This is a very versatile and pretty bulbous plant which gives flowers of great size and color in late spring. At my place the flowering season is in April and i have four different colours. Namely White, Red, White with red stripes and Peach with white stripes.
Planting and Care -
Buy a few bulbs of each color from the nursery and keeping the sprout end base at level of the surface embed the bulbs at a distance of 6 inches in the prepared bed. Prepare the bed with 1 part manure, 1 part leaf compost and 1 part normal lawn soil; aim here is that it should be a rich bunch of nutrients and there should be enough aeration in soil for bulbs to grow and root.
Water the plants every day initially, once the leaves have formed frequency can be reduced. Due to the large sizes of the bulbs, plants are very hardy and drought tolerant; however a twice a week regimen is best in case of water. Also in dry season one will have to water more, the leaves are a good indicator of plants health and moment they turn light green, it is a sign of less water. Hence a good watering if the color is getting lighter is well advised. Break up the soil every two months in order to aerate the plant, take care that the bulbs are not damaged when disturbing the soil with implement.
By December, plants will be established and this is a good time to add composted manure as a 1-2 inch layer on top of the bed. If the plants are in pots then remove and repot at this time, adding copious amounts of manure into the new potting mix.
Increase frequency of watering in March and add a pinch of potash to each bulb. I do not use chemichals, so instead i add wood ash every fortnight to the plants to give them their potash. By April, one notices vertical spikes coming out of the ground (leaves grow in a droopy manner) these in a matter of days then bear bunches of large flowers atleast 4 in number on each stem.
Now the best part about this hardy florists variety; they reproduce on their own and remain perfectly healthy in the ground all year round in North India. So simply after every two seasons pull the bulbs out and replant at six inches and you will have doubled your bulbs.
Planting and Care -
Buy a few bulbs of each color from the nursery and keeping the sprout end base at level of the surface embed the bulbs at a distance of 6 inches in the prepared bed. Prepare the bed with 1 part manure, 1 part leaf compost and 1 part normal lawn soil; aim here is that it should be a rich bunch of nutrients and there should be enough aeration in soil for bulbs to grow and root.
Water the plants every day initially, once the leaves have formed frequency can be reduced. Due to the large sizes of the bulbs, plants are very hardy and drought tolerant; however a twice a week regimen is best in case of water. Also in dry season one will have to water more, the leaves are a good indicator of plants health and moment they turn light green, it is a sign of less water. Hence a good watering if the color is getting lighter is well advised. Break up the soil every two months in order to aerate the plant, take care that the bulbs are not damaged when disturbing the soil with implement.
By December, plants will be established and this is a good time to add composted manure as a 1-2 inch layer on top of the bed. If the plants are in pots then remove and repot at this time, adding copious amounts of manure into the new potting mix.
Increase frequency of watering in March and add a pinch of potash to each bulb. I do not use chemichals, so instead i add wood ash every fortnight to the plants to give them their potash. By April, one notices vertical spikes coming out of the ground (leaves grow in a droopy manner) these in a matter of days then bear bunches of large flowers atleast 4 in number on each stem.
Now the best part about this hardy florists variety; they reproduce on their own and remain perfectly healthy in the ground all year round in North India. So simply after every two seasons pull the bulbs out and replant at six inches and you will have doubled your bulbs.
