My Brunsvigia bosmaniae Blooms. A ‘documentary experience’, right in my own back yard.

“Is it? Is iT? Oh my gosh! Oh my Gosh, Oh my gosh!!! It’s a freaking bud” Was all Joe could here a couple of weeks ago, when I spotted what looked like a tiny bud emerging from one of the Brunsvigia bulbs that I had repotted carefully into a much larger pot. 

Brunsvigias are the queens of all of the South African bulbs. Large, showy, fussy, rare, they have everything that makes us collectors desire them even more. In a recent BBC nature documentary series in the UK, Sir David Attenborough describes how the inflorescence of the Brunsvigia bosmaniae, breaks off if its peduncle when dry, and then rolls along the veld dispersing seed as it goes. 

“Tonight, somewhere under the bright moonlight, perhaps in a broad,  sandy veld in the Natal area, a massive display of natures finest special event is happening. For every 7 years of so, a bloom flush with the genus Brunsvigia is transforming a valley which is normally just sand, into a sand bed with beach ball sized heads of pink lilies which will have the traffic stopping for days, and plat enthustasts with their cameras and new hiking boots snapping their digital pictures until the sun goes down each day. But here in our New England garden, something even more magical is happening. Four weeks before Halloween, just as the Macintosh Applies are being picked , a large English clay pot full of stone and sand presents us with a surprise and a very special gift. A massive head of pink lilies from a B. bosmaniae bulbs purchased then years ago for overseas, which has decided to reward us with it’s umbel of punk Lily-like flowers. Saying that we are delighted, would be an understatement. Apparently all of that coddling and special fertilizer really paid off.

The blooming of any bulb called Brunsvigia is big news, for these large, papery bulbs from South Africa are the queens of all bulbs, they reach enormous sizes, they are rare enough that when on blooms, it sometimes makes the papers and they require just the perfect amount of light, rain and rest, which can only be provided in the north with a glass house. 

Iconic to certain river valleys and dry lake beds in Natal South African, where local people wait decades to see one of the most magnificent sites in nature, the mass blooming of a large population of these plants, generally in a sand basin which is transformed into a sea of pink lilies. My one single bulb in a pot is hardly a veld, but I don’t care, I am so excited that I feel like  a new dad. Look, this is pretty big news around here I mean, there are probably only 5 or ten bulbs in private collections in our entire state, and few if any ever bloom.

We are more than thrilled about our Brunsvigia bosmaniae  blooming, since any guide to the cultivation of this genus will state that all Brunsvigia’s are notoriously erratic when removed from their native habitats. We can only hope that the other species in the collection bloom but it doesn’t look like it yet. Best of all, it seems to be forming seed capsules. In it’s wild habitat, it is pollinated by nocturnal moths, but we’ve seen the honey bees on the blossoms all week so we are encourages that we may get seeds. Still, once sown, we will need to wait 12 years to see flowers from our seedlings, but hey, I might be retired by then!