Gemanthus
Family amaryllis. Genus gemanthus. Natural climatic conditions: the tropics of South Africa and South America. It lives in stony places.
Grassy bulbous perennials, forming rosettes of radical leaves, flowers are collected in umbellate inflorescences on the top of peduncles.
White-flowered gemanthus( "elephant ear") * Bulb is rounded, submerged in soil only half. Leaves opposite, remyoid, thickened( about 20 cm long and about 8 cm wide), rather fleshy, tips - rounded, solid green. The head umbrella of the inflorescence may resemble a ball, the flowers are reduced in perianth flowers, anthers of golden color are located on long stamens, pistils are white, WHAT determines the color of the inflorescence as a whole. The fruits are decorative, red. Gemanthus Catarina * Bulbs large, leaves petiolate broadly lanceolate, wavy at the edges, light green, the stem is expressed. The flower stalk is thick, up to 60 cm long, the flowers are bright scarlet, the inflorescence is an umbrella, sometimes approaching in shape to the ball. Decorative fruits, amber-red.
Requirement for moisture: the watering is moderate, but uniform throughout the year.
Temperature regime: in summer - room temperature, in winter for white flowers it can decrease to 13 ° C, for Katarina's hemanthus - about 18 ° C.
Light mode: the plants are photophilous and prefer the southern exposure, but the white-flowered hemanthus can be cultivated with less illumination, including on northern windows.
Soil requirement: land mixtures from sod, leaf and peat land with sand in an approximately equal ratio are optimal, and the share of soddy land may be higher for the hemotratus of the white-flowered, and for the Katarina gemanthus it is leafy. Before the flowering begins, the hemanthus should preferably be fed with a solution of Mullein or liquid organic fertilizers.
Reproduction: onion puppies for transplant. Features: the hemanthus can be placed in the same container with many succulents. In Katarina's hemanthus, the rest period( autumn-zima) is more pronounced, the old shoot dies off annually. When transplanting, you must be careful - damaged roots easily and quickly rot and become infected. Mother bulbs should preferably be transplanted at least every two or three years.