Nerine
Nerine bowdenii
Startling pink flowers on bare stems in September, out of bulbs that want baking against a warm wall.
- Type
- Flower · Perennial
- Botanical family
- Mixed / other
- Foliage color
- Green
- Flower color
- Pink
- Sunlight
- Full sun, and best of all at the foot of a south-facing wall.
- Watering
- Dry through summer, with moderate water in autumn and spring.
- Feeding
- One light potash feed in spring, and no more.
- Frost tolerant
- Yes
- Flowering
- September
- Pruning
- Cut off spent flower stems, but leave the foliage until it yellows on its own.
- Overwintering
- Hardy to -15°C; mulch where winters run colder or the site is exposed.
- Mar–Sep Spring Growth
- Sep–Nov Flowering
- Nov–Dec Growing
- Dec–Dec Leaf Fall
- Jan–Mar Leaf Fall
- Plant spacing
- 5.9 in
- In-row spacing
- 5.9 in
- Between rows
- 7.5 in
- Square-foot density
- Not suited to SFG
- Root system
- A bulb with fine roots beneath it
- Working depth
- 4–10 in
- Can reach
- 16 in down where the soil allows
- Spread
- 3–6 in across, about 0.5–1× the width of the plant
- Shallowest pot
- 8 in of soil
Roots thread down from the base plate each season and are shed each season, and they go no further out than the leaves. Everything the bulb will store for next year is gathered in that narrow circle before the foliage yellows, which is why cutting the leaves early costs a flower.
The bulb is planted with its neck standing clear of the soil, and it flowers best when the clump is crowded and baked, so it is left undisturbed for years at the foot of a warm wall.
The habit is Nerine’s own; the figures are what that habit usually comes to at this size, not a measurement of this species. Roots follow the soil either way: a compacted pan, a high water table or heavy clay stops them well short of any of it, and deep open ground lets them go further.
- Root & crown rot Too much moisture, which brings bulb rot unless drainage is sharp
- Bulbs set too deep, which simply refuse to flower — the necks belong above the soil
- A year or two of nothing after planting, while the bulbs settle in
The Cottage Garden Companion — the gardener's herbarium at cottagegardencompanion.com