This Cornish lily (Nerine bowdenii) which I have always known as the Nerine lily is both easy to grow and provides a great splash of color in the Fall. These lilies are usually grown outside in a herbaceous bed where they will bloom every year and gradually grow into a larger clump. I found this article by Stephen Westcott-Gratton on the Canadian Gardening website where he explains how he grows these lilies indoors as houseplants.
Buy easy-to-grow Cornish lily bulbs in early spring for late autumn blooms.
Nothing lights up a dull, dark November afternoon like the hot, lavender-pink flowers of Nerine bowdenii (pronounced Neh-REEN bow-DEN-ee-eye). Neither from Cornwall nor true lilies, Cornish lilies are native to South Africa where they bloom in April and May; in Canada they flower too late for Thanksgiving and too early for Christmas, conveniently filling in a blank spot on the floral calendar between autumn chrysanthemums and winter poinsettias.
My first year flowers?potted up in March for November blooms.
First introduced in the Edwardian era, I thought that Cornish lilies might suit my Edwardian-esque living room, and duly purchased three Chianti bottle-shaped bulbs in March, 2013, the moment they hit the sales shelves along with other tender summer bulbs like begonias and dahlias.
I purchased what was available, but they weren?t ?Size No. 1? bulbs, and if I had it to do over again, I?d spend a few extra dollars and buy premium size bulbs (No. 1 bulbs are available at botanus.com). With only a few exceptions, bigger is better when it comes to bulbs.
The 40-centimetre-tall second year flower stalks bore umbels of larger, more numerous blooms.
Hardy to Zone 8 (or a protected, dry winter-mulched Zone 7), I planted my bulbs in pots: They spent the summer on my south-facing back deck and after the first light frost, came inside to my bright, unheated sunroom. As the days grew shorter, their distinctive, spear-like flower stalks began to emerge. Two or three months after blooming, the bulbs enter their late winter dormant period and the foliage dies back, reappearing again in summer. And because they flower best when the bulbs are crowded, they can be grown as houseplants for many years in the same pot?the more the merrier.
After flowering, my Cornish lilies got pushed to a corner of the sunroom while their foliage matured, and I forgot about them. So imagine my surprise when I began moving overwintering plants outdoors again and discovered that the nerines had not only set some fleshy brown seeds, but in some cases, the radicle (or first, primary root), had already emerged.
See more at Canadian Gardening
Image source: Je_wyer
