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Acidanthera
Acidanthera
Acidanthera bicolor murielae, you may well find offered as either A. bicolor or A. murielae. There will be no doubt concerning the `acidanthera' bit, although botanists have now decided that the differences between acidanthera and gladioli are not great enough to warrant making a fresh genus, and that the correct name should now be Gladiolus bicolor (though the plant is not like the generally-recognised gladioli).
Whatever its name, it produces a very handsome and striking flower, with a spike of large trumpet- shaped blossoms, each with a long tube and expanding at the ends to as much as 6cm across. The flowers are white with a brilliant purple blotch at the mouth and they exhale an intoxicating perfume. They open in early and mid autumn. The leaves are like those of gladioli. There is also Acidanthera tubergenii, very similar, but with a maroon red blotched centre, that flowers a little earlier.
The name is derived from `akis' point and `anthera' anther referring to the anthers.
Native to Northern and Southern tropical Africa. A. bicolor was discovered in Tanganyika and Abyssinia during 1896.
The planting has one secret, wait until the soil warms up before planting the corms. If you plant them too early (which is easily done since the corms look so much like the ordinary gladioli corms that you might think they need the same treatment) you could easily find that they sit in the soil and quite often rot before growing. But if you wait till mid summer (January) they start to grow immediately.
Their habit is like that of the ordinary tall gladioli; they grow to a height of 60 - 90 cm, and the corms are best planted about 20cm apart, with the tops of the corms 8cm below the surface, in well drained soil. They grow best in full sun, but will succeed in partial shade. Dont let them dry out whilst growth is rapid. I have found success by discarding the old corms, which have a tendency to develop `brown rot', sowing instead in early spring, the numerous large cormlets, which all flower the first season. The corms must be dried off quickly and thoroughly, to prevent diseases developing in storage.
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Egmont Seeds
Egmont Seeds are NZ distributors for bedding plant and cut flower seeds from
Benary, Daehnfeldt, Elidia, Floranova, Farmen, Goldsmith, Kieft, Pan Am, Sahin,
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NWC sells and services PC computers for home or business.
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