Some Bulbs Need Extra Help to Rebloom

QUESTION: Last winter, I bought a couple of bulbs--narcissus paperwhite and an amaryllis--and forced them into bloom indoors. Will bulbs like this rebloom every year and, if so, are there any secrets to guarantee success?

ANSWER: Your amaryllis (Hippeastratum vittatum) should rebloom next winter with very little help, but the narcissus is another story. Being forced to flower indoors saps a lot of energy from the narcissus bulb, and most experts recommend that they be discarded. But if you want to try, here’s the “secret” formula:

After they finish blooming, place the bulbs in their pots in full sun and feed regularly with a potassium-rich bulb fertilizer. Come summer, put them outside in the sunniest and hottest place you can find to encourage dormancy. When the leaves dry up and die, remove the bulbs from the pots, take them indoors and keep them dry.

In the fall, pot them again, put them in a bright window and begin watering; new growth should appear. This process might have to be repeated a second year before they bloom again. Perhaps the best advice is to discard them and buy new bulbs every winter.

Ginger and Cardamom Can Thrive Indoors

Q: While dining at an Indian restaurant recently, I heard from the owner that he grows his own ginger and cardamom indoors. Can this really be done because, if it can, I’d love to do it.

A: Yes, indeed, it can be done, and it’s well worth doing. Both ground ginger and cardamom seeds are staple spices in Indian cooking, and both make pretty little houseplants.

Although you’ll probably never get blooms indoors on either, thus no seeds, both plants give off a lovely scent, especially cardamom. Both plants look alike with narrow green leaves on a tubular stalk, and both are grown from thick, creeping rhizomes. Give both plants at least a filtered western or southern exposure, keep the humidity fairly high and keep the soil constantly moist.

Ginger roots are readily available in the produce section of your local market, and cardamom rhizomes can be gotten from Logee’s Greenhouses, 141HP North St., Danielson, CT 06239; and Plumeria People, 910HP Leander Drive, Leander, TX 78641.

Clivia Is a Striking Flowering Bulb Plant

Q: While visiting my local nursery yesterday, I saw a very pretty plant with long, strap-like arching leaves and large, orange, bell-shaped flowers. The flowers were growing at the end of a tall, thick stalk. Do you know what this plant is called? And will it grow indoors?

A: This plant is called Clivia miniata. Yes, it can be cultivated as a houseplant, but like all flowering bulb plants, it’s fairly temperamental. Give your clivia eastern or filtered southern exposure, and let the soil dry out between waterlogs and it should bloom every year from late winter through summer. After the flowers die, let the plant rest in an unheated room through the fall and winter, with no food and just enough water to keep the leaves from drooping. Then, in March, bring it back into a sunny location and begin regular watering and feeding. New blossoms will soon emerge.

Japanese Maple Needs High Humidity

Q: I have a variegated Japanese maple that will not bloom. The plant produces numerous buds, but they fall off before blooming. What can I do to make the plant bloom?

A: The Japanese maple is not a true maple (Acer spp.) but rather Abutilon hybridum, a shrubby houseplant that requires five to six hours of bright light a day and cool winter night temperatures to bloom. Dropping buds is usually the fault of not enough humidity, so keep your abutilon on a pebble tray filled with water and spray daily for maximum results.

Mexican Foxglove an Easy to Grow Plant

Q: I was at my local nursery recently and stumbled across a lovely flowering plant that was labeled Tetranema roseum. The nurseryman said it would grow indoors, but I can’t find any information on it. Can you help?

A: T. roseum is a member of the foxglove family (Scrophulariaceae) and is commonly called Mexican violet or Mexican foxglove. It forms a low-growing rosette of shiny leaves and short stalks of tiny violet-colored flowers like a miniature foxglove. It is an easy-to-grow plant in moderately humid conditions and blooms much of the year when it receives eastern light and warm temperatures.

This plant is easy to reproduce from seed, and because older plants don’t bloom as heavily as younger ones, it’s worth starting over from seed each year. This plant is an excellent choice for dish gardens and terrariums.

‘Aluminum Plant’ Not the Least Metallic

Q: I was reading a novel recently, and one of the characters talked about watering his “aluminum plant.” Was he joking about a metal plant, or is there really such a thing?

A: I don’t know if he was joking, but there is an aluminum plant and it’s not made by Alcoa, but by Mother Nature. Botanically, it’s Pilea cadierei, and it’s very striking with its narrow bluish green quilted leaves, splashed with silver-aluminum streaks.

The key to success with this plant, or any Pilea, is to keep the humidity around it high and do not over-water, which will cause mushy stems and droopy plants. P. cadierei is a great accent plant in a terrarium or dish garden.

Buddhist Pine Hard to Find at Nurseries

Q: Years ago I had a plant called a “Buddhist pine” that was one of my favorites. I grew it from a pup up to about 2 feet tall and it looked like a little Christmas tree. Unfortunately, it finally bit the dust, and since then I have searched unsuccessfully for another. Can you suggest a nursery where I might find one to start anew?

A: Also known as southern yew, the Buddhist pine, or Podocarpus macrophyllus, used to be quite popular and readily available.

Lately, however, I’ve seen very few in our local indoor nurseries. This saddens me because it’s one of the few conifers that will do well indoors. (A conifer is an evergreen, pinelike shrub or tree with spiny, thin needles as opposed to leaves.)

I’d suggest that now that you have the botanical name--Podocarpus--you trot out your Yellow Pages and call around.

I suspect that lots of local nurseries carry Podocarpus as an outdoor plant, but that’s OK, you can safely bring them indoors and they’ll thrive in bright light, moist soil, and temperatures under 75 degrees.

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Rapp is a Los Angeles free-lance writer who, as “Mr. Mother Earth,” has written several best-selling books on indoor gardening.