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| Fruiting head of Nerine bowdenii 'Marnie Rogerson' |
The remarkably mild autumn has had several unusual horticultural consequences - the prolonged blooming of many summer plants being one, and the early flowering of several winter ones being another, though less desirable. One of the positive results has been the development of abundant seed on
Nerine bowdenii in the open garden, which usually doesn't happen as the flowers or incipient fruits are destroyed by frost. I've harvested seed from five distinct clones today and will sow it tomorrow in a light and gritty compost. The seedlings should emerge in spring and will then take several years to reach flowering size - at which point it will be possible to evaluate how they differ from their mothers.
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The fleshy seeds of Nerine bowdenii vary in colour between clones.
These are on an unnamed clone derived from Stanley Smee. |
Posts
How fascinating!
ReplyDelete(Rushes off down garden to see if she has seed heads on her Nerines)
K
I was seeing bumble bees on my Nerine bowdeniis in October, so cross pollination between clones is quite likely.
ReplyDeleteHi, I'm in Australia where they flower in March and we always get seeds forming. I get the off frost but not before they are finished and the few frosts here don't seem to worry them anyway.
ReplyDelete