Not Your Grandmother's Amaryllis

Before we dive into the world of these stunning "new" amaryllis, let's talk for just a minute about names.  While I have used the word "amaryllis" in the title and again in the first sentence, it's because I'm writing for you, the gardening public, and not because it is necessarily accurate.  In fact, amaryllis has become the accepted common name for a group of bulbs technically called Hippeastrum.  These are the bulbs that we all know and love as the Christmas bloomers, often with giant red, pink, or white blooms (or multiple variations on that theme).  The truth is that Amaryllis (capital "A" and italicized) is the name of an entirely different genus (group) of plants and is not at all what it is sold in stores around the world at Christmas time.  That said, we all refer to these holiday beauties as "amaryllis", so in keeping with what we all understand, I'm using the same terminology.

The amaryllis I'd like to introduce you to are a newer group of bulbs with extremely unusual and exotic blooms with often spidery petals and an almost otherworldly appearance.  These unusual blooms come from a species known as Hippeastrum cybister, pictured below in a print made around the time of the species' discovery in South America.

In the past two decades, hybridizers have been working with Hippeastrum cybister and crossing it with other species and hybrids to create an entirely new group of bulbs known as the Cybister Group or Cybister Hybrids.  Some of the best include stunning new introductions such as:

Hippeastrum 'Evergreen':

Hippeastrum 'Rio Negro':

 Hippeastrum 'Merengue':

And one of the most unusual of all, Hippeastrum 'Double Merengue', a full double-flowered form of the variety pictured above.

So there you have it!  Some new, unusual and out-of-the-ordinary amaryllis to add to your Christmas collection.  You may not find these in every garden center you walk into, but they are becoming more widely available through various online retailers and a quick Google search should help you locate several nurseries and bulb suppliers who offer them for sale.  I hope this post finds everyone well and enjoying the holiday season and I wish you the very best in the coming year!

Rarity In Bloom

It's clivia season! I always wait with anticipation in mid- to late March to see whether or not the clivias are going to flower in April. I have two--the common orange variety, Clivia miniata and the much rarer yellow-flowering form 'Citrina'. Both are extremely special plants. The orange one is special because it came from my dear friend, Betty Brown. I helped her divide her enormous plants one year and she gave me a baby from one of them. Each spring when it flowers, it reminds me of Betty.

The yellow-flowered one, cultivar 'Citrina', is special because I was able to find a truly magnificent specimen of it--better than most of the others I've seen. 'Citrina' is actually a seed-grown strain, so there is considerable variation in the intensity of the yellow, the form of the flower and the size of the mature plant. I was lucky and found a really good one in flower a few years ago, so I was able to judge the quality of its blooms when I bought it. The plant is huge. Standing in it's 16-inch diameter clay pot, it reaches nearly 3 1/2 feet high with a 4-foot spread, the inflorescence stretches nicely up to the top of the foliage and the flowers are a clear, buttery yellow and borne in umbels 10" in diameter.

Really good yellow clivias are becoming more commonplace, but for years they were true collectors plants. One of the first yellow-flowering clivias ever sold in the U.S. was at the Longwood Gardens rare plant auction and fetched $10,000!!!!! I can assure you that mine was not even close in price, but it's a magnificent plant nonetheless.

Clivias are easy, tolerant houseplants that will withstand a fair amount of abuse. However, the kinder you are, the more spectacular the results. They make excellent subjects for areas of low light, though extremely low light throughout the year may cause them not to flower. Here's how I treat mine.

Clivia culture: They like to be potbound. My big plant is in a big pot (16" diameter), but for the size of the plant (3o" high x 4' wide) it's still tight. Once freezing weather has passed they spend the spring, summer and fall outdoors on the shady screened porch where they receive about 2 hours of direct morning sun and bright, but indirect light the rest of the day. I water and feed regularly during the growing season--a good soaking once or twice a week depending on temperature and wind (too dry is better than too wet), as well as a good liquid fertilizer (a bloom promoting formula) once a month.

