Rachel's Journal

Gorgeous and great to get such good advice on how to grow these.

Bet nerines were'nt the only purchase :-)

Will have to repot mine once the finish flowering, that must explain why I lost half of them, thanks.

Rachel,

Nice flower. We had a good clump of this in the garden and they are in flower at the moment though we lost quite a few bulbs in the clump in the cold spell of last winter.

The advice on cutting down the foliage strikes me as both incorrect and unnecessary. With all bulbs it is better to let the foliage grow until it wilts and dies back naturally as it is the foliage which provides the nourishment to build up the bulbs each season. However, by August the foliage of nerines will have died down anyway and so there would be nothing to cut down. Nerines have been referred to as "Naked Ladies" as they flower when there is no foliage.

Paddy 

Lovely one I must get one, my wish list is getting longer .

Thanks for advice Rachel. Mine are surrounded by foliage of other plants which explains why they haven't been flowering too well.

great advise, I hope to try some of the pink ones next year I think they are so pretty. I always see them this time of year when I pass through Mountrath they have some planted along the street :O)

Bill, my other purchases were Cotinus coggygria 'Golden Spirit' and a bale of Miscanthus briquettes for the fire : ) They burn very well.

Paddy, I understand where you are coming from. At first when I was told to cut the foliage back in late August I thought that this was akin to the process you might follow with Hippeastrums (also South African bulbs) when the foliage refuses to die back. But I was told that the reason was to ensure that the bulbs bake. I will be trying it from next year as Coolaught gardens have a fabulous display of Nerines.

By the way, they will be getting Cotinus 'Old Fashioned' in again in spring.

Your welcome, people, I am just passing on what I thought was a good tip.

I'm not a lover of Nerine but that picture may change my mind yet.  Looks very pretty.

Oh that is beautiful.  I have never seen them in any other colour than the usual pink but would love to get some others.  I actually found one of the pink ones flowering in the garden yesterday which was nice seeing as I thought they had all perished over the winter.

Very interesting Rachel! My Nerines didnt do well this year and I do plant them high in the soil in full sun, but the leaves didnt die down as they normally do at end Aug. and I always thought they did that without any help. Will have to pay more attention to what they do next year.

There is something unnatural about Nerines at this time of year, Una. Like they just landed from planet Zog and forgot their winter woollies!

Its name is 'Alba', Margaret, but it does have a pink tinge. I note Paddy's comment about them not being completely hardy.

Me too, Dorothy, I will keep an eye on mine next year.

Rachel bought Cotinus golden spirit from there earlier in the year, great minds think alike :-)

;-) Dead right, Bill.