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Products > Dietes grandiflora   Dietes grandiflora - Fortnight Lily    [2nd Image] Habit and Cultural Information Category: Perennial Family: Iridaceae (Irises) Origin: South Africa (Africa) Evergreen: Yes Flower Color: White Bloomtime: Spring/Summer Synonyms: [ [D. vegeta, Hort.] Height: 3-4 feet Width: 2-3 feet Exposure: Sun or Shade Irrigation (H2O Info): Medium Water Needs Winter Hardiness: 15-20° F Dietes grandiflora (Fortnight Lily) - This evergreen perennial produces clumps of long, upright narrow leaves that reach 4 feet tall. The flowers rise above the foliage and have outer white petals with a golden area near the base and the inner petals are white flecked with brown at the base. The inner most petal like structures, called style branches are violet colored. Flowers year round in coastal southern California gardens with individual flower lasting only one day, but are quickly followed by new flowers. Flushes of flowers appear on roughly a two week cycle which has given this plant its common name of fortnight lily. The fortnight lily is very drought tolerant in shade but can also be grown in full sun with regular to occasional irrigation. Seems to bloom best with regular watering. A good container plant or use in mass plantings or as a solitary accent clump. Hardy to 15 degrees F. This plant has been long grown as Dietes iridioides or D. vegeta in the nursery trade but is rightlyfully is Dietes grandiflora. This can be determined by examing the flower tepals and style arms; Dietes grandiflora has brown markings on the inner tepals and dark violet style arms where Dietes iridioides lacks markings on the tepals other than the yellow spots on the outer tepal and has pale violet style arms. As noted in "The Color Encyclopedia of Cape Bulbs" by John Manning, Peter Goldblatt and Dee Snijman (Timber Press, 2002) "the two species are often confused in the literature and the name D. vegeta has been misapplied to both plants in the past."  The description above is based on our research and observations of this plant growing in our nursery and in our own and other Santa Barbara gardens. We would appreciate hearing from anyone who has additional information or disagrees with what we have written.