The clivias stay out until mid- to late October. Temperatures down into the 40's are good for them and seem to help promote blooming the following spring. Once frost threatens, I move them indoors for the winter. Now, here is the most important piece of advice I'll give you regarding clivias: Once they have come in for the winter (late October, here) they DO NOT GET WATERED AGAIN UNTIL THE FOLLOWING SPRING WHEN THE FLOWER STALKS ARE NEARING THE TOP OF THE FOLIAGE AND THE INDIVIDUAL BUDS ARE EMERGING FROM THE PRIMARY BUD. And by "do not get watered again", I really do mean that I do not water them at all from the end of October until approximately the first or second week of April! Clivias are native to Africa and they have a very distinct dry, dormant period. If you water them during this time, they still may flower, but most of the time the flower stalk will not emerge from the foliage and all of your blooms will be way down in the leaves! Not pretty.

These short blooms stalks on clivia are an extremely common problem. I get questions about it all the time. The solution is the dry dormant period. They must have it. Clivia are closely related to amaryllis, only without the bulb. Instead, they store water in their massive, fleshy roots, so don't worry about hurting them. On a rare occasion, if I really notice the leaves curling or wilting during the winter, I may give them a tiny sip of water--not more than a cup or two on the biggest plants and less on the smaller ones--just enough to perk them back up a bit. Also, NO fertilizing during the dormant time. Just let them sleep and they'll reward you magnificently in the spring!

An Amaryllis By Any Other Name...

Hippeastrum cybister. Yes, yes, I know. More weird plants. Why not just talk about good old-fashioned red Christmas amaryllis? (Yawn.) Or everyone's favorite, 'Appleblossom'? (Yawn.) Or that beautiful red-and-white striped one that Granny grew every year? (Yaaawwn.) Alright, alright. I'm being unfair. I'm sounding like I don't like the traditional, large-flowered Christmas amaryllis when really, I do. But y'all know about those. I'd rather tell you about an amaryllis that you might not be quite as familiar with, if at all--and that's Hippeastrum cybister, or the cybister amaryllis.

This is a species that is native to South America--Bolivia, specifically--and has, in the past decade or so, been used extensively in hybridizing. The bottom photograph above is a picture of the species. It's extremely narrow petals are a dominant characteristic and carry through to the offspring. By hybridizing this species with other, more colorful species, the breeders have brought us an astounding array of exotic-looking, almost orchid-like amaryllis (the top picture) that 20 years ago were nearly unheard of.

The cybister group, as they're often referred to, are just as easy to grow as their larger counterparts, but are smaller in every respect. Smaller bulbs, smaller flowers, and generally smaller in stature (which means little to no staking!) and they make the perfect subjects for tabletop or windowsills during the holiday season. The cybister types also tend to be evergreen, so even though you'll purchase them as dormant bulbs (no foliage), once you get them up and growing they should remain beautiful green houseplants year round.

As with all amaryllis, they like to be potbound, so don't overdo it on the size of the pot. They also don't like to be overwatered, especially when in bloom (true for almost all amaryllis), so don't get heavy-handed with the watering can. Generally speaking, I pot them up, soak them good one time to settle them into the pot and leave them the heck alone until the flower stalks are emerging well from the bulb. Even then I just keep them barely moist. They're still rooting in at this point and overwatering could well cause those tender new roots to rot!

Cybisters will multiply with some degree of abandon and, after a few years, you should have a nice pot full of bulbs. Leave them alone! They're pretty this way. Even if the bulbs start "stacking up" on each other, they'll be okay. In the wild, amaryllis tend to grow on rock cliffs and other such places, so they don't need a gigantic pot filled to the brim with over-rich potting soil. All they need is a place to hang on and get a little food and water from occasionally.

I'd recommend summering them outdoors in a semi-shaded spot. In summer, when they are actively growing, you can feed and water them like your other houseplants, but once they come back in for the winter you need to back off again.

One last word on amaryllis: bloom time. This will likely come as a shock to some of you, but Christmas is NOT their natural bloom time. Spring is. The bulbs you buy for forcing at Christmas are exactly that. Forced. This doesn't harm them, but in later years (assuming you keep them from year to year) they will flower at their normal bloom time in March and April and, generally speaking, not at Christmas. A word to the wise--you're better off to just enjoy them at their natural bloom time. Re-forcing them to flower at Christmas every year is somewhat difficult unless you are able to provide just the right conditions. I don't recommend it. Buy a new one each year and add to your collection. Let it be beautiful for the holidays and enjoy the rest of them as they welcome spring. I mean, the flowers aren't any less beautiful in March, right?

