Maybe six years ago, I decided I needed to focus my plant collecting somehow. At that time, I discovered the Pacific Bulb Society, an amazing group of very smart people who grow and love bulbous plants, or geophytes. I became a member. The group also has several bulb/seed exchanges each year where members donate seeds and bulbs and the organization sends them off to members for very reasonable prices. I got some seeds of Habranthus robustus, among many others. Having never grown anything like them before, I was skeptical…but they turned out to be pretty easy to germinate and to grow and they live happily in the cool greenhouse.
These bulbs are easy to grow–they just look a little like grass all year. I leave them in the greenhouse in summer and they always surprise me with flowers. Just days after a good watering the flower stems appear followed by the lovely pink lilies blooms. Each flower lasts but a few days. They send stems up multiple times, though.
My 2020 plans for these plants is to repot them early in spring in 2/3 soil and 1/3 sand and lots of organic fertilizer. I will divide them at that time, as well, and as an experiment, I’ll put a few of them out in the garden. They are potentially hardy to 10 degrees.
