Tag Archives: autumn bulbs

Flowering this week: Nerine sarniensis hybrids

Years of work have made the sarniensis nerines a real autumn feature in our rockery

The nerines are looking wonderful in the rockery. These autumn flowering South African bulbs are members of the amaryllis family and are a mainstay of our April garden. There are a number of different species (about 30, apparently) but it is the large flowered, showy sarniensis hybrids which we feature. Felix Jury imported some bulbs and did quite a bit of work to extend the colour range here. He particularly favoured the smoky burgundy colours but we also have a shocking pink which is near iridescent, along with a whole range of different reds, oranges, pinks and corals from pastel to verging on purple and even apricot. They are grown as a cut flower commercially but we prefer them in the garden setting. These are large bulbs which are planted to half depth only with their necks exposed and they are happy with summer baking. Their strappy leaves come after the flowers and hang on until spring.

Nerines are sometimes called the Guernsey lily or the Spider Lily. Some of the other species have much finer, more spidery flowers than the sarniensis types, but lilies they are not. Neither do they originate in Guernsey though that island became renowned for its cut flower production and the bulbs have since naturalised there. Nerines were named after Nereis, a mythological Green sea nymph.

Flowering this week: Colchicum autumnale

Autumn flowering colchicum, robust growing bulbs suitable for the garden or naturalising

Now that the temperatures have dropped noticeably and I am reconciled to the thought that summer has been and gone for another year, I am prepared to welcome the sight of the colchicums in flower. These are often called the autumn crocus because their simple six petalled cup-like flowers resemble those bulbs but they are distant relatives at best. They have their very own botanical family which is colchicaceae. Their flowers are considerably larger than most crocus and they flower well before their foliage appears. Because they have very large bulbs and grow quite vigorously, they are not shy delicate little things you will lose in a garden situation. In fact they can be naturalised in grass. The flowers are more lilac than pink and are hardly long lived but you can get a succession of them from a single bulb. When the leaves appear, they are relatively large, lush and green but the downside is that the foliage hangs on for a long time into early summer by which point it no longer looks attractive at all. Autumnale is native to quite large areas of Europe.

Colchicums are the source of colchicine, a controlled pharmaceutical of considerably potency used in cancer treatments and also to cause mutations in living cells, which is sometimes advantageous but does need to be handled with care. These bulbs are also the true Naked Ladies though we more commonly refer to belladonnas as bearing this politically incorrect epithet.

Flowering this week – Rhodophiala bifida

An ephemeral late summer delight - Rhodophiala bifida

An ephemeral late summer delight - Rhodophiala bifida

Markers, perhaps, of late summer or harbingers of autumn, rhodophiala are not well known in this country. They are bulbs again, but this time from South America (Uruguay and Chile, in fact) and closely related to hippeastrums. We used to know them as Hippeastrum bifida and they do resemble a smaller flowered hippeastrum. However, they are certainly not as touchy and particular as some of their exotic cousins and they are hardy. The stems shoot up and pop up heads of up to six trumpet flowers each before there is any hint of foliage. The colour is in shades of rich deep pink to maroon red with contrasting yellow anthers. When the leaves follow, they are modest and strappy.

Rhodophiala have to be increased by seed because the bulbs rarely if ever set offshoots (though there is apparently a Texan variant which sets multiple offshoots). They also have the characteristic of finding their own depth in the soil, pulling themselves down deeper to a level where they are happiest. Gloriosas do the same thing. In all honesty, I have to admit to admit they are a fleeting seasonal pleasure with each bulb only putting up a single flower spike which passes over reasonably quickly. But they don’t take up much room at all and they are a transient delight.