Friday, November 30, 2007

a rose, by any other name....

Oh, wait! This is not a rose....

This is what we call 'bulbine'. The American Horticulture Encyclopedia of Plants calls it 'Bulbinella'. Whatever, it is still a marvelous plant.

It is native to S. Africa and New Zealand. The leaves are kind of thick, like an aloe vera, or a succulent of some sort. It blooms orange or yellow. The orange flowered plant seems to be the tougher of the two, but the yellow grows much taller, and much more elegant.

It seems to like whatever conditions you give it, but it doesn't like real cold weather.

Supposedly, you can grow this from seed, but I have not found seeds yet. Perhaps because I have not looked for seeds. Who would suspect you could harvest seeds from a succulent?

At any rate, you can propagate by division.

Very worthwhile, in my opinion.

1 comment:

Jean Campbell said...

Bulbine is a great addition to the garden. Right now yellow bulbine is blooming in my garden (don't know why the tangerine is sullen, giant clumps may need dividing).

I like the tangerine planted with red hot pokers (kniphofia). Do we know how far north it will survive?