. The bulbs grow big - had one the size of a large onion and the rest are like shallot-sized in the pot when I repotted mine after two years. I had far too many bulbs and funny thing is we had like over 15 pots - all of them were used to repot them. LOL.

I only keep them in pots because the farm workers tend to damage plants and stuff around the place. One of the rose bushes almost toppled over cos the gardener kept on digging into the beds too close to the rose bush roots. We have this expensive rose bush that has a beautiful rose scent - I picked it for my mother because the smell reminded me of my grandmother, who also kept roses too and my great-grandmother as well. So 4 generations of rose-keeping and I had to teach my mother how to root the cuttings so that she can grow more bushes.

This one I got from a friend - I helped him to cut, root with hormone powder and then put into seed trays. It was the only one that survived then 2 years later, my mom killed it cos it had some disease and she kept on putting off spraying it. I was so peeved off, you can't find a pink rose that has a beautiful scent and he said that the bush was over 50 years old.



We also used to keep orchids but after we moved here, there was no space to keep them all - had like 20+ pots of them after my grandfather died. I took some of them with me to JHB when I moved there and this one flowered.



And these two, oh my. The cactus became too big and my mom gave it away to a friend lol.



I can't remember the name of this plant but it used to flower every year - not suitable for frost / snow areas. When we moved to the KZN Midlands, the frost killed it

 

@Reedfish: ah thank you, it's been a few years since I had them. Hopefully when and if I do get a job in Durban, I'll keep them again. The flowers are really beautiful.

 

LOL yes, it's nice when you find members that actually do keep rare plants and you chat to them about the different ones.

 

Mine didn't stink - that's weird. Wait like I said it's been a few years - that's probably the reason why my mom put that pot outside. But to be honest, there are stinkier ones like the Corpse flower that only flower once in their lifetimes.

 

@Clare, the storm lilies are plants that grow in rocky grassland in South America. So they are not forest plants, but adapted to a similar climate and biome as many of South Africa's own bulbous plants. That is also why they are partially successful as escapees in areas that don't get severe frost. These are a semi-weed in my greenhouse, but I just pass them onto the landscaper and they end up in the garden where they bloom cheerfully every now and then.

At some point I have grown most of the bulbous genera of South Africa, but some are too difficult to keep flourishing, and I have a rather full life otherwise, so I couldn't dote on every plant the way I should. But I can give some general tips, that might help others. We have three very different climates in the Cape Floral Kingdom with its winter rains, the dry interior, and the subtropical east coast. Then, we also have an incline from sea level to above 3000m in the Drakensberg region, and some high peaks in the Cape Fold mountains as well. In between, we have special biomes such as the Baviaanskloof and Paradyskloof, and other kloofs and naturally protected areas. Each of these has its own flora and climatic conditions, to go along with soil chemistry, that one would ideally like to emulate. But no-one can create a thousand different combinations of all of those factors. So what has worked for me over the years is to use soil with very good drainage, and water more regularly or less regularly according to the growing cycle. Also to use high potassium low nitrogen fertiliser once or twice early in the season. And to never let the temperature rise above a comfortable level at the roots of the plants. This is important. In nature, during the growing season, plants stand in soil that is normally quite moist at the level where the bulb sits, and the warmer the soil might become, the deeper the bulbs tend to lie. In the winter rainfall area, during summer most bulbous plants are dormant, and can take a terrific temperature, but in winter, when the roots are out, they are in cool moist conditions. The summer growing plants cannot take the same high summer temperature in their growth phase, and therefore are very prone to death by cooking in small and shallow pots. In addition, the high-altitude species such as many gladioli and cyrtanthus, are even more sensitive to hot stuffy conditions, as they are adapted to cool soils. So the easiest species to grow are low-altitude ones, and the most difficult ones are the high-altitude summer rainfall species. If one can keep the roots cool, then they are more willing. And as with succulents, especially cacti, when the plants are not growing, they should be kept dry. But unlike most cacti, with many bulbs if the soil dries out during the growing season, it tends to sulk and withdraw for the rest of the growing season. This is especially true for winter growing bulbs, that should not be allowed to dry out completely during the main winter months. At the end of the day, there are those nuts that absolutely have to try and be successful at everything, and the others like me who try many things and settle on something that more or less gels with the rest of their existence. What I would like to see, is that more people take an active interest in our indigenous flora, and do their best to conserve and cultivate the many rare and truly beautiful species.

The orchid you have looks to be a Dendrobium. And the stapeliad is possibly Stapelia hirsuta. I have one that comes from Kamieskroon, and its flower is virtually identical.
EDIT: Reedfish is correct - it is S. gigantea.

Apologies @Ladysphinx, didn't intend to hijack your thread. I blame Reedfish for all of this.

 

I'm really enjoying this thread very much. Ive always enjoyed plants even it I'm not very good with them, but if I keep trying I should get beter. I just feel bad for the plants if I end up ruining the poor thing through trail and error.

 

I'm mostly lucky with plants but I keep on killing orchids. I will try some again in the fishroom. Hopefully the humidity will help. Got myself a nice Selaginella Windenowii/Spikemoss from a reputable lfs, and sold as grown fully submersed. I will correct them later on. I have been looking for one for quite some time now as most nurseries don't even know what it is.

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@dorff No need to apologizes I'm a Gemini and tend to hi-jack my own thread by going off topic, if I didn't I wouldn't be me. Sometime my husband get very confused by this unique talent I have when we are conversing.

 

The stapeliad flowers release enough of a putrid smell to attract the flies that pollinate them. One tends to smell them more easily during the warm part of the day, and if there are multiple flowers open at the same time. One forgets how incredibly adept flies are at detecting carrion and dung. As the saying goes: a little bull goes a long way. But on the other hand, it is about the only thing they are really good at .

 

Heretic!

I like my plants IN tanks

 

Ahh Don't be like that @Hendre
As a teen I also thought of plants as boring

 

Hey I have my own garden bed

 

Bwahahahaha!!!

I'm also obsessed with plants too - from a young age, I was always out in the bushes, looking for exotic plants to bring home. I remember taking my brother who is 3 years younger than me when we wanted to look for plants. I think I raised him up to be a biotechnologist and to work in botany because of all the hours we spend in the bushes with all those plants. African Potato was one of the first plants we brought home - transplants easily and grows easily, doens't need much water either. There was another one with blue star flowers - we also brought that one home too. If I recall correctly, we used to work at Spar on weekends and his nickname was Doc bec of his glasses, he had extremely bad eye sight. Funnily enough, he earned his doctorate of botany and works with one of the top seed companies in SA so we receive free seed from him periodically (stuff that's been researched on). My stepbrother who is the same age as me is in horticulture so it's nice having two brothers who I can talk to about plants - my stepbrother's daughter came to me early in the year and asked me for some flower seeds that she liked so I gave her some and she's only 4. The kid loves the outdoors and animals - I send her some seed packets for her birthday and she was sooooo happy about them.

@Reedfish: eeeeeuw about the flies and maggots. Yuck!!!

Whenever I'm in the bushes, I lose track of time - last time I was by the river for 3 hours and totally forgot all about the time. I used to collect e. triandra, a common aquatic carpeting plant and once collected a few lilies too. sometimes you find Reedbuck skulls and skeletons as well. I have one on my wall with the horns - found him in half-rotting in a glade and picked the skull to take home, it was long dead and the skin/fur was practically falling off.

 

For those that love ferns, bromelias and air plants. There is an evil nursery in Pta that will rob you blind! Your wallet will be empty when you walk out there!