Amaryllis and other Bulbs in the Spring Garden
By Karen Maxwell, Horticultural Specialist
A popular component of holiday décor, the sight of an amaryllis bulb in full bloom is always glorious to behold. The bulb, actually a food storage compartment, holds everything the plant needs to set those blooms, so forcing them for holiday color is an easy task. Come January, for those people not living in Southwest Florida, the faded amaryllis holiday plant probably soon makes its way to the compost bin. Here in USDA Zone 10a, relocating these bulbs to our garden can extend its life for years to come!
One of the easiest true bulbs to grow in our gardens, the amaryllis can fill your garden with bright color in late spring with very little effort on your part. Improper marketing of these large lily like flowers has conditioned many of us to call them amaryllis but, horticulturally speaking, they are in the Family of Amaryllidacea, but correctly, they are Hippeastrum (from Latin for Knight’s Star) and native to South America.
Interestingly, there are only two amaryllis species that naturally occur in South Africa and you have never seen them for sale in a box at Christmas time. This differentiation is probably not worth much more than a tidbit to be saved by our cruciverbalists out there. In 1929, Henry Nehrling, the renowned ornithologist and horticulturist who spent a year assisting the Edisons with their gardens here in Fort Myers, wrote that beautiful crinums were observed near the Traveler’s Tree (Ravenala madagascariensis) which still stands today on the McGregor side of the Edison home. For today’s purposes, our discussion does not include the giant crinums that appear throughout our landscape, but rather is limited to the hybrids and other related bulbs which can create an unexpected but dramatic focal point in your garden.
Should you be fortunate to receive a Hippeastrum bulb as a gift over the holidays, plant this rainforest (Brazil) bulb only about ½ way down into fertile, well-drained soil where it will receive part sun during the day (These are not like northern bulbs that need to be deep in soil to winter over). Over time, these bulbs tend to sink and work their way deeper into the soil, so it’s important to lift them out and up every couple of years. Of course, most Hippeastrum are hybridized to offer a lovely variety of colors, but one species native to Brazil, the Butterfly Amaryllis (Hippeastrum papilio) is blooming in our ginger and bulb garden now. This plant will provide the grower with weeks and weeks of stunning blooms.
Situated under our Kapok tree, one will find an Amacrinum, a portmanteau of amaryllis and crinum – our Crinodonna Lily is a cross between one of the only two true amaryllis species, Amaryllis belladonna x Crinum moorei. Keeping company under the Kapok, as well as outside our Moonlight Garden and in other well-watered locations on the property, enjoy the magnificent pink of the hybrid crinum Ellen Bosanquet – a compact crinum of unknown origins that was hybridized and introduced to Florida gardens by her husband, Louis Bosanquet in Florida around 1920. Rarely available are the Orange River crinums which grow along South Africa’s longest river, at elevations of 9,000 feet, and come in shades of whites to pinks.
Have you ever seen a Blood Lily (Scadoxus multiflorous)? What I would consider a super bloomer, it is another South African bulb that will virtually disappear in your garden or pot while dormant until the spring when the new growth emerges. A conspicuous large pompom of bright red, this plant bursts forward with the warmth
of our late spring and summer days. Like all the other bulbs in this family of Amaryllidacea, the Blood Lily is an undemanding addition for our gardens, and care must be taken not to overwater any of these bulbs to avoid rotting them, or worse, forget where they are planted and lose them!
In the family of bulbs, tubers and corms, I would like to share yet another Florida agricultural disaster story wrought by Hurricane Ian. Last month, I made my annual trip to Lake Placid (Florida) to purchase caladium tubers for our gardens – these are our go-to summer plants for ease of care, great color, weed-crowding and of course, their historical significance in our gardens. Each year, new varieties are introduced and in addition to the tried and true varieties we have always grown, we enjoy trialing the new hybrids to make responsible recommendations to our garden members, class participants and customers.
Lake Placid has eight of the nine growers that combined, produce 99% of the world’s caladium tubers (the 9th is located in Avon Park). The annual harvest typically begins in late fall, following a long drying period before being shipped around the globe. In July, with the tubers in a full flush of foliage, caladiums are celebrated at the annual festival in Lake Placid, akin to Holland’s tulip festivals where hundreds and hundreds of acres of beautiful foliage create enormous patches of color on our earth’s surface.
This year, there will be no festival. The growers estimate that Hurricane Ian destroyed nearly 95% of their annual caladium crop (in addition to their adjoining citrus crops) and the recovery period is in the realm of five years. Each year, we had our choice of variety, and we could purchase by the case, but not this year. What little the growers have left, is being sold at a price five times what we normally pay.
