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December flower identification please

Lancashire LassLancashire Lass Posts: 367
in Problem solving
Can anyone help with identifying this plant please? It has flowered just in the past two weeks and it's timing really puzzles me. I suspect that it is a bulb that I received free as part of a plant order which I failed to label. It has come up in a really wet part of my garden where I have difficulty growing anything!

Posts

  • BorderlineBorderline Posts: 4,700
    edited December 2018
    That looks like Hesperantha Coccinea. They can do well in semi shaded moist soils.
  • Lancashire LassLancashire Lass Posts: 367
    Thank you, I have googled it and I agree. There have been all sorts flowering this year that haven't flowered previously, probably due to the fantastic summer. Our Castor Oils are giving out white flowers and one of them is 50 years old! My Salvia Hot Lips have only stopped flowering just this week and I still have some antirrinums flowering.
    Thank you.
  • BorderlineBorderline Posts: 4,700
    They are all valuable plants that can flower right into December. I had Lewisias flowering on and off since late spring, and they have only stopped flowering now. My Diascias are still flowering at the moment. 
  • Lancashire LassLancashire Lass Posts: 367
    It's delightful to have some colour other than my hellibores at this time of year. Hopefully it will flower every year now.
  • BorderlineBorderline Posts: 4,700
    They should flower every year. Unless you are in an area that gets very very cold, I advise you dig them up and put them into a pot so you can control them more, but generally, these plants should survive every year.
  • Lancashire LassLancashire Lass Posts: 367
    I think I'll leave it in the ground. We can get down to -10dg but not usually for prolonged periods. It's more the wet that usually concerns me but it doesn't seem to be a problem for this plant! As you can see in my photo, I can grow wild geums in this bed (which reminds me, i must pull them up) and some lythrum but little else. 
  • RubytooRubytoo Posts: 1,630
    They are nice (Hesperantha) we have the same soggy conditions. Our only problem is we get lots of smaller growths and not a lot of flowering stems. I think they might need a regular splitting or removal of some bits. They are more like a little short white rhizome or root and not at all bulbous or corm like which surprised me. 
    I have not got a handle on growing them properly yet.

    I do not often get nice stems like yours Lancashire Lass.
    There is a nice pale pink one called Mrs Hegarty.
    They were all given/known to me as Schizostylis years ago.

    I am still learning on this one. But it is no wonder I get confused I hope this article in Telegraph might be informative.
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/9690220/Botanical-identity-crisis-solved.html

    I will be digging and reassessing my three different plants ...when the weather is nicer maybe next year in summer. If it is not too wet or hot, or if I remember. :)

  • Lancashire LassLancashire Lass Posts: 367
    That is an interesting article Rubytoo and now I have something in the far recesses of the botanical part of my brain which is telling me that I received this plant as a Kaffir lily! It is understandable that the South Africans changed its name to Schizostylis and it now appears to be called a Hesperantha. There is little wonder that I was unable to find it on Google prior to posting on this forum!
    Name changes are confusing especially as we already have to learn both the Latin and the common name of our plants. Don't get me started on the Aster....
  • Lancashire LassLancashire Lass Posts: 367
    edited December 2018
    Here is an article about careing for the Kaffir/Schizostylis/Hesperantha:

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/howtogrow/6338022/How-to-grow-Schizostylis-the-Kaffir-lily.html  
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