Cyrtanthus obliquus
Cyrtanthus obliquus, also known as Knysna Lily, is an evergreen plant with a large fleshy bulb about the size of an onion that holds strap-shaped upright gray-green leaves that can rise to 12 to 18 inches tall and often have a slight twist toward the tips. In spring or summer appear the stout stalks rising to about the foliage, to as tall as 2 feet, topped by a large cluster with 7 to 12 3 inches long pendulous tubular orange flowers that flare out and turn green to yellow at the petal tips. Plant in full sun and water sparingly late spring through early fall and not at all late fall through early spring. This unusual bulb comes from the winter dry eastern cape region so soil must be very well drained and bulb planted with a majority (two-thirds) exposed, particularly if grown outside in our Mediterranean winter rainfall climate. Allow the bulb to almost completely dry out between watering. Ultimate hardiness is not well known but likely it would be best to protect plants from frost. It may be possible to grow this plant in the ground if soil is well drained but likely this plant should be enjoyed as an interesting container plant. It comes the coastal grasslands from KwaZulu-Natal to Humansdorp in the Eastern Cape Province where is can be found growing in well drained soils on rocky slopes. We have a very limited supply of these uncommon bulbs.