Sandersonia aurantiaca
Colchicaceae
July-September
S. aurantiaca is native to South Africa and is closely related to Gloriosa superba and to Littona modesta. The orange coloured bell shaped flowers are characteric for this plant. In my top 10 of hard to grow specialty bulbs, S. auarantiaca is number 1! It's very difficult to keep the corms healthy during the storage period. Only one thing has to go wrong, damaging of the corm, air humidity, and the corm dies off of will start rotting. I have tried it for a couple of years to grow the plant, but now I have given it up. The picture is taken in one of the few years I managed to grow a plant which flowered.