Plant in coastal sun to pretty deep shade and irrigate occasionally to very little. This plant should be hardy at least down to the low 20°s F - we have had this plant in our garden for many years, and it seems hardy to all low temperatures we have had since planting it, including 3 nights of 25°F during the January 2007 cold spell. We previously offered seedlings of this plant, but more recently are crops are all divisions from the original clone sourced from "Grassman" John Greenlee, who got it from the late Jack Catlin. Mr. Catlin, a renowned plant breeder in his own right had a collection of Dietes hybrids from James (Jimmy) Giridlian. Mr. Giridlian had created such venerable Dietes hybrids as 'Lemon Drops' and 'Orange Drops' at Oakhurst Gardens, his Arcadia California Nursery that he operated between 1928 to 1968. He also grew a plant he called Dietes “zululandi” as an unidentified species and made several crosses between this plant and the common Fortnight Lily, D. grandiflora, which he called Dietes 'Africa' (introduced in 1950) and a smaller plant Dietes 'South Africa' (introduced in 1958). We suspect that Dietes “zululandi” may have been Dietes butcheriana and that the plant John Greenlee got from Jack Catlin was one of the hybrids. Whatever it is it is a wonderful and slow growing plant that thrives in the deep shade under our large Arbutus 'Marina'. 

The information displayed on this page about Dietes 'Jack Catlin' is based on the research we have conducted about it in our nursery library as well as from information provided by reliable online resources. We also include our own observations made about this plant as it grows in the nursery gardens and other gardens visited, as well how the crops of this plant have performed in the containers in our nursery field. We will also incorporate comments that we have received from others and welcome hearing from anyone with information about this plant, particularly if it includes cultural information that will aid others to better grow it.