Bowiea Species, Climbing Onion, Sea Onion

My mother was enamored with unusual succulents and cacti, so when I saw a sea onion in the San Francisco Bay Area, I purchased for her. ...Read MoreThis was in 1978. I transported it soon thereafter to Denver, Colorado where she had it until she died. I have now inherited this lovely sea onion and its offshoots (baby sea onions) now number about thirty. It seems to be user friendly and has never truly complained about much... Since it had a tendency to grow and wind itself in and around my levelor blinds (southfacing), I cut it back to ground zero, transplanted it to two larger containers westfacing, direct sun, and held my breath until the first little green sprout appeared. This was about three months ago and now I have that wonderful profusion of green loveliness that these plants are known for. There isn't a visitor who doesn't comment on this and no one in Colorado has ever seen one....Don't be afraid to take it to ground zero to get rid of the dead growth which of course is often intertwined with new growth. It will come back quickly.

i've loved succulents/cactaceae ever since i'd learned how to look after growing things, and this is one of my faves. my partner gave me...Read More a small bowiea volubilis bulb he'd seen in a nursery/plant shop somewhere 15 years ago, and i repotted it and left it to get on with it. over the years i just watered it when i remembered, let it live outdoors (sydney climate is adequate for it to survive) and over the years it grew and split until i had a fair number of them crowding the old pot, but putting out their lovely soft green cloud of growth. this year i repotted the main bulb (which is now the size of a cricket ball) and potted some of the others close to it in the main pot. i've noticed that i've had a few bulbs growing in other plants so they've obviously self seeded over the years... i've now got a beautiful pot of a number of bulbs with the oldest in the centre, and each has put out two growth shoots, so i expect i'll have more next year.

the main bulb has put up a growth shoot that has reached over 3 m and which i've directed to grow over a conical metal armature so that now the whole plant looks like a metre tall "Cousin It". flowers are forming and i hope to get some more seed at the end of the season. in winter it lives outdoors on a high, windswept apartment balcony on sydney harbour, but in spring (october/november) it comes back every year with a bang. this year i've kept it indoors in a brightly lit loungeroom that gets direct afternoon/western sun, turning the pot regularly or the tendrils will lengthen only on one side, towards the sun. the wind on the balcony is sometimes strong enough to damage the tip of the growth area at the end of the "vine" which then prevents the plant from achieving its full length, but causes the rest of the plant to "bulk up". i feed it seaweed tonic mixed in water when it's been dry a few days, and it seems happy... from my reading in books and websites about bowiea it seems i might be doing the "wrong" thing, but the plant doesn't seem to know that!

We love this plant. My wife, who is really not that into plants, find these fascinating and has adopted all ours as hers now. This last...Read More summer was a particularly hot and dry one in southern California and I just didn't water this plant much (been rotting a few succulents in the heat from over -watering and been nervous about this plant now that my wife loves it so much).. and it started to get soft and a tad on the mushy side. I figured I had done something very wrong and it was on its way out... but after a few weeks it kept making new foliage, so I figured I had nothing to lose and watered it well... and wala! it firmed right up! Now I water it freely and the more water it gets the better it does... I don't water it at all in the winter, but it rains all winter long, so it obviously can tolerate water then, though rain water is a lot easier on plants than tap water is. So for those who happen to not be watering their plant and it's getting soft, it probably needs more water. Don't be afraid (as I was). Pretty hardy plant!

Winter versus summer grower? Many sources claim one or the other. I claim both. But I can tell you from personal experience that this plant, at least here in Southern California, definitely does most of its growing, at least in terms of making vines, in the rainy winter months. When it's hot and dry in the summers, many lose the vines and go dormant. I have not seen one go dormant in our winters. So I would call this an 'opportunistic' grower, with tendencies towards winter growth. That does NOt appear to be the case in its native land, South Africa, where those folks claim this is a summer grower... that may be because rains there in the summer and not the winter... so this is a plant that seems to grow best when it rains, whether that be summer, as in South Africa, or winter, as in Southern California.
Here's an article I wrote on this plant for Davesgarden:

http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/2313/

I have had this plant for about 9 months; several weeks ago TWO stems began to emerge from the bulb. The stems have not grown very much a...Read Moret all, though. I recently read that two stems means that the bulb is getting prepared to divide!

I too like some others here inherited this plant from my mother.I can still remember in 1968 as a child being with her on a warm spring ...Read MoreSaturday as she bought this strange little plant from a local department store & asking her "why are you buying this little onion in dirt if your only gonna cook it?" She just smiled at me & said "Its a plant to put in the kitchen windowsill just like the others I have there" And from that little plant I now have several others that are all large bulbs each in thier own pots.I personally classify Bowiea volubilis as one as those durable,foolproof,old fashioned houseplants that carries its own unique stature,charm & sentimentality in the plant hobby...

