Lighting up autumn

If you see a blast of vibrant pink in late September or October, tight up against a sunny wall or house, it can only be nerines strutting their stuff. They will be on their own, the South African version of the wallflower, shining in late autumn like no other flower. They’re made more dramatic because all you see is a stem topped by a splendid frilly flower. The distraction of leaves follows.

Nerines share the same depth of colour and iridescence as another South African genus, the agapanthus. Both make wonderful cut flowers although I can never bear to cut nerines as it shortens their life by weeks. I much prefer to watch the pointed green bud split and reveal a chink of pink before exploding into full exuberance. They seem out of gloriously out of synch with November skies. The depth of colour is apparently due to the lens-shaped epidermal cells which concentrate all the pigment at the base of the cell, giving this flower an extra wow factor.

The name nerine is tricky to pronounce and many gardeners say it differently. I go for nuh-reen-eh, like my grandmother did. But, however you say it, they are named after a sea nymph in Greek legend — Nereis. There are 25 species native to southern Africa but only a few are grown in gardens. The most commonly found are N. bowdenii and N. sarniensis but there are hybrids between the two.

N. sarniensis comes from the Table Mountain and sites nearby. It’s commonly known here as the Guernsey Lily because a ship carrying bulbs between the Cape and the Netherlands was shipwrecked off Guernsey in 1659 and the plants took root in the sand. This tells you all you need to know. Nerines prefer thin soil, so don’t enrich it. The islanders nurtured the bulbs and eventually sold them as a cut flower in London. Although it was many years before anyone realised that this pink bloom had come from South Africa.

N. sarniensis is not very hardy and it’s often more of a greenhouse specimen in most areas of our country. However, it is more showy and spectacular and it’s easy to see its close relationship with another showy plant — the amaryllis ‘Kodora’, pictured, is a ‘sarniensis’ hybrid of doubtful hardiness. N. bowdenii, introduced in 1889, comes from the Drakensburg Mountains and is therefore much hardier. This is the one found in gardens.

Plant it somewhere sunny and warm and leave the bulbs undisturbed, splitting them in spring only if they become so crowded they begin to flower badly. This usually takes at least five years or more. If you grow nerines in pots — and need to divide — do it in August before the buds appear, adding a mere sprinkle of bone meal.

New bulbs of the hardier N. bowdenii are planted in spring to a depth of 2in deep with their necks showing. But if you have a cold garden, cover the bulbs with a protective 3in of soil and let them push themselves upwards. Try to give them a position where they can collect some summer rainfall. That’s the regime most species experience in the damp grasslands on the eastern side of South Africa. If you are pushing back the frontiers and planting N. sarniensis bury the bulbs to a depth of 4-6in and pray for a mild winter!.

Waterperry Gardens and Sulgrave Manor have Apple Days on Saturday and Sunday. Visit www.waterperrygardens.co.uk or call 01844 339254 and www.sulgravemanor.org.uk and 01295 760205.