Display Table Palmiro & Verity Townsendia's & Narcissus.

Display Table Palmiro & Verity Townsendia's & Narcissus.

Narcissus bulbacodium from Trevanion Daffodils

Narcissus bulbacodium Oidie Loidie from Trevanion Daffodils 

 Bessera elegans above and below

Verity and Palmiro display some pretty impressive plants on the display table at times, and I have often wondered what mix they use to grow some of these spectacular plants in. Their plants are grown in a fairly hot part of Victoria, most summer days, it is in the high Thirties often reaching 40c deg. Palmiro said the Bessera elegans is stored dry during winter and bought out and watered late Spring through Summer and early Autumn
So after quizzing Palmiro here is his mix he uses for bulbs. Two bags of Debco general all purpose potting mix 25 litre bags, or one 50 litre bag of Scott's Potmate when it is available, as it is half the price and just as good. Debco mixes do have wetting agents in the mix but Palmiro stressed with No fertiliser and water storing crystals in it. It is important to note Scott's now own Debco potting mix.
Added to this bag of potting mix is 20 litres course sand (Palmiro uses washed builders sand)
some people do not find this is course enough, I like to use a courser gavel sand but this is a personal option and it depends on your climate and where you live. We have a lot more rain up here and some bulbs need to grow in a free draining mix.
50 gm granulated potash
30gm Dolomite
30gm ground lime stone
180gm granulated fertiliser 3-6 months
10-15gm Rock minerals microbial
All is thoroughly mixed together and then pot up your bulbs, usually all the potted up bulbs are plunged into sand and stored under shade cloth in their climate, but Palmiro said that had not happened lately, as they had been too busy. Of course Palmiro stressed this is just what I use, it may not work for everyone.
I have spoken to Debco potting mix people in Sydney, the wetting agent in potting mixes are, used in all their potting mixes today, as the wetting agent breaks up the surface tension in potting mixes it does not store water, but allows the potting mix to absorb water, instead of running off the surface.
Water crystals are added to some potting mixes, they do store water and are not suitable for growing bulbs in.

Palmiro and Verity's sand plunge beds filled with Townsendia's if you click on photo you can read the labels. I have never seen so many well grown Townsendia how wonderful.