On Tue, 29 Jun 2004 14:59:40 +0100, Janet Baraclough..
wrote:

The message
from "Charlie Pridham" contains these words:


"Victoria Clare" wrote in message
. 206...
About half my young dierama plants (grown from seed) died right back over
the winter, and there is still no sign of them. I dug one up, and there
does seem to be a small but healthy corm there - but it's doing nothing!

The ones that stayed green over the winter are putting out new leaves and
look very healthy.

I find that when I pot on the germinated seedlings of Dierama that if I over
pot them they die off, and subsequent care of the small plants is tricky as
they are prone to frost damage untill in the open ground, but if you put
them out small you are likely to never see them again!

Mine were sown when they ripened late last summer, germinated over
winter in the cold frame, and are still in their sowing-pot looking very
healthy. I'm planning to keep them in the pot until I absolutely have to
slide them into a larger one, and plant them out as a clump once they
have reached a good size.

If they survive that, my plan is to divide the clump in a year or two.
So here's the question..is this a good idea, or do established dieramas
object to disturbance?


Janet

I successfully moved clumps of three types of dierama this spring. But
I was conscious that they didn't like being disturbed, so I just dug
out the whole block of soil (a spade's width and depth) and replanted
it. They never knew they'd moved. I imagine if you need to divide a
clump, digging it up as a block and then severing it cleanly down the
middle with a sharp spade would probably be OK. You may lose some of
the plants adjacent to the cut, but some should survive. I've done
this successfully with Aristea Ecklonis, apparently another reluctant
divider. Of course, the clump needs to have grown big enough to do
that in the first place.


--
Chris

E-mail: christopher[dot]hogg[at]virgin[dot]net