Description
Habranthus gracilifolius has large, bright-pink flowers held horizontally from midsummer onward and it is a superb species, one of the best in fact. In well-grown specimens the flowers rival Rhodophiala in size, approaching the size of a small Hippeastrum.
We grow this as a pot plant, it isn’t hardy but few, if any, Habranthus are completely hardy in the UK. A well-drained, fertile, loam-based compost and freedom from frost is all that this requires, along with a dry summer rest which it will indicate to you, by dying back as temperatures rise in summer. Store it dry over summer and re-water in September for blooming and leaf growth soon after rewatering.
This is the true species which seems to be barely in cultivation in the UK. The name is frequent enough but most nursery stocks that I have seen being offered are just pink forms (var. roseus) or slightly brownish forms (var variable) of the widespread Habranthus tubispathus, which is far smaller and pleasant enough but is not anything like as good as proper gracilifolius.
If you think you have the real thing, the please check out Habranthus tubispathus roseus before making your final decision. The scale of the flowers is entirely different, gracilifolius far larger, and in addition has much larger rounded, or elongated but still rounded, bulbs with thin, pale brown tunics that flake off the bulb (H. tubispathus and its forms have elongated bulbs covered with more resilient blackish tunics). If you search on the internet, you will see pictures which fall into two distinct groups, the larger, pinker, better flowers are true Habranthus gracilifolius. I checked the first 30 pictures that I found on a search engine claiming to be H. gracilifolius and just half were of the true plant.
Incidentally, true gracilifolius is self-incompatible and one plant on its own, or a clone, will not set seed unless cross-pollinated with a genetically different plant of its own species, whilst H. tubispathus flowers set prolific seed with their own pollen and will often set seed even if not pollinated, or if cross-pollinated with a totally unrelated species which does not hybridise with it but makes seed with maternal inheritance only!
Habranthus gracilifolius