Table Of Content4
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572
582.
BotNAaT nI OiN AcLal
INSTITUTE
Acknowledgements
I would liketothankCameron McMasterfor his assistance
overmanyyearswiththe living collection ofnerines at Kirstenbosch,
aswell as my mother, Judyvan Warmelo, atwhose suggestionthis guide
waswritten. I alsothank allthosewho kindly contributed slidesfor publication and
plantmaterial forstudy, and DennisTsang for helpful comments
on the manuscript. MarietaVisagie provided thewatercolourof Nerinesarniensis,
specially painted forthis publication.
Technical editor: Deirdre Snijman
General editor: CarolineVoget
Design: David Davidson, Valerie Phipps-Smith
Gardening Seriesco-ordinator: Neville Brown
Published bythe National Botanical Institute, Kirstenbosch, Private Bag X7,
Claremont, 7735, South Africa
Website: http://www.nbi.ac.za
Copyright(textand painting ofwhiteform ofNerinesarniensis)
2002 National Botanical Institute
Copyright(photographs)the photographers
Copyright(painting ofscarletform of Nerinesarniensis) MarietaVisagie
..a---.--
ISBN 1-919684-33-6
Reproduction by Castle Graphics
Printed and bound byTrident Press
©
Kirstenbosch Gardening Series
GROW
Nerines
A GUIDETOTHE SPECIES, CULTIVATION
AND PROPAGATION OFTHE GENUS NERINE
Text by Graham Duncan
Photographs by Graham Duncan exceptwhere credited
SS2.S12.I+ 33UN
-Wts
-7H20 2
,
Right:Nerinemasoniorumfrom
theEasternCapeiscritically
endangeredinthewild
Below:Nerinelaticomain
habitat,NorthernProvince
2
CONTENTS
A
briefhistory5
General information 7
Taxonomy
Growth cycle
Flowersandfruits
Foliage
Distribution and habitat
Conservation
Winter-growingspecies J
1
Summer-growingspecies 25
Evergreen species 51
Nerine hybridsandcultivars 47
Cultivation 51
Aspectand climate
Uses in the garden
Containersubjects
Growing medium
Planting
Watering
Feeding
Ftardiness
Nerine hybridsfrom
Exburtj Gardens 5b
Propagation b5
Seed
Offsets
Twin-scaling
Micropropagation
Pestsanddiseases b5
Purtherreading 68
Useful addresses /I
Sourcesofsupply 75
Glossary 74
Index 77
3
4
A 5RIER HISTORY
Theglittering autumn bloomsof Nerine
sarniensis widelyconsideredthemost
,
beautiful ofallthe nerines, hasan equally
colourful history. Theoften-told, butunlikely
taleofhow boxesof bulbsofourmost
famous Nerine consignedfor Holland,
,
washed upontheshoresofGuernseyin
theChannel Islands in 1659asaresultofa
Dutch orEnglish shipwreck, andflourished
there, has becomesomething ofa
botanical legend. Actually, the plantwas
originallythoughttohave been anativeof
Japan! The phrase name Narcissus
JaponicusRutiloFlore which
,
accompanied thefirstdescription and
illustration ofthis species, published in
1635 bythe Parisian physician, Jacob
Sargeant
Cornut, was based on a plantwhich
flowered inthegardenofJean Morin in
Percy Paris in October 1634, and clearlyattests
Above:Nerinesarniensis, to its supposed Japaneseorigin. Itwas
Wreedsdtiesrhn-oCraapngeeforminhabitat, Robert Morison, ProfessorofBotanyat
Oxford, whocan be held responsiblefor
Lseafrtn:iSecnasrilseftrfoomrmthoefWNeesrtienren the mistaken origin ofthisspeciesas itwas
Cape.Reproducedfromthe hewhosuggested in 1680thatithad
oVriisgaigniaelwatercolourbyMarieta established itselfonthe coastofGuernsey
afterbeing castawayfrom asinking ship,
AfobromveofriNgehrt:inDeeseaprnrioesnes-ipsinfkrom enroutefromJapan. The mistaken
theWesternCape assumptionthatthis speciesoriginated in
Japan almostcertainlystemsfrom
confusionwiththesuperficial resemblance
ofthe rose-red orscarletflowersand
similarstrap-shapedfoliageofthe
5
Lett:Nerinesarniensis
‘KirstenboschWhite',
reproducedfromtheoriginal
watercolourbyEllaphieWard-
Hilhorst
Right:Nerinehumilis,large
formfromthesouthernCape
(=N.peersii)
Morison, in an attempttoconceal
anyassociationwith Lambert, may
have purposelyfalsifiedtheorigin of
the plant. In 1753, when Linnaeus
published his SpeciesPlantarum,
he included this plantunderthe
name Amaryllissarniensis, naming
itafterSarnia, the Roman namefor
Guernsey. Such wastheconviction
thatGuernseywasthis plant's
natural home, itsoon became
known locallyastheGuernseylily, a
namewhich has been steadfastly
maintained untiltoday; indeed in
1958, a3d. postagestamp issued
byGuernseydepictsourwell-
travelled Nerine! N. sarniensishas
been cultivated on Guernseyfor
morethanthreecenturies, and it
2.6QtBWryauLa&gTg^IVM/.TURS>-£AVES 3.FPti'.T -4.^-: continuesto be grownthereforits
cutflowers. Similarly, ourequally
amaryllid Lycorisradiata. This species is famous belladonnalily, Amaryllis
endemic inJapan and is knownto have belladonna, which has become naturalised
occurred on surrounding hillsabovethe on neighbouringJersey, istoday boldly
portcityofNagasaki, overlooking its depicted on postcardsthere, and
famous harbour. resolutely referredto astheJersey lily!
