Hessea

Hessea

This is a small genus, related to Strumaria and more distantly to both Nerine and Gethyllis. The dozen or so species are spread across southern African from the Cape to Namibia.

It is a deciduous genus which dies away totally in summer, when it should be warm and dry. By and large Hessea do not tolerate summer water well, when they are dormant. Dry storage, without desiccating them, is needed. They re-emerge in early autumn with narrow deciduous foliage which lasts until after flowering. This is in spring, after which the whole plant dies away again to a small bulb.

They need a very well-drained, sandy, compost and are best grown in pot culture under glass. The naturally small bulbs can be crowded in small containers if wished. Not frost hardy.



Available for ordering from Spring and Autumn lists.

Products

Hessea chaplinii

Hessea chaplinii

Conical up-facing umbels like inverted shuttlecocks, with stiff stems holding fairy-like white stars on red pedicels. Each flower has a shuttlecock in miniature in the form of up-facing anther filaments.

An enchanting little rarity for pot cultivation in a sandy, sharply drained soil, with not too much water and a short, dry rest in summer. Exquisite.

Photograph © Denis Tsang, with permission

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Hessea chapliniiheschacha £16.50

Hessea incana

A fabulous species described as recently as 1988 by Diedre Snijman, though known earlier than this. It has a large umbel of strong pink flowers with a deep pink centre and deeper pink stripes on the undersides of the petals.

There are between 20 and 30 flowers in each hemispherical (becoming spherical in larger plants). The ball-head is held on a stem only about 8-10 cm in height. Within the head, individual flower stalks (pedicels) are green, becoming purple at the base and the ovary is similarly purple.

There are just two leaves below and these are covered, above and below, with fine hairs.

This species is the latest flowering of all the Hessea species and it is usually in full bloom very very early in the spring. This may sound contradictory, but in fact it is such a late autumnal flowering species, that it starts to flower in winter, lasting until early in the year! This late habit makes it valuable for growth under glass in the UK.

In the wild it is restricted to the Cape Province of South Africa, in the vicinity of the Khamiesberg in Namaqualand, where it grows in full sun in sandy flats with loam in the soil.

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Hessea incanahesincinc £65.00
Lovely, cultivated, flowering sized bulbs about 1.5cm diameter by 2cm tall (plus a floral neck)

Hessea stellaris

Hessea stellaris

A gorgeous species and the first one to be described in the genus in 1837.

This makes a loose umbel of flowers in the shape of a perfect hemisphere, each bloom in the head being held on a comparatively long flower stem.

The flowers are perfect little six petalled stars in pale to mid pink, with a darker base and exerted anthers giving a delicate "halo" effect to the blooms. Propagated from an especially floriferous, well coloured population seed of which came from near van Rhynsdorp in southern Namaqualand.

Well-drained sandy compost, with feeding when they are watered (which should not be too often) and then dry in summer. Hemispheres of flowers, like hovering spaceships, can be expected, after re-watering, in late autumn and early winter.

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Hessea stellarishessteste £24.50
largest size, mature, flowering bulbs, about 1.5cm diameter by about 2cm tall