Better watch out what you wish for!

Bulbine abyssinica

Just a few months ago I was despairing over having lost this little South African monocot not once, but twice. (When I highlight something like that, it's a signal you should click the link and look up Bulbine abyssinica in that post!). In that older blog I show an image of this plant photographed at 9000' on Sentinel--a peak on the border of Kwa-Zulu Natal, the Orange Free State and Phutadajaba. I planted the first specimens I got in more of a meadow planting before and they were never as robust as the one in the photograph. It really prefers a scree like this.

I hadn't realized my friend, Bill Adams of Sunscapes Nursery in Pueblo had been propagating this plant: I bought two--I should have bought more: it keeps blooming and blooming. Better watch out what you wish for: you may get it sooner than you expected!

Bulbine narcissifolia

THIS, however, is the prize of the genus, with wider, strap shaped leaves and much larger, showier flowers. I saw this repeatedly in the Drakensberg, but never got seed. Leave it to my colleague Mike Bone: he found and collected seed of this on an expedition to Lesotho with Munich Botanic Garden. It's been blooming for ages in our Steppe garden, where there are two specimens. I think this has enormous potential in horticulture.

But there are more: Back in 1995 I went on a fantastic bulb foray with the Indigenous Bulb Society of Cape Town led by Rod and Rachel Saunders, who were tragically murdered a few years ago in the Northern Drakensberg.  Not far from Middelpos we found Bulbinella elegans--a striking and desirable species found in the high karoo. Judging by how thickly it grows (if you clicked that link you would know!) it can't be too difficult to propagate. I know of no commercial source of bulb or seed for this

The ultimate prize, however, has to be Bulbinella latifolia v doleritica, with orange juice orange pokers. Alas, its range is lower down in the karoo--it's is not as likely to be as hardy as the others--but it would be worth trying in any case.

And if you research further, you will find dozens more species in these two genera: who ever thought these two obscure closely related genera could offer such promise in cold winter climates?