Well we have finally done it, a big day after a long wait!

The top image here shows the plant of Xeronema in the glasshouse which has just produced a single flower bud. About 25 years ago we put this plant into a rubbish bin and dug a deep hole in the ground and buried the whole container. This was done to eventually constrict the root system enough after many years of root growth to mimic its natural growing situation in the wild. Xeronema is endemic to a couple of small islands off the North island of NZ where it grows on and in crevices of cliffs. There is very little soil there and the roots fight there way into the rock to gain a hold and find skerricks of moisture. We have been waiting this long without any sign of a flower until now.

In Auckland a few years ago I saw this plant in the lower image below growing out of an old clay tile drain. This neatly shows what we should have probably done in the first place to speed the flowering up a bit. The plant looks more than happy squeezed into the pipe and is flowering its head off! Mind you we hope that now that our one has fired up the numbers of blooms will increase every year; here’s hoping….