Pecteilis radiata grows in Japan, Korea, and China. The common name for this species is Sagi-sou (egret plant) in Japan. I have always admired this amazing species, and I finally decided to give it a try. I got bulbs from Seed-Engei in spring 2015, so this is my first year growing this species. The one I have is a variegated variety, Ginga (銀河, which means "galaxy"), which has marginal white stripes (Fukurin). There are quite a few cultivar varieties, and this web site lists quite a few of them (in Japanese).
It is supposed to require lots of sun light, so I grew them outside in Fairbanks, AK. Around September, when the daily low started to hit around 1.7C (35F), I decided to bring them inside under an artificial light. Then suddenly, they started to shoot up the flowers! I think Fairbanks summer (USDA Zone 2a) is a little too cold for their liking, so the flowering is significantly delayed. In Japan, they are supposed to bloom in July to August. Next year, I'll need to think something else to give a bit more warmth.
I placed the pot in a shallow yogurt container filled with water. So the bottom 2 inch of the pot is under the water most of the time. It got natural rain, and if the water level goes down, I top-watered with rain water. I rarely used fertilizer this year. It was getting near full sun most of the time.
Notice that the tip of the sepals (the green things between the two white top petals) show fukurin (marginal white stripes), too. Hmmm, I didn't notice the guest until I took the photo.
Long spur with visible nectar in it.
I had 3 bulbs in the pot, and two of them flowered. Each of them started to produce at least 1 additional growth around August.
Hopefully, they will overwinter, and come back next year.
Here is a link to Tom's (Botany Boy) informative article about this species.
You can certainly tell where it gets it's name.
ReplyDelete