Description
This species first came to us from a grower in Hong Kong and the “Rincon” name is what it arrived as. I am presuming that this is Rincón de Guayabitos, in Nayarit, Mexico, but this is without proof. All I can say is that there are few other “Rincons” in the world, one being the Rincon Mountains in the USA and there is nothing like this Zephyranthes there, the other (that I can find) is in Puerto Rico and this is not Z. puertoricensis, the only white flowered species that grows anywhere even near there. For now we are regarding it as a Mexican species and if this is correct then it is from a dry, semi-tropical area, the home of many bulbs including several Tigridia which suggests, to me, a feasible habitat for a Zephyranthes to grow.
It makes flat, mid-green, shiny leaves from a small bulb and these have died away totally by April or May. Suddenly, in June, it is in flower and it has lovely, thick-textured, up-facing white flowers borne on very short stems close to the ground. The stem is clothed with reddish bracts and the exterior of the flower has small, ruby-red stripes on the very tips of the petals. The flowers have their bright, chrome-yellow anthers borne in a single rank (so this is a true Zephyranthes and not a Habranthus). Flowers are borne, here and there (depending on how many bulbs you have) throughout June and into July. The seed pods which follow, are also held on very short stems, no more than 1-2cm from the ground. This really is so very distinct from all of our other species.
We have this in plunged pots under alpine glass and for compost we use our usual bulb mix, to which we add 33% coarse sand-fine grit. We keep this under dry conditions, treated as a semi-desert species i.e. frost-free, not too much water, infrequent watering and (again!) very sharp drainage. We give it a dry rest from late May onward, once the foliage is totally dried up and gone. It will flower without any rewatering, but does so nicely if given an occasional drench through the summer, leaving it to dry out totally after. In winter it gets frost-free conditions, as do all of our other Zephyranthes and it seems no more, nor less, hardy than our others.
First offered in our lists in June 2021
