Having a go at Masdies

[WhiteRabbit]

Picked up a few Masdies at local OS show and sale a couple of months ago. So far, so good with them!

I got a small Golden Tiger 'Augie', which had a very faded bloom. Shortly after that finished, I spotted a new little spike.

A Bob Hoffman 'Highland Tangerine' - no blooms or spikes.

And a gorgeous yellow one that I only realized after I got home that it didn't have a tag! One of the yellow Mary Staal cultivars? Regardless - it's fabulous! It had two blooming spikes, and two spikes with large buds when I got it. Seems the first few weeks I had it, I spotted a new spike every few days! The original spikes have finished, but has three more spikes blooming now, plus 4-5 other spikes in various stages (it is possible I have missed one or more - there's one moderate sized spike I only noticed a couple of days ago - there's lots of growth on this plant, and easy to miss the spikes)

I only have one very poor photo of the Golden Tiger - had a very difficult time getting a decent pic - I thought I would get back to try again, but didn't Hopefully there will be more opportunities in the future.

First pic of the yellow one is of the blooms it had when I got it, the last two pics are two of the current blooms. (The third one is sort of upside down/facing skyward, but is otherwise a very nice bloom)
Blooms start off almost orange, then "fade" to vivid yellow, and then eventually fade to a pale yellow. Pretty large blooms held nicely above the foliage. I just love this one!

Wish me luck!

[gamistriotis]

Beautiful!! Good luck !!!

[ronaldhanko]

These are gorgeous, Sonya.

[ACK2]

Sonya, you are so lucky and obviously you have what they need. Just beautiful!!!!!

[WhiteRabbit]

thanks gamistriotis, thanks Ron, thanks Susan

We'll have to see how they do in summer - looks like they all are hybrids of cool-intermediate species crossed with one that can take warmer temps. We've had a couple days of sweltering heat that didn't seem to be a problem for them. But it's always much cooler at night here, which should be helpful. Otherwise, it's actually been a bit cool for this time of year.

Hopefully they will do ok -I really love these!

[bellini girl]

Beautiful. They all look healthy

[ezil]

Sonya, you've got some good looking masdies there! I'd be very interested in hearing how you keep them "somewhat" cool over the summer. I have a few that would not like temps. over 18C at night and I'm thinking that I may have to put their terrarium on the balcony at night time, with a cooling pack underneath the platform.

[Lagoon]

These are really beautiful, fabulous colours
I hope they do well for you -- good luck on you're new adventure

[WhiteRabbit]

Thanks Lecent

ezil - well, will have to wait and see - I was advised to pot into porous clay pots. So far I have only repotted the one that had no spikes or blooms when I got it. The one I did repot I put into a deeper clay pot (the standard type, that is narrower at the bottom than at the top) - put styro in the bottom of the pot, thinking that if I need to, I could then leave the pot in a shallow saucer with water without the media sitting in the water - and with the low humidity we have during hot weather - the water in the saucer won't even be there very long - don't know if that's a good idea or what ...

The temp here in summer drops a lot at night, so I am hoping that will keep them from being horribly unhappy in summer.

I bought two of these Masdies from the OS members sales, and talked to one of the members who was selling Masdies - so they grow them in the same climate, tho perhaps they have A/C lol But he felt pretty confident they should be ok for me

Thanks Gloria - hoping it will go well. It's nice to try something different now and again

[silken]

Your Masdies are lovely! I'm sure you will do well with them!