Blandfordia grandiflora

(Christmas Bells)

Found naturally in New South Wales and Queensland, Blandfordia grandiflora is now grown in many gardens in Australia and it's also a very popular floristry flower.

There are actually four species of Blandfordia suitable for garden cultivation, but one (B. cunninghamii) is rarely grown. The genus is found along the east coast to Tasmania. All blandfordias share the common name of Christmas Bells because they produce showy Christmas-red bell-shaped flowers during summer.

It is a grassy-foliaged perennial plant, with leaves growing to about 50 cm long. The flower spikes are about 50 cm tall, terminating in a cluster of about 10 tubular flowers in red or orange-red with yellow tips.

Originally recommended as a rockery plant, Blandfordia deserves much more attention in the contemporary garden, with its fashionably coloured bell flowers. En masse the flowers look particularly stunning. And don't forget it's contribution indoors as a long lasting cut flower!

Not only that, blandfordias attract honey-eating birds.

Growing

Blandfordia grandiflora grows in a wide range of soils and climatic conditions, but it does like plenty of water. In fact it prefers wet sandy soils that are acidic - a condition that is easy to mimic when growing in a pot (and it grows well in pots too). Even in a drought a pot of wet sand (that drains well) filled with blandfordias can't be that difficult to maintain!

It also prefers only partial sun or dappled shade.

Propagation

Blandfordias are grown from seed, which is ripe during February or March. The seed can be sown from March to May or August to November. Germination can be very slow, and plants are also slow-growing, taking three to four years to flower.

Blandfordias are also micropropagated from selected clones. The Rural Industries Research & Development Corporation recognised that blandfordia production could be a viable horticultural enterprise. Information on growing blandfordias commercially, including marketing opportunities, production requirements, varieties, disease control, and harvesting is available at www.rirdc.gov.au/pub/handbook/blandfordia.html

Clumps of plants can be carefully divided in late July and August.

Information sources:
Photograph of Blandfordia nobilis by Denise Greig, courtesy of Australian National Botanic Garden.
W.R. Elliot & D.L. Jones, Encyclopaedia of Australia Plants suitable for cultivation, Lothian Publishing Co.
J.W. Wrigley & M. Fagg, Australian Native Plants, fifth edition, New Holland Publishers.

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