A Tale of Two Microclimates

At the front of my house, against the wall, is a well drained bed that gets the early morning sun until about 1100hrs; after which it is shaded. Around the millennium I planted an Amaryllis belladonna here, the first autumn it flowered. After that it flowered once every two to three years, otherwise thriving and producing more large bulbs.
About four years ago I moved a couple of these bulbs to a well drained, raised bed at the back of the garden. This gets more sun, but is less sheltered than the front bed. These bulbs thrived and flowered each year until this year when the ones at the front flowered well and the ones at the back didn't. I think that what happened was that due to the warm sunny spring and the wall behind the ones at the front of the house got sufficient heat early on to form flowers; whilst the ones at the back being more exposed and with the cool dull weather from June onwards just didn't get sufficient heat to form flower buds.

 

What an interesting experiment Nigel!
Did you mulch them the same?
Feed them the same?

 

Hello Nigel
I've always found Amaryllis belladonna (the true sp.) to be quite an intermittent flowerer . Even in E.Lincolnshire , where we're on the 'dryish side' of the country , we havn't had the consistent warm spells in recent years to induce flowering in a lot of S.African bulbs . I've long since given up on my Nerines

 

That's interesting, Paul. my Amaryllis flower well here and increase quite dramatically but can I get Nerines to survive? In a word, no......I've given them specially prepared soil in a sunny spot, not planted too deeply, too far apart etc etc. Zilch. It's annoying!

 

@"M"
Neither get mulched or fed.
@PaulB3 @noisette47
I have both red and white nerines in the bed at the front of the house. This year the white has flowered nicely, but the red has done nothing not even the hint of leaves yet. Also in the same bed I have Schizostylis‎, this has flowered well this year, but some years it either has no flowers or very few.

 

Life's certainly never boring when you're a gardener, @NigelJ
@shiney, Do you think it might be because the nerines are confined, crowded a bit? I understood that like a lot of slightly tender bulbs, they flower better like that.

 

I'd go along with @shiney here and keep them in pots as i'd always thought ( as with my Vallota { another member of the Amaryllis family } ) that they did better when pot bound or at least constricted on some way.

 

@NigelJ Great thread - learning lots .....So everyone
I don't have any Nerines always thought they would be a bit too delicate for my climate - I do love them and now based on the info this thread I will be adding them to my garden in pots will be perfect... especially learning they cope in fact thrive being slightly pot bound

 

Nerines dislike being moved or disturbed and can refuse to flower for a year or so until they settle in. Also like Amaryllis they likee their necks at ground level.

 

@NigelJ for the additional info - mind you now ya got me looking at Amaryllis varieties to add to me garden too ....OHhhhh!!! I do need little encouragement to spend on the garden