UCSC Arboretum’s Spring Plant Slae on April 13, 2019 will feature a Silent Auction of Hort industry donations and our selections of unusual, rare, first offerings, and artful arrangements! Third in the lineup, Wachendorfia paniculata, a completely summer dormant rhizomatous plant from the Western Cape of South Africa. This is not the huge, water hungry Wachendorfia thyrsiflora of wetlands, but a fynbos geophyte that prefers sandy, acidic, low phosphate soils and is compatible with plantings of Proteaceae. It fades away in clay soils, but thrives in sand, bearing new flowers every day over a 2 month period as the inflorescence expands. Although these plants are golden yellow, colors in habitat range through peach, apricot, sometimes with dark central “eyes.” These plants are from wild collected seed, but are in the auction because two collections were mixed one from the Groenlandberg, and the other across the way in the Hottentot Holland Mts.
Read more about Wachendorfia here: https://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/p…/index.php/Wachendorfia
