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Watsonia borbonica 'Raspberry Delight' (Rose Bugle Lily) - A deciduous winter growing plant with sword-like 2 1/2 ft long bright green pliable foliage and 4-5 feet tall showy wands of bright fuchsia pink flowers with a darker throat. Watsonia are showy plants in the Iris Family and are closely related to Gladiolus. Although often considered bulbs, they technically produce a corm and not a true bulb. Plant in a sunny location in early fall for late spring flowers. Little or no summer irrigation is required and plants situated in heavy soils will likely rot if given regular summer moisture. Dig and divide every 2-3 years for added vigor. Watsonia are attractive to bees and are good for the vase if cut ends are burnt soon after picking.
Watsonia borbonica is a species restricted to the High Veld in the extreme south-western corner of the Cape Province of South Africa, where it grows on rocky well drained slopes or sandy soils. Most commercially named hybrids of Watsonia are selections of this winter-growing summer-dormant Watsonia, which is often called by the illegitimate name Watsonia pyramidalis. This name comes from its first being described in 1786 by the French naturalist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck as a Gladiolus pyramidalis, based on an unrecorded specimen with the valid name assigned to the plant having its origin in a name given two years later, Lomenia borbonica, by the Abbe Pierre Andre Pourret, who mistakenly thought it to have been collected on the Ile de Boubon (now called Reunion Island). The name for the genus honors Sir William Watson, an 18th-century British botanist. According to the California Bulb Company, where we get our Watsonia, this is an old tried and true cultivar that replaced the very similar colored cultivar 'Flamboyant', which we have grown in the past. This plant is new to us for 2016 but we have high hopes for it. Pictures courtesy of the Easy To Grow Bulbs.
Information displayed on this page about Watsonia borbonica 'Raspberry Delight' is based on our research conducted about this plant in our nursery library as well as from information provided by reliable online resources. We also include our own observations made about it as it has grown in the nursery gardens and other gardens visited, as well how the crops of this plant performed in the containers in our nursery field. We will also include comments received from others and welcome hearing from anyone who has information about this plant, particularly if it includes cultural information aiding others to better grow it.
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