Happy Gardening!

It's no secret that I'm a plant nut. I wouldn't be on here doing all of this blogging if I wasn't! I'm particularly interested in variegated plants and thought I'd share one of my absolute favorites with you. Eucharis, commonly known as Amazon lily, isn't all that rare in its own right, but about a year ago, a good friend and fellow plant geek shared with me an extremely rare variegated form of the plant that I have never seen elsewhere. As a matter of fact, if you try to "Google" it (odd how that word has become a verb, huh?), you'll come up empty-handed! I didn't think there was anything that Google didn't know!

You'll see in the photograph at the right that this form has longitudinal stripes running through the leaves, sometimes narrow and other times taking up large sections of the leaf. Every leaf is different and adds all kinds of character and charm to the plant. At one year old, the mother plant has now been potted into an 8-inch clay pot and actually fills it out quite nicely. In addition, I have three babies, all of which are variegated just like mom and are growing nicely.

Another unusual aspect of this plant is that each new leaf is actually green when it first unfurls and the variegation develops as the leaf ages. The older the leaf, the brighter the variegation becomes. The color of the variegation is also affected by the amount of light the plant gets. In full shade, the color remains a more muted yellow-on-green, but with just a little morning sun, the variegation brightens up to a creamy white. Because the variegation develops in stages, the leaves appear in all three colors on the same plant--the newest ones in the center of the plant being almost solid green, the middle leaves being green and yellow and the oldest leaves showing the creamy white variegation.

Flowering occurs in spring and early summer with the large white flowers typically borne in pairs atop a long stalk that may reach 18" or so tall. I do let the plant rest slightly in winter, putting it in a cooler location (not cold) and letting it dry out just slightly between waterings (I never let it get dry to the point of losing leaves--it's evergreen and doesn't need to go dormant).

There are about 30 or so species of Eucharis, all told, and most of them make good subjects for houseplants. Eucharis amazonica and the hybrid Eucharis x grandiflora will be the two most commonly available. They're tolerant of low light and some degree of neglect and will still reward you with beautiful foliage and flowers. Take a moment to search a few out on the internet and see what this beautiful group of plants has to offer. You'll be glad you did!

Greening Up The Indoors

While winter’s icy grip may have many gardeners house-bound for several more weeks, there is no reason to let the fact that the ground is frozen keep us from gardening. And even if you live in a milder climate where the ground is workable and the days are balmy, winter is still a great season to think about adding a few houseplants to your indoor environment. They brighten the room, freshen the air and they give us something to focus on while we drool over the ever-growing stack of catalogs by the chair in anticipation of spring.

“Houseplants” have a come a long way, baby! Even the most mundane of the old-fashioned types have gotten a facelift in the past decade or so. The Chinese evergreen (Aglaonema) comes in a stunning array of green, silver and gold combinations, the old-fashioned “corn plant” (Dracaena fragrans) comes in a shocking new shade of chartreuse (gardening’s most “in” color at the moment), and even the stalwart old “rubber tree” (Ficus elastica) comes in spectacular green-and-white or green-and-pink variegated forms! These are not your grandmother’s houseplants! The great thing is that even though they come in all of these beautiful new forms, their hardiness hasn’t waned a bit. They’re still the tough old houseplants I remember from my childhood–just in more spectacular dress.

A few of my newer favorites include Dracaena fragrans ‘Limelight’, the “shocking chartreuse” form of the old-fashioned corn plant that I mentioned above (it’s also spectacular outdoors in a shady spot for the summer), and Aglaonema x ‘Golden Bay’, a newer form of the old “Chinese evergreen” with leaves of deep green overlaid with pewter and silver, and a golden yellow mid-rib running down the center of the leaf. The old-fashioned heartleaf philodendron (Philodendron scandens) also comes in some new color variations and it’s certainly still as tough as its old green counterpart. ‘Aurea’ has leaves of solid golden-chartreuse that scream from across the room, and if you want something a little more sophisticated try the variety ‘Brasil’, with deep green leaves boasting a lime green center. Gorgeous!

