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Veltheimia bracteata "Pastel Series" (Yellow Forest Lily) - A South African semi-deciduous bulb that produces a dozen or so glossy green leaves that are 1 foot to 18 inches long and 3 inches wide with wavy margins. In late winter and early spring appear the pure light pink, peach and yellow tubular flowers with dark pink base that are upright and green tipped in bud and dangling downward when open, on 1-2-foot-tall fleshy stalks, somewhat similar to those of a red hot poker plants (Kniphofia). Flowers are followed by large 3-winged papery capsules that are unusually attractive in their own right.
Grow in light shade, water regularly to only occasionally and is a fairly drought tolerant plant is it is allowed to go into summer dormancy. A great plant for the shade garden - can be nearly evergreen in summer months if watered but will rot if soil does not drain well with this treatment - best to allow to dry out in summer with new foliage coming on in fall.
The species comes from a wide area of the Cape area and in Namaqualand where it grows on rocky slopes. The genus, first published in 1771 by German botanist Johann Gottlieb Gleditsch (1714-1786) who honored himself with the naming of the genus of the Locust trees (Gleditsia), honors Count Frederick Augustus von Veltheim (1741-1801) a German patron of Botany. This plant was long called Veltheimia viridifolia (meaning green leaves), a name given the plant in 1797 by the Dutch scientist and medical doctor Nikolaus Joseph von Jacquin but this species and Velthemia undulata was subsumed into Veltheimia bracteata as described by William Harvey in 1871.
"Pastel Series" are seedlings from a group of several light-colored pastel flowering Veltheimia bracteata selections, including the one named 'Rosalba'. We also grow a pure yellow form we call Yellow Comet', the species Veltheimia bracteata, which is the same in all respects except it has pale rose-pink flowers and the fully deciduous gray foliaged Veltheimia capensis which grows in full sun with attractive undulating gray leaves and is fall to winter flowering.
The information about Veltheimia bracteata Pastel Series displayed on this web page is based on our research conducted in the nursery's horticultural library and from reliable online resources. We also include observations made about it as it grows in our nursery gardens and other gardens we have visited, as well how the crops have performed in containers in our nursery field. We will also incorporate comments we receive from others and welcome hearing from anyone with additional information, particularly if they can share cultural information that would aid others in growing this plant. |
