Asphodelaceae

[Michael J Campbell]

Asphodelus acaulis. not sure if this is in the right place.

[Hoy]

Amazing! All plants I know of that family are tall!
The Asphodelus albus is an example of that! This spring the stem was broken but managed to flower nonetheless.

[Tim Ingram]

I grow Asphodelus acaulis but must have too rich a soil because the flowers hide amongst the leaves. I aim to try a bit on the sand bed! It is worth dividing fairly regularly. I don't know of any other species with the same habit and it makes a superb show plant.

[Kelaidis]

There are  a host of spectacular picture of Asphodelus acaulis on the Nargs Wiki: http://www.nargs.org/nargswiki/tiki-browse_image.php?galleryId=80&sort_mode=name_asc&imageId=3901&scalesize=0. I probably grew this for ten, maybe 15 years and lost it eventually (probably should have divided it more). My plants tended to bloom in the foliage as well.

I am attaching a picture of one of the larger Asphodelus we grow: we grew this from seed we collected ten years ago on the Sierra Nevada in Spain: I think it is A. albus.

I am also attaching some pix of our wonderful stands of Asphodeline lutea, not an Asphodel...but close! I have always suspected that Asphodels must be closely related to Eremurus, one of the greatest groups of plants we grow in Denver. I will see if I can seek out some good pix of these too!

Getting ready to head off to California for a few weeks. It's relaxing to check in on NARGS rather than catch up with all my WORK I must finish first!

[cohan]

Nice plants! I've wondered just how hardy A acaulis might be.....
All I grow of this family are tender plants kept indoors, but they are one of my main foci indoors: Haworthia, Aloe, Gasteria and I'm trying some less commonly grown Bulbine, and have seed of a Chortolirion!

[Wainwright]

For at least 15 years I grew Asphodelus acaulis in a bulb frame. Winter temperatures in the closed frame would have been about -8°C. Good drainage is definitely very important for these plants and I almost lost mine by waiting too long before dividing it and replanting in a well-drained, coarse mineral mix. My remaining plant is now happily growing in a pot in an unheated glasshouse.

One spring, after an unusually long winter with snow cover for 4 months, the leaves hadn't been able to grow much due to consistent low temperatures and where subsequently very short at flowering. The flower display that spring was magnificent!

[cohan]

I'm pretty sure some forum friends in Bulgaria were growing A acaulis in the garden, with lows to -25C- though nothing like our prolonged cold (-8C is a nice spring or fall evening ) and their summers are much longer and hotter...

[Wainwright]

-25°C!! That's surely with snow cover? I've never tried growing A. acaulis outside without cover but our summers can be cool and wet. If -8°C is a nice spring evening for you I won't mention what our 'cool' is

[cohan]

I don't remember all of their climate details now, but I think they usually had snow cover during the coldest weather, though I can't say whether that was always true.. I don't think they are on NARGS nor even SRGC anymore, but if I remember, I will ask about their Asphodelus elsewhere ..

Yes, sadly we can have frost in any month, technically, though we usually don't for most of June, July and part of August...lol
On the plus side, I don't have to worry about plants having heat stress in summer This winter has been very mild-- we have not even had -30C or just barely, not even a lot of -20C.. we could have daytime -40C though not often or for long... But there are still months of winter left...

[Lori S.]

Perhaps this is the account you are referring to, Cohan?
http://www.srgc.org.uk/forum/index.php?topic=4427.msg122019#msg122019

[cohan]

Perhaps this is the account you are referring to, Cohan?
http://www.srgc.org.uk/forum/index.php?topic=4427.msg122019#msg122019

thanks, Lori, that shows their plant, at least; I know there was some further discussion of it- re: size of plant, watering, how tall flowering stems should be etc... possibly one of the 'now flowering in the open rock garden' threads..

[Fermi]

Asphodelus acaulis has been on my wants list for ages
I got this from NARGS Seedex ages ago as Asphodeline damascena


and a couple of years ago came Asphodeline taurica


and the difference between them is.....?what?
Anyone know?
cheers
fermi

[cohan]

Fermi, the difference is clear- spelling of the species name!!!