Pothos (Devil’s Ivy) has also undergone a dramatic change with the variety ‘Neon’, a solid chartreuse-yellow form that will fill a hanging basket in no time.

And do you remember the “Ti Plant”? “The Amazing Ti Plant”–in advertisements in every TV Guide and lady’s magazine of the 1970’s–a plant that grew from just a piece of the trunk! “Plant it and watch it grow! Yours for only $1.99 during this special offer!” Well, hold on to your hats, because the “old-fashioned” Ti plant is now one of the hottest plants around. New color forms are being introduced every year and they just keeping getting bigger, brighter, better and more beautiful–shocking shades of fuchsia, red, pink, green, cream, yellow and white–sometimes with 3 or 4 colors in every leaf! These are another outstanding “houseplant” for outdoor containers in the summer and nearly impossible to fail with indoors!

Hopefully, you’ve already read the entry on begonias–my current obsession. If not, scroll down and you’ll find it below. Talk about a tough and undemanding group of plants! There are certainly scores of others and I would encourage all of you to visit your local garden centers and nurseries to see the latest and greatest things they have available. Do a little internet research, too, as there are always new introductions being made.

Begonias Aren't Just Bedding Plants

(Originally posted January 3, 2008)

Funny, in the plant world, how one genus can hold some of the most beloved and reviled plants in a single embrace. Begonias are an excellent case in point. If I never saw another “bedding begonia”, aka Begonia semperflorens it would not hurt my feelings. I would not, for one minute, miss them. Ever. You know the ones I’m talking about–planted en masse at the entrance to every apartment complex and shopping center in North America during the summer months–little round “wads” of plant material, crispy around the edges from lack of water or rotting out in the center because the irrigation system continued to run 3 times a day during a solid week of rain in mid-June. And of course they’ve been bred to the point that they are totally without character, each one the same size, the same shape, the same habit–lined up like soldiers in marching formation.

At the opposite end of the spectrum are some truly amazing and beautiful plants–begonias with character. Begonias with big leaves, small leaves, fuzzy leaves, smooth leaves, green leaves, black leaves, leaves that are variegated in a near-rainbow of shimmering, shining and sometimes even metallic color. There are begonias that are only a few inches tall when they reach maturity and begonias that can measure FEET in diameter when they’re well grown. There are even a few that are pushing the boundaries of the hardiness zones and reports of gardeners in Zone 7 and even in Zone 6 who are having success with some of the newer “perennial” types. Several breeders are now working on introducing plants with increased cold hardiness.

Recently, I entered into my “begonia phase”. You know how we are as gardeners–always interested in a vast array of plants of all kinds, but typically with one group taking center stage for a period of time. I’ve been through what seems like a million “phases” in my gardening lifetime and I’ve found that once I get into a particular phase, I never really leave it. I collect until I have a nice supply of plants built up and even though my attention may eventually turn in a slightly different direction, I still add to my previous plant collections from time to time. This is what sets the true “plant nerds” apart from the rest. We never stop. So…my latest “phase” is the “begonia phase”. I’ve already been through the “conifer phase”, the “elephant ear phase”, the “canna phase”, the “dahlia phase”, the “daylily phase” and on and on ad nauseum. A great many of these plants are still with me. Some of have been narrowed down to the very best of the bunch–the ones that perform grandly in the garden every season with the less-than-ideal care that they often receive–but they’re still there. I’m not sure I’ve ever left a “phase” entirely.

So now it’s begonias. But it’s not just ANY begonias that I’m interested in for the current phase. I’ve narrowed it down to some that I can grow particularly well indoors as houseplants during the winter and who thrive outdoors on the screen porch during the summer. Oddly enough, most of them are NOT the flashy “rex” begonias that are so commonly found in garden centers. I don’t do as well with those for some reason. The begonias that have gotten my attention of late are actually species–specifically rhizomatous and fibrous-rooted species, with the fibrous-rooted types taking more precedence. I find that most of the fibrous-rooted species have a better habit–clumping rather than creeping–and that they don’t develop the naked centers that many of my rhizomatous types do as they creep across the surface of the soil. The fibrous-rooted clumpers also tend to stand more upright in their pots and they don’t flop, creep and crawl all over their neighbors.

