Day Seven 28 November 2020
This gem of a plant is no more than 3 cm tall and is in flower in our indoor (unheated) garden. Massonia pygmaea is endemic to South Africa, occuring mostly in the Northern to Western Cape, often growing at high altitudes. Discovering this tiny plant in flower just about sums up why I garden, my grin was big enough for an enormous Cheshire cat and every time I see it, I have to smile.
I have saved the best until last for you to enjoy.
Thank you to Cathy for the Week of Flowers challenge and everyone who has shared their flowers and made me smile.
I have no idea why, but it is making me smile too. It is wonderful, a little weird perhaps, but in a way ‘cute’ too! Thanks for contributing something a bit different again today. Have a good weekend Christine!
I’m totally fascinated by these rather strange South African bulbs and some of them have a definite “wow” factor. Thank you for the challenge, I’ve really enjoyed it.
Hello Christine,
What a delightful and completely new, at least to me, plant. What a thrill to be able to grow something like this. But there must be an interesting story behind how you came across it, and what other delights are lurking in the ? polytunnel ? I must look it up and find out more about it. Thank you!
Best wishes
Julian
Morning Julian,
I hope that you have some sunshine in your part of the world.
I’ve been interested in South African bulbs for almost as long as I’ve been gardening and have a wish list of species I’d like to grow that never gets any shorter. So I’m not shy on using my pocket money when I see something interesting as either bulbs or seeds from one of the reputable growers. Some of these are now just starting to reach flowering maturity, so I will try to produce some more photographs.
Must catch up on your last post – my planned Sunday afternoon leisurely read.
C
Thanks C, look forward to seeing more of your treasures in due course. How exciting!
BW
Julian
Stunning little plant 🌿 👍
Hope you are having a Sunday break. Good time to dream about a new garden rather than installing the heating system!
Thank you! Yes, today we have a bit of down time and a roast dinnef out as a wee treat 👍💕
How fascinating. How long will the flower last?
Fabulous! A new one for me.
Oh wow, now that is a beauty. I’m a relative newcomer to South African bulbs but I can already see an addiction forming.
This a real cutie, Christine – are the stamens really purple!? South African plants seem to be the route to go down for the Coop – are there any suppliers you particularly recommend?
Yes they are and it’s still in flower. You can buy a good range of SA bulb species from specialist UK bulb suppliers. Rare Plants are good, but you will need deep pockets. We have imported bulbs from SA, but unfortunately our supplier died earlier this year and some of the others are not shipping becasuse of COVID. A little sleuthing should find some of the more widely available bulbs like Clivia, Haemanthus, Lachenalia, Eucomis, Velthemia, Agapanthus. I can send you some Tulbagia in the spring.
The Coop is only heatec 20 5 degrees in C in winter, and has some shade so doesn’t really get hot in summer, so I guess this would effect what would grown happily. I have several eucomis and do have a couple of tulbhagia – Purple Eye and pallida – but if you have a different variety going spare I would not say no. I did wonder about Clivia and have one growing from seed but was tempted to buy more which I have seen offered as young seedlings on eBay. Perhaps I will have time for sleuthing over winter and at least you have thrown some names at me to start with – thank you
None of our greenhouses are heated and they are all well ventilated, so they are chilly but frost free. many of the S.African bulbs are hardy, but don’t like to be wet! We’ve grown Clivia from seed, but as it is a slow rocess to get them to flowering size, but then you get the sense of achievement!
Apologies for typos in that last comment – no idea how I missed those! Thanks for the info