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A large flowered form in the genus. Although it is listed as a cultivar of T. crocata, I think it is probably a hybrid.
I have it in a pot, and I haven't got it right yet, so it always looks untidy. There must be a trick to it, I just don't know it. Flowers very early in the year, so I probaly need to grow it through the winter and then stop watering it as soon as it flowers to get rid of the old foliage. I bought it from Desirable Plants, their label reads: "Winter growing clumping corm. Lots of showy pink fls in spring. 30cm. Summer dry. Pot or mild sunny garden." Plantzafrica says: "Tritonia crocata grows in clay soils in renosterveld of the southern part of the Western Cape, extending from Swellendam and George in the west to Humansdorp in the east. It is well suited to cultivation in temperate climates but is not resistant to prolonged periods of frost. The genus Tritonia was brought into being by the English botanist J.B. Ker Gawler in 1802, who named it for the Latin word triton, a weather vane, due to the variable orientation of the stamens in some species. Tritonia crocata was originally described as Ixia crocata by Linnaeus in 1762. Together with T. squalida, T. crocata was one of the species used in the creation of the brightly coloured hybrids widely grown in temperate gardens throughout the world today." |
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| 10th May 2009 | ||