There are a few species that I have become particularly fond of and that have proven to be tough, resilient, beautiful plants year round with what seems to be a modicum of care. One of these is Begonia nelumbifolia, which, as the name suggests has beautiful, slightly cupped leaves with the stem attached to the leaf at a “center point” as you would see on a lotus. The color is a bright, apple green and during the short days of winter and early spring you may even get a nice show of small, light pink flowers. It also grows to a nice, manageable size for indoors, perhaps 12-15″ tall and 18 inches or so across. A nice coffee table plant in a brightly lit room
Another favorite, though larger and requiring a bit more space, is Begonia popenoei. Its leaves are large–on a well-grown specimen maybe nearing a foot in length from the tip of the leaf to the opposite end. It has a dense, shrub-like habit and is nicely upright. Even so, a happy plant may reach 2 feet tall x 3 feet wide and perhaps more. I have several friends who have used it to spectacular effect outdoors in the shade garden, planted directly in the ground during the summer months where it can reach astounding proportions. It gives the effect of a big, fuzzy-leaved hosta! Then in the fall they dig it, pot it and bring it in to a brightly lit room for the winter where it provides beauty throughout the cold months of the year.

For those of you having a very limited amount of space, not all begonias are giants (though alot of my personal favorites are!). I have fallen in love with the diminutive Begonia coriacea whose mature height is about 6 inches tall, with a spread of perhaps 8-10 inches. Its 2-inch wide leaves are deep olive green and are attached at a center point, much like Begonia nelumbifolia, described above. One of the best attributes of this plant is that during the short days of winter and early spring, it will cover itself in clusters of small, fleshy pink to white flowers for at least two months and sometimes longer.

Another small begonia that I simply adore is Begonia x partita. This is technically a fibrous-rooted begonia, but grows on stems similar to some of the “cane” or “angelwing” types. The stems are thick and swollen–extremely fleshy and succulent–and grow in a somewhat gnarled and almost stunted fashion. This growth habit makes it the perfect subject for turning into a beautiful tropical bonsai. In no time, you can create a small, dense “tree” with a thickened trunk, fat stubby branches, and tiny palmate leaves that look almost like a miniature maple. In addition, during the summer months it will bear multitudes of small, pale pink to white flowers. It really is a little stunner.

Others that I have grown extremely fond of include Begonia macdougallii var. purpurea, a magnificent and fairly large grower with compound leaves that look like those of a Schefflera. The leaves are deep dark green with a purplish-red underside. This is another excellent choice for the shade garden during the summer months where it can truly shine and reach its full, magnificent size. It can also be dug and brought in for the winter and will perform very well as a houseplant. And a new introduction from my buddy Dan Heims at Terra Nova Nurseries called ‘Cathedral Windows’ enjoys a prominent position above my desk where the light from a nearby window can shine through its beautiful leaves. ‘Cathedral Windows’ is a variation on the old-fashioned “beefsteak” begonia with a lighter green and somewhat crested center to each leaf. When the sun shines through from front to back it looks like the stained glass in a cathedral window. And for all intensive purposes it seems to be just as easy to grow as its old-fashioned counterpart!

As far as culture is concerned, the most important thing to remember about the rhizomatous and fibrous-rooted begonias is that they will not tolerate being over-watered. So for those of you who have trouble remembering to water your houseplants, these are the perfect plants for you. Their succulent nature allows them to be very forgiving and in fact, they PREFER to be on the dry side. Overwatering will kill them in short order! They also love to grow in the lightweight, peaty potting mixes that are so popular on the market now. One word of caution: I would avoid the potting mixes that have the water retention crystals in them. They stay too wet and unless you can exercise an extreme amount of self-discipline and lay off of the watering for weeks at a time (especially during the winter months), you’ll drown your begonias in no time flat. For light, bright indirect light is perfect. In a very well-lit and open house, they’ll thrive even without being directly in front of a window. In more closed floor plans with less ambient light, some direct light from a nearby window is beneficial and even a southern exposure will work provided the plants don’t get the direct, mid-day summer sun. Direct sun in the winter is fine.

