This plant is known as blackberry lily or leopard lily.
(there is another leopard lily from the dumb cane family - but this is not that one)
I got this plant from Melaka (another state) when I went there for holidays with my friends.
I found this at the roadside and took a very small planted to try it out.
It was then Nov. 2007 (2 years ago)
Now, I'm happy at the outcome as I was very skeptical whether this plant will manage to survive the ordeal of time & traveling.
Very hardy, so far I had not faced any heart breaking problems with this plant.
Need to fertilise more for the continuous bloom.
Need to trim off the dried leaves and flower spike (once its done with all the flowers)
Flower blooms in the morning and closes in a twisted tight spiral form (like a spring) towards the evening.
There will be about 3 to 4 flowers in a crown.
So far, its my best flowering plant
Required well drained fertile soil - clay soil may tend to rot the root & kill the plant.
This picture is taken towards the morning, before the sunrise.
This is the overall plant - about 6 feet high in length.
The leaves have a flat fan shape feature.
Its very easy to propagate by rhizomes /shoots that it produces from the roots.
Much easier that way to ensure more floral blooms faster compared to seed planting which said that it will take years to come to flowering stage.
Need to watch out for snails that eats up the young shoots (leafs) and later when the leafs starts to grow, there might be the telltale holes from them.
Well James, finally a plant that we can both grow. I remember seeing Belamcanda growing in Singapore and marveled at the fact that it had such a wide range of hardiness, from the tropics to the temperate northern climate.
ReplyDeleteBarry - I had just run through your blog and found that there were a lot of plants that we both can plant which we both can grow
ReplyDelete(Bamboo, Oxalis, Impatiens, Hosta, Agave, Aloes, Creeping Figs.)
James- This is true, But not all of these are winter hardy and would have to be brought in for protection from extreme cold. However Belamcanda is winter hardy here, and that is what I find remarlable, that a plant can have that range of conditions in which it will survive.
ReplyDeleteBarry - I understand now, as I have totally no idea about winter plants.
ReplyDeleteI do get jealous when it comes to cold climate plants as I may not to able to grow them at all like iris, tulip, narcisus, holly and all types of berries.
I guess the grass is always greener in another hemisphere.
ReplyDelete