Nerine bowdenii ‘Stefanie’

About this cultivar:

Nerine bowdenii ‘Stefanie’ is different to many other Nerine since it doesn’t have bright bold flowers but subtle soft white flowers marked with pale shell pink. Like others in this genus tho ‘Stefanie’ stills blooms late in the season.

Has the Royal Horticultural Society Award of Garden Merit were the powers-that-be commented in 2017: ‘Good bulking up during the trial period. An old Dutch cultivar in production for 20 to 30 years and grown for cut flowers. Beautiful flowers which are very pale pink at the tip of the tepal paling to white at the base. A dependable cultivar that always does well.’

Has been sold (to the RHS AGM trial committee ) under these names before (intentionally or not I don’t know) : ‘Dutch Pink’, ‘Shardlow Alba’, ‘Nikita’, ‘ex RBGE’, ‘Ostara, ‘Shardow Pink’, and ‘alba Exbury Nikita’.

• Position: Full sun, partial shade
• Soil: Almost any soil, grows well in Ballyrobert
• Flowers: September, November, December
• Other features: Royal Horticultural Society Award of Garden Merit (RHS AGM)
• Hardiness: H5 – Hardy in most places throughout the UK even in severe winters (-15 to -10C), Fully hardy, grows well in Ballyrobert
• Habit: Clump forming
• Foliage: Deciduous
• Height: 30 – 45 cm (1 – 1.5 ft)
• Spread: 15 – 25 cm (0.5 – 0.8 ft)
• Time to full growth: 2 to 5 years
• Plant type: Herbaceous Perennial, bulb
• Colour: Green, pink
• Goes well with: Colchicums and Cyclamens. Hakonechloa

About this genus:

Nerine (ne-re-ne) is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the Amaryllis family (Amaryllidaceae). Native to South Africa, there are about 30 species in the genus. Though described as lilies, they are not significantly related to the true lilies Lilium.

They were established by the cleric and Amaryllidaceae specialist William Herbert in 1820. The genus name derives from the Nereids (sea-nymphs) of Greek mythology that protected sailors and their ships. When Herbert chose the name of these nymphs for the first species of the genus, Nerine sarniensis, he alluded to the story of how this South African species arrived on the island of Guernsey in the English Channel. It is said that a ship carrying boxes of the bulbs of this species destined for the Netherlands was shipwrecked on Guernsey. The boxes of bulbs were washed up on the island and the bulbs became established and multiplied around the coast!

In late autumn most Nerine bear spherical umbels of lily-like flowers in shades from white through pink to crimson. They are bulbous perennials, some evergreen, associated with rocky and arid habitats. However we grow them almost everywhere in our damp clay soil in our garden at Ballyrobert. Classic companion are Colchicums and Cyclamens. Do try them contrasted with different foliage though (try Hakonechloa) – to bring a bit of summer into your late autumn/winter garden!