I feed my plants once a month with a good, organic, water soluble fertilizer–fish emulsion works well, as do others. Just ask at your local, independently owned garden center what they carry along those lines for houseplants. African violet fertilizer works well, too. One last tidbit: I have now transplanted all of my begonias into clay pots. They seem to thrive in pots that have the ability to breathe. Also, the soil in a clay pot dries out faster (beacuse the pot breathes) and if you should get a bit heavy handed with the watering this will help rectify the problem.
So there you have it–my latest “phase”. Who knows what will strike me next, but for right now these begonias seem to have my undivided attention. If you decide to check them out, be careful. Next thing you know you’ll be pushing other plants aside to make way for you newest and latest additions!

Thanksgiving Cactus vs. Christmas Cactus

(Originally posted December 19, 2007)

“Is there a difference?”, you may ask. Yes, there is–and it’s one of my biggest holiday pet peeves, horticulturally speaking!

With today’s mass market mentality and the ease of growth of the “Holiday Cactus”, one group of hybrids has essentially taken over the holiday market. However, the truth of the matter is that the plant that begins showing up on garden center shelves about a week or so before Thanksgiving and continues its run right on through the holidays is actually the “Thanksgiving Cactus”, or Schlumbergera truncata aka Zygocactus hybrids (also known as the Crab Claw Cactus because of its pointed lobes). This species has been readily hybridized to grow easily, flower profusely and offer blossoms in a veritable rainbow of colors, so naturally it has taken its place in greenhouses around the world as THE holiday cactus. However, there is another cactus whose beauty time has forgotten.

Schlumbergera bridgesii is the TRUE “Christmas cactus” and is the plant that my grandmother had an enormous specimen of that must have been 30 years old or so when I was just a child. Oh, how I wish I still had that beautiful, beautiful plant! I’m not sure what happened to it, but at some point it was no longer with us. Today, you can’t even find S. bridgesii except through specialty growers and mailorder catalogs. It has essentially disappeared from the mainstream market.

So what IS the difference? Well, for me it probably has a little bit to do with nostalgia and my memories of my grandmother’s plant in full bloom in the deep-seated living room window every Christmas. Grandma’s house was built of stone, with solid block walls nearly 2 feet thick. The window sills were the depth of the walls and one side of that Christmas cactus filled the entire depth of one window while the other half hung out into the living room. It must have been 3 feet wide. But the real difference, botanically speaking, is that Schlumbergera bridgesii or what I refer to as the “true” Christmas cactus, has rounded lobes on its leaves rather than the pointed, claw-like lobes of the cactus we commonly see being sold during the holidays.

Also, Schlumbergera bridgesii comes in but one color–Christmas red (referred to as cerise in some books). It also has a naturally delayed flowering period that pushes it back to the season of Christmas. Rarely, if ever, does it flower at Thanksgiving. As if that wasn’t enough distinguishing characteristics, its flowers are also shaped differently–without the reflexing petals and one sided flowers of Schlumbergera truncata, the Thanksgiving or “Holiday” cactus. Instead, the flowers of the true Christmas cactus have petals that are evenly distributed around the flower tube.

I can remember Granny’s huge specimen having literally hundreds of beautiful red blossoms on it each year! It would summer outdoors in the shade of the screen porch, go upstairs when the weather turned cold and then come back down to the living room during Christmas where it greeted visitors from its perch in the window. It had grown so large and so old that it had a trunk on it whose base was probably a good three inches in diameter, with several 1 to 1 1/2-inch diameter branches emerging from it, each of those in turn cascading out to form the “canopy” of the plant. The brilliant red blossoms were borne at the ends of the flattened stems (called cladophylls) and hung downward, giving a magnificent cascading effect to the plant.

The plants you buy today are manipulated in the greenhouse to flower at a certain time by adjusting the amount of day and night that they are exposed to–just like poinsettias. And because all of the hybrids have been bred to be compact, easy-to-flower and to come in a wide array of colors, the Thanksgiving Cactus (Schlumbergera truncata or Zygocactus) has become the industry standard. However, I would recommend to you that you do a little research and find a source, even if it’s mail-order and you can only find small plants, for the “true” Christmas cactus, Schlumbergera bridgesii. It will be well worth your effort!