A SPECIAL NOTE TO OUR MEMBERS:
We were able to purchase a few dozen tubers of the most popular and vigorous old Florida varieties: Postman Joyner, Florida Elise and Carolyn Whorton. These will be available to our members in the Garden Shoppe on a first-come, first-served basis.
Cycad Spa Day
By Horticultural Specialist, Karen Maxwell
Early in February, a world-renowned cycad specialist generously devoted an entire day toward the restoration of our cycad collection, which was in need of a professional make-over. Situated on the riverside of the Estates, the collection consists of approximately 20 specimens of ancient plants.
Cycads, sometimes called “living fossils” are a green link back to the age of dinosaurs – more than 200 million years ago. Fossils of cycads have been identified from Alaska to Antarctica and these plants fall somewhere between ferns and seed-bearing plants. The fossil fuels that power your automobile most likely contain the ancient matter of decayed cycads.
Cycads are gymnosperms, meaning they produce naked seeds such as the cones of pine trees. All species of cycads are dioecious – there are distinct male and female plants. Presently, there are 300+ species worldwide; the Estates is fortunate to have 22 species that include a Florida native as well as species from Africa, Central America, North America, and Asia. Four genera of cycads are represented and all species in the genera Encephalartos are endangered in their indigenous locations throughout Africa.
Many cycads resemble palms; however, they have nothing in common, and the often so-called “Cardboard Palm” is actually a cycad and correctly called a Cardboard plant in the vernacular. Similar to palms, cycads have a single, unbranching trunk, and some may produce multiple trunks. Additionally, they are evergreen and sport fronds or leaves with leaflets in a pinnate leaf arrangement. While most cycads cannot withstand flooding, fortunately the species in our collection are salt tolerant and for the most part, survived the harsh weather elements delivered by the recent hurricane. Around the world, cycads frequently grow in harsh conditions, along seashores, dunes and rainforests. The most salt tolerant and flood tolerant species is Zamia furfuraceae, the Cardboard Plant native to shores of Mexico.
World-renowned cycad specialist, Chip Jones of Jones Landscaping Nursery (www.cycadflorida.com) travelled from his Moore Haven Nursery, along with an assistant,
and undertook a full day of treacherous pruning and trimming to remove hurricane ravaged fronds and expose the beautiful trunks of the Edison Ford Cycad collection.
The pruning and clean-up that Chip executed could only be performed by someone extremely knowledgeable in cycad growth and cycad characteristics. Working underneath a cycad commonly called “Ferocious Blue” (Encephalartos horridus) hints at the sharp spines that are on the tips of their fronds. Watching Chip work quickly and precisely, often on a ladder, with his chainsaw and agave knife, we recognized that this was not a job for amateurs or hand pruners.
Our entire department joined in eagerly, carrying away the load after load of pruned fronds while peppering Chip with questions about cycads, all of which he graciously answered. Clearly, he had to focus closely on his work, careful not to injure the trunks of the cycads which could be fatal.
The genus of Encephalartos cycads are sometimes called “Bread Palms” as their trunks were once ground up make flour by indigenous people. Today, one must consider all parts of the cycads, especially their seeds, poisonous or toxic to people and animals. An outstanding landscape specimen, the Encephalartos species are frequently grown for their enormous cones, but due to their sharp spines, these plants are best located away from pedestrian areas and careful consideration should be given to the plant’s ultimate size to avoid having to transplant later.
How have cycads managed to outlive so many other species on our planet? No one knows for sure, but one answer is in their unique roots. These roots are called coralloid roots. As specialized roots, they are able to use blue-green algae bacteria to capture air-borne nitrogen and convert into useable soil borne nitrogen. This survival technique has provided cycads that grow in nutrient deficient soils (like in Florida) a winning survival strategy all their own.
The most well-known cycad to Floridians is the Coontie (Zamia floridana syn. Zamia integrifolia), native from Florida to South America. Regular readers may recall my article last month where I wrote about the Coontie as a host plant to the beautiful Hairstreak Atala butterfly.
We have nicknamed our collection “Cycad Island” and we will soon be adding additional Dioons and Encephalartos to the grouping. As the hurricane stripped the good mulch and dropped a load of sand at the bases, our work now is to treat these rugged and photogenic plants following their spa day at the expert hands of Chip Jones, with new layers of organic soil and finish with a nice mulch dressing.
Chip Jones has co-authored a manual on cycad care entitled “Cycad Cultivation and Landscaping” and he regularly travels internationally in search of new species to bring to his Moore Haven nursery, which is open to the public by appointment only. We are extremely grateful for Chip Jones’ time, his knowledge and donated plants as we grow this historic collection outside the front porch of Thomas Edison’s home.
All photographs courtesy of Karen M. Maxwell
