Cape
cowslip, a bulbous plant with spotted leaves and tubular
flowers, was a member of the hyacinth and scillia section
of the order of Liliaceae (lilies).
The
cape cowslips were introduced from the Cape of Good
Hope about 1774 the first was the Lachenalia tricolor.
They were strictly greenhouse
plants, and grown in five or seven-inch pots with a
neat upside-down oyster shell on the bottom (for drainage)
and filled with sandy-loam and leaf mould. Bulbs were
placed close together in the pot - perhaps 5 or 6 per
pot.
Being
potted in the summer or autumn, they were then be kept
in a frame
with little water until the leaves had grown to two
inches in length. At that point the pots needed to be
moved to the greenhouse and stood in pans of inch-deep
water where the plants could attain their full splendour.
