Gloriosa or Climbing Lily

Has anyone grown these from seeds before? How long do they take to germinate, and then bloom? I had bought an established plant but it died on me *sigh* and I have been looking at some seeds for sale online... just curious, I do not wait 3 years for it to bloom, so I wanted to ask before buying.

Thank You!
Brian

Brian, are you sure your plant is dead? They go dormant after flowering.

Brian, have you dug up your tuber and verified that it is gone? Mine have just recently died back for the year, but they will come back next spring and then some. The tubers multipy readily. I started with ten tubers a few years ago. They quickly multiplied to over three hundred when I dug up the bed to plant something else. I thought I had gotten them all, but over seventy five came back. I dig up tubers on a regular basis for trading. And they still come back. Once you gott'em, you got em forever.

it started to die after I added some more dirt to my bed, I thought it was planted too deep so I dug it up. While digging it up I broke the bulb in two pieces. I planted it in a pot... where it still sits, no signs of life. All the foliage died. Maybe it will come back next year, but I am doubtful since it had no roots when I dug it up, and then I broke it when digging it up.

Brian

rylaff if you have more cuttings I would be interested. please

Brian, dont give up on it. I have dug up hundred and hundreds of these and have never seen roots. I have broken many many in half and they stilol came up. If in doubt, dig it up, let it dry a little and then bury it again. Or let it sit out over winter and then plant it. I have found them just a few inches under the dirt to as deep as 2 feet when I was digging up the bed. I find that they migrate deeper as they get older.
I can always dig some up for triading if anyone is interested.

Thanks rylaff I will leave it potted until next year and hope. If it does not come back maybe the same nursery will have them again, they were not very expensive, it is just I have not seen them before.

Brian

If you need any let me know. I seem to have an unending supply of them.

They sure don't grow and multiply for me.

Thanks rylaff :-) I will keep you in mind if it does not grow next spring.

Brian

rylaff
I have one that bloomed for me in a smallish pot.Should I leave it till Spring or plant it in the ground now?

Since you are in the same zone as I, you can put it in the ground if you want. Mine get full sun and get watered when everything else does.

I will do just that.I hope that I have more than just one tuber.

I dont think they divide well in a pot, but in the groound they certainly do.

I grew some to the point of flowering and was elated, then some tiny bug that nothing seemed to work on devasted them. By August there were very few green leaves. Do you think they had time to build the tubers enough for winter storage? I had forgotten about them till I saw this thread, now I need to dig around and look for those. Neal.

They don't do too bad dividing in large pots. I started with a couple several years ago and when I counted them before repotting them this past spring the total was near fifty tubers.

Wow!Wow!and Wow again.What do you feed them?

Ahelms~

I've not had "great" luck with them in 7b either, but I'm getting better. Finally got one bloom this year. Just "glorious" when you've never seen one except in pictures!

Last year the buds blasted (yellowed and dropped while small). I'm thinking I let it get too dry. The tuber gets larger and divides each year.

I'm going to put it in a much bigger pot next year, or maybe in a compost enriched bed, and dig them up when they go dormant so as not to lose them to our winter's cold.

raydio

Here is a picture of mine blooming this summer. It bloomed like crazy. I also started some from seeds that made little tubers but of course didn't bloom for me.
:) Donna

I planted purchased seeds and finally gave up on them, and dumped the dirt back into the big tub to use over, welllll............ I have little glorosia lilies coming up in 3 or 4 diff pots now LOL. some are about 6 in tall. Don't give up on those seeds they take a while sometimes. LOL. I thought it was neat that they are coming up in diff pots.


And I wouldn't give up on that tubor, it may not come back till next spring. Mine are in a big pot in the greenhouse and have died back after blooming. I have lots of seeds from them now. and have cut the mother plant back, but it should be just fine and come back in the spring time. I'll have to see if those seeds are ready yet.


kathy

I was pleasantly surprised when I was digging cannas and callas and found not just the 3 original gloriosas I planted, but 7 tubers as big as the originals! Thank goodness they got that far along before the little sucking insects had their way with them. So next year I'll be ready for the scourge before it hits. Now that I have a few extra, I may try a few in the garden as well as in containers to experiment.
Neal.

Two questions: Does anyone grow them is a hot, dry, full sun like mine? (30% humidity/105 degres.) My only spot with the best winter protection is in such a place.

Two: storage of tubers. Dry cheesecloth, dry peatmoss, or cool...
How do You folks successfully store them? I grew my first this last year. Started with one medium tuber, now I have two big ones cleaned for storage.

Thank you.

I grow them in hot/dry but only in my backyard (eastern exposure) where they get sun until about noon/one o'clock. I haven't tried them in my front yard with it's brutal western exposure yet. Year before last I planted them in the ground and they did wonderfully, this year I planted them in containers and they did not do nearly as well (they were smaller trough type containers,they probably would have been okay in larger ones).
I pack all of my tender tubers/bulbs (cannas, gingers , caladiums, gloriosas, tuberoses) into coolers for the winter with peat moss. (I don't camp in the cold so I can use all of our camping coolers.) Everything but the caladiums survived last winter in their coolers in my very cold garage, I didn't look at them even once - there seemed to be a little bit of excess moisture in the coolers so this year I added some burlap on the bottoms and tops -we'll in spring how that worked out..... Everything went into my crawlspace this year instead of the garage, didnt' want to lose my caladiums again.

Of course I have more humidity than you, but most of mine are in full sun all day. The year that I dug up the one bed and came up with over 300 (which I used for trading), I stored them in my house in dry peat and they we fine.

Thank you kindly. I will store them in dry peat in my garage with the Zantedeschia, and I will plant one on the East side and one in the very hot front South border.

Plant Madness: I'm sending that picture (properly this time) when I get home in an hour or so. I'm starting a cutting. Perhaps YOU will grow it to its potential. Hope those Caladiums work.

K. James

My gloriosa lilies are confused! Some came up and bloomed in the spring, some were blooming in the summer and some are coming up now! I accidentally cut one off while trimming a porterweed. I hope I didn't kill it.

Sounds good: like you could get a nice long blooming season. Fancy.

Does anyone grow the yellow or orange varieties? (The common red is a cultivar of the orange species.)

K. J.

Some of mine are coming up again. They are indeed confused. Such strange weather.

Lisa, glad to hear mine aren't the only confused ones! Last year they were blooming at Christmas and we had the snow. I was afraid it had killed them.

PerennialGirl~
Are those *lovely* plants in a pot or in the ground?
I'm definitely planting mine in a nice rich bed next season!
raydio.

Mine is in a pot, raydio.
:) Donna

rylaff, I love your pictures (as always). In our area, do you think they'll have these available in the spring at local nurseries? It's too late to find them now, isn't it?

Donna~
I guess I need to use a bigger pot and keep up with my watering!
raydio.

Barbara, I have never seen these in local nurseries. I occasionally see the tubers for sale at Lowes. Ridiculous price though. I will dig you up some in the spring.

Lisa, thanks. I'll look forward to it!

Rylaff, I am new here at DG, just saw your glorisas lilly, I would surely love to have some of those, would be more than willing to pay for them. I live in zone 9b, Canyon Lake, Tx. Thanks, Krispi

Krispi, as soon as things calm down a bit, I will be happy to dig you up a tuber. They would do great in your zone.