Thereisan alternative, albeitfar-fetched However, itwas Francis Masson, who
hypothesisastothe reasonsforMorison’s morethan acenturyafteritsoriginal
suggestionthatthe bulbswereof publication, was creditedwiththe
Japaneseorigin, aswell astohowthey discoveryofthe real native habitatof
cameto be grownon Guernsey. Inthe N. sarniensisonTable Mountain and
1650s, N. sarniensisis knownto have been surrounding mountains, during his
cultivated intheWimbledon garden of expeditiontotheCape in 1772. Masson
OliverCromwell’s Major-General, John had been senttoSouthAfrica bySir
Lambert. Afterthe Restoration, Lambert Joseph Banks, Directorof KewGardens,
wasexiledtoGuernsey, and itis likelyhe as itsfirstofficial plantcollector, and
tookthe plantwith him; the RoyalistRobert returnedto England in 1775. Itwasthe
6
cleric and amaryllid expert, Rev. William thesewere published and beautifully
Herbert(1778-1847), son ofHenry Herbert, illustrated in TheFloweringPlantsofSouth
Earl ofCarnarvon, whofirstestablishedthe Africa. Then in 1967, Dr Hamilton R Traub's
genus Nerinein 1820. Itis unclearwhether scholarly‘Reviewofthe genus Nerine'
he named itfor Nerine, theGreek appeared in PlantLife, thejournal ofthe
mythological seanymph and daughterof American Plant LifeSociety(nowthe
seaGod Nereis and Doris, orfor Nereide, International BulbSociety), in which thirty
thedaughterofNereus, son ofOceanus. specieswere recognised, placed in four
By 1821, Herbert recognised nine Nerine
species, andwas alsooneofthefirstto
work inthefield ofhybridisingthis
horticulturallyimportantgenus. He
recognised seven Nerinehybrids in 1837,
all ofwhichwerefirstgeneration crosses
between N. sarniensis, N. undulataand
N. humilis(see page49forfurther
historical noteson Nerinehybridsand
cultivars). William Herbert’scontributionto
the knowledgeoftheAmaryllidaceae has
been fittinglycommemorated by naming
theofficialjournal ofthe International Bulb
Society Herbertiaafterhim. Twoother
southern African geophytes, thescarlet-
flowered Gladiolusnerineoidesfromthe
mountainsofthesouth-western Cape, and
the heavilyscented Ammocharis
nerinoidesfrom central and eastern
Namibia, owetheirspecific epithetstothe
genus Nerine. Inthe instanceof Gladiolus sections,with an extensive key. MrK.H.
nerineoides, itsflowers resemblethoseof Douglas, of Kingswood College,
thescarletformsof N. sarniensis with Grahamstown, assembled avaststoreof
,
which itgrows, and inthecaseof knowledge onthe genus based on
Ammocharisnerinoides, itsflowers extensivefield research duringthe 1960s,
resemblethoseofthe many Nerinespecies 70sand 80s, and had always intendedto
with medium-sized, pinkflowers. produce amonograph, but unfortunately,
In 1896, J.G. Bakerlisted fifteen Nerine this nevermaterialised. In 1974, MrC.A.
species in his Flora Capensis, and inthe Norris, honorarysecretaryofthe British
ensuing period up until 1966, afurther NerineSociety, published averyuseful
twenty-onespecieswere added, mostof overviewofthegenustitled Thegenus
which werecontributed byWinsome Nerine, inwhichthirty-onespecieswere
Barker, formerCuratoroftheCompton recognised, including asimplified key, line
Herbarium atKirstenbosch, andfive by drawingsoffloral types, and simplified
Louisa Bolus, Curatorofthe Bolus distribution maps, bringingtogetherthe
Herbariumfrom 1903to 1955. Mostof resultsofhis literatureandfield researches
7
overmanyyears. Healsomaintained an Kirstenbosch obtained bulbsofadark
excellentliving collection ofNerinespecies rose-pinkformof Nerinesarniensiswith
inWorcestershire, England. Anothergreat brightgreen leaves, thoughttooriginate
contributiontothe knowledgeofthe genus fromthosewhich reached Guernseyduring
has been made by MrCameron McMaster, theseventeenth century. The bulbswere
Dohne Merinosheep expertand naturalist donated by Mrs Le Pelley, whose husband
fromtheStutterheim districtofthe Eastern ownsthe 165-year-oldfarm ‘LesVidiclins’
Cape. Hisfield observationsofthe Eastern wheretheygrowatSt. Saviour, Guernsey.
Capenerinesovermanyyears have been
ofgreatassistancetomanya botanist, and
hiscollectionsform an importantpartofthe
living Nerinecollection at Kirstenbosch.
Innumerable naturally-occurring colour
formsof N. sarniensisexist, ranging in
shadesofcrimson, scarletand pink, many
ofwhich are represented inthe living
collection at Kirstenbosch. Also
represented inthe collection isthe
exceptionallyattractive purewhiteform of
thisspecies, originallycollected onTable
Mountain inthe 1920s. In 1984, amost
beautifullyexecuted painting ofthis plant
bythecelebrated contemporarybotanical
artist, EllaphieWard-Hilhorst, appeared in
Veld& Flora, theJournal ofthe Botanical
SocietyofSouthAfrica, illustrating an
article inwhich itwasaffordedthecultivar
name ‘KirstenboschWhite’ (this painting
hasagain been reproduced inthis
publication on page6). InAugust 1981,
