HAEMANTHUS KATHERINAE 
We are offering this year an outstanding item, 
Haemanthus Katherinae, which we can for the 
first time supply in reasonable volume. This 1s 
described in an article in The Flower Grower for 
February, 1948, page 140, by Mrs. E. O. Orpet of 
Santa Barbara, California, who saw a bed in 
bloom. <A description of the plant may also 
be found in the Florists Exchange for November 
29, 1947. 
The flowers at a distance look like great globes of 
orange lifting their heads a foot or more above a 
sea of brilliant apple green. At closer range these 
globes appear as superb globular flower umbels of 
varying sizes six to nine inches in diameater. Each 
is entirely covered with six-petaled, coral-colored 
florets bearing long stamens tipped in vivid orange. 
Each individual floret is flat, approximately two 
inches in diameter and exquisite in detail, and 
would furnish good corsage material for several 
days. A few of these may be picked without de- 
stroying the effect of the entire flower head and 
will remain fresh without water for several days. 
The plant itself is interesting and when mature 
sometimes has a leaf spread of more than a yard 
across. 
This item is a recent introduction from South 
Africa. It grows from seed and forms a large bulb. 
The plant flowers in from three to four years and 
thereafter bulbs may develop as many as five offsets | 
in two years. The plant is green except for a pe- 
riod of dormancy in the winter. It likes a shady 
situation outdoors in a frost-free location and en- 
joys a rich sandy loam soil with good drainage. 
The bulbs can also be grown-and flowered in eight 
to ten-inch pots in patios and sheltered outdoor 
living rooms. In the north they can be handled as 
window plants or grown under glass in pots which 
can be set out after danger of frost is over. The 
plants bloom in the summer from June to Septem- 
ber. 
Price $2.50 each to dealers, 20% off to whole- 
salers. Order early as bulbs must be dug and de- 
livered in February or March. Only blooming 
size bulbs delivered. 
LAS POSITAS NURSERY, 
P.O. Box 750, 
Santa Barbara, California. 
