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What shall I do with these Nerines?

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  • borgadrborgadr Posts: 718
    edited November 2022
    If they're agapanthus and you bought them as young plants, I wouldn't worry that they didn't flower this year.  I did the same last year and they looked like yours in the first year, then this year they made much bigger plants and flowered nicely.

    It's normal for them to die back if they are deciduous ones (there are both deciduous and evergreen agapanthus). The deciduous ones are quite hardy, but even where you are in Carmarthenshire I'd be still tempted to move them under cover for the winter if you can.
  • EmerionEmerion Posts: 599
    Thanks, @borgadr, I think they are agapanthus and they are now under cover. Now where did I put those Nerines?!
    Carmarthenshire (mild, wet, windy). Loam over shale, very slightly sloping, so free draining. Mildly acidic or neutral.


  • borgadrborgadr Posts: 718
    If you find your nerines, you want them with about a third of the bulb poking out of the top of the compost. Even though they're hardy, they won't like being cold and wet when they're dormant so I would keep them under cover too.
  • bédébédé Posts: 3,095
    edited November 2022
    Labels are important.  Or a good memory.

    If you buy cheap plants, you get small plants.  Or worse.  
     location: Surrey Hills, England, ex-woodland acidic sand.
    "Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
  • EmerionEmerion Posts: 599
    I know you’re right @bédé, I should always label, but I always think I’m just quickly putting them in a pot for a week or 2, until I get the time …
    Carmarthenshire (mild, wet, windy). Loam over shale, very slightly sloping, so free draining. Mildly acidic or neutral.


  • bédébédé Posts: 3,095
    edited November 2022
    Emerion:  I may have been a bit blunt.  Both labelling and memory are my problems.  Even when I do label, the writing can fade.

    I bought some agas by post and they took 4 years to flower.  I should add the "patience is a virtue" applies to gardening.

    Only because I am already writing, I will add:  I think your plants may be agapanthus.  Nerine leaves will have already died.  Agas leaves will be about to die.   I have both. Yours will probably be hardy, but the first year I would give them a wee bit of protection.  Just close to the house is enough in Surrey.  Carmathenshire coast is mild, almost Cornwall, further inland it is a bit colder.
     location: Surrey Hills, England, ex-woodland acidic sand.
    "Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
  • SherwoodArrowSherwoodArrow Posts: 284
    edited November 2022
    These are my Nerines, some of them have just finished flowering. As you can seen they are still in leaf. They will die back when it’s colder but mine have leaves most of the year.
    I leave them outside all year round, they are next to the house but get no special treatment.
     (I am aware that there is Herb Robert and other weeds in the pots but I CBA at this time of year😁).


    Nottinghamshire.
    Failure is always an option.

  • EmerionEmerion Posts: 599
    I wasn’t offended, @bédé, it’s worth being reminded, because I seem to be a slow learner in this respect. Also slow in learning not to turn the water butt on to fill a barrel and expect to remember to turn it off again without setting an alarm to prompt me. I end up completely emptying a 1500 litre butt at least once a year, usually just before a dry spell 🤣
    Carmarthenshire (mild, wet, windy). Loam over shale, very slightly sloping, so free draining. Mildly acidic or neutral.


  • Nerines and agapanthus are both bulbs and need to be"grown up" before they flower. Your bulbs look a bit small to be flowering yet.
    My daughter's pink nerines are in full flower, out in her garden right now. A hefty big clump of bulbs, all piled up on top of each other.
    My nerines are vermillion and rose madder in colour and they are in full flower now but in pots.
    Nerines are a South African plant and like to be crowded together. They need a good hot bake in the summer when the foliage has died down. Usually, a few leaves begin to appear during Aug./Sept, then the flower spikes come through before they come into full leaf and flower. After the flowers have finished it is a good idea to give them a couple of feeds as the foliage dies back.
    There are 2 types of nerines, nerine bowdenni and nerine sarniensis. The bowdenni type is more difficult to grow in this country.
    They have now produced a cross between nerines and agapanthus which are the ones Monty Don is currently growing in his garden, in pots, and which he takes undercover for the winter.
  • borgadrborgadr Posts: 718
    My nerines (bowdenii) still in leaf and some still in flower.
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