Nerines

Several years ago I saw a bunch of Nerine sarniensis flowers and was amazed by the range of colours. One thing led to another and I got hold of a few. By joining the Nerine and Amaryllid Society I have got more bulbs through their very generous bulb swop, and become more and more interested. The sarniensis are in my heated greenhouse – that is to say it is heated in the winter to keep the temperature above about 5 degrees. Then having thought my garden too wet to grow Nerine bowdenii successfully, I was told that they want more moisture than the books usually suggest. So I planted a few in front of the cold greenhouse to see how they coped. So far they are doing well so I am trying some in the open garden – using bulbs that I have backups for if they don’t survive. I have added sand and grit to the soil in front of the cold greenhouse because it is quite heavy and I wanted to improve drainage. The winter didn’t seem to be a problem – the biggest difficulty so far seems to have been slugs.

Visiting the garden of National Collection holder, Margaret Owen, in Shropshire encouraged me to try them in the open garden. She is growing them between shrubs, and has for several decades. As she often says Shropshire is the coldest county in England. But she doesn’t have the rainfall that my garden gets. So I will have to see how successful I am.