I absolutely adore this oddball wonder! I was given a single bulb over 25 years ago and it is still is with me. My plant has accomanied m...Read Moree through numerous moves, college, marriage, divorce, deaths, remarriage, children and careers. Mine has lived happily is so-so soil, being watered only when dried out. It blooms a myriad of tiny star-like white flowers in the spring and if I'm lucky will bloom twice in a year. It dies back to nearly nothing annually. I move it about the house where it gets sunlight. I feed it once in a while; it appears happy with little intervention. I agree it prefers to be pot-bound; I have placed a spiraled trellis in the pot to support the tangle of winding growth. The rim of the trellis that sits in the soil provideds "a pot within a pot" and therefore stimulates the bulb to divide. I have started another bulb that is doing well yet grows very slowly. I was excited to read another gardener gets seeds. Have yet to see seeds. Would LOVE seeds to try!
Everyone who views the Sea Onion inquries...thinks it a bit weird..but wants one!

I rarely see them on sale in my local nurseries yet this year I did. A single healthy bulb with nice growth was about $30.

I have grown this plant for about a year, this is it's first bloom. I am assuming it likes it here in Southern California because it has...Read More sprouted two shoots when the first shoot was cut off while shipping to me and the fact that it bloomed and has other buds forming. The flower is indeed greenish yellow and tiny. Looking forward to it splitting and making more bulbs.

One of the comical oddballs in my greenhouse collection...ugly little ball that produces frothy strands of foliage and the palest yellow ...Read Moredelicate flowers late winter - late spring.

Great little odity! Easy to care for, and an interesting conversation piece when the bright green sprawling mass of greenery begins to gr...Read Moreow.
Last summer when my Bowiea bloomed, one of the blooms developed a seed pod. I let it ripen on the plant, and when it started to split open, I removed eight shiny black seeds. I then wrapped the seeds in a damp piece of facial tissue and put them into a small plastic bag under a bright light untill they sprouted (in about three weeks). Out of the eight seeds, six sprouted and are now begining to form tiny bulbs with a long green shoot.
I grow my Boweia indoors under a grow light with my other cactus and succulent plants.

i inherited this plant 15 years ago, i have come to the conclusion that it prefers to be very potbound. it has lived in the winter in my ...Read Morebathroom window, direct eastern morning light. in the summer it lives on the deck, under the awning with no direct light, but still in the easterly direction. it blooms every so often, in late summer. the blooms are the same color as the rest of the plant, so you need to watch closely. it took years for this plant to acclaimate. this is not a plant for the impatient gardner. my patience was due to the fact that it outlived my mother in law, and it had been a gift from her. but everyone wants to know "what is it?" she had had a house in st. thomas, and a greenhouse on cape cod. so i'm really not sure of the plants origin. it has always interested me and i would love to know more. i have not established any tried and true method to make it happy except by trial and error. if it is hanging somewhere that you will have to move it, weave it's asparagras type shouts back onto it's self. the tendrils are easily broken, and this can impede it's growth back, at the very least by a year. no kidding. if it's happy, it's this wonderful, weird thing.

In moderate to full sun you'll get dozens of flowers on each shoot, not that they are much to look at being very small and green. Prefers...Read More a sandy, well drained soil and should be kept pretty dry when the shoots die down or else the bulbs may rot.

It is generally considered a succulent in the broad sense. Mealy bugs seem to be a problem for me, especially in older specimens that have formed a clump of bulbs. They hide in the residue of the old, dry, dead bulb scales. So I find it is best to either keep them divided (when not in a shoot-growth phase) or just really keep the bulbs free of dead bulb scales.

Very easy to propagate, any small (or large) fragment of a nice green bulb scale will sprout little baby bulbs if allowed to callus on the edges when simply placed on a bright windowsill. Just leave them until they have pulled all the nourishment they can from the "mother" bulb scale which will then dry up, then remove them and pot up.

Overall an interesting and odd-looking plant that is easy to grow.

This is a bulb from southern Africa that prefers subtropical climates rather than tropical. It´s a green, onion-like scaled bulb, with t...Read Morehick scales, 15cm diameter. It can be planted undergrounds, with a thin soil layer on it, or just leave it *on* the ground, it will root anyway, and the chances of getting rot are smaller this way rather than planted undergrounds (although it grows slower).

From each bulb emerges a green, fleshy, leafless and ramified stem. It looks like an asparagus, but is much more tender, and tends to curl around anything it finds on its way. It will need some support, or it will just go down and lay on the ground, where it will most likely rot.

After a couple of months the stem dries and fades, but the bulb produces another one right next. Each bulb produces one stem, so if a bulb starts to shout 2 or more, it´s probably getting divided from inside. In this case, you should wait until the outer scales fade, so you can divide the bulbs manually, avoiding damaging the plant - the green bulb is the main photosynthetic organ of this species. The flowers come on the end of the ramifications, but they are small and greenish. My grandpa grew this plant for 40 years and never saw a flower. I grow it for 5 years and I´ve seen 2 so far...

It´s a strange plant that has a sentimental value for me (enhirited it from my grandpa) and can be very beautiful, since the stem can be used to compose nice textures, and the bright green color can contrast with most of shade plants. It needs to be put away from the sun (full shade). It likes well drained, organic soil and regular watering.