How to grow gloriosa

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You will need

  • Glory lily tubers, Gloriosa rothschildiana
  • Multi-purpose, peat-free compost
  • 20cm diameter pot
  • String
  • Support
Do it: spring
Takes just: half an hour to plant the tubers

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Overview

The climbing glory lily, Gloriosa rothschildiana is an ideal choice for growing in a warm conservatory, where it will scramble up support canes or wires to a height of around 1.2m. An exotic summer-flowering plant, the glory lily requires warm growing conditions to encourage the tubers to develop roots. Plant them in pots and keep them in a heated greenhouse or propagator.

Before planting, study each tuber closely to see which end has a shoot growing out from the tip. These shoots are the plant's leaves, so should be facing upwards. If no shoots are visible, plant the tubers horizontally in trays and transplant later when you know which end the shoots are growing from.

How to do it

Covering the tubers with compost

1Place the tubers in a large, deep pot and fill with compost so the shoot tips lie a few centimetres below the surface. Each tuber produces a single shoot, so plant several in each pot.

Watering the compost

2Stand the pot in a warm spot, such as in a heated greenhouse or on a heated propagator, and keep the compost moist.

Tieing in shoots to support

3When upright, leafy shoots form, tie them to supports. The leaf tips have hooked ends that will attach to things, but don't rely on these as the only means of support. The shoots will branch out and produce spectacular flowers in midsummer.

Adam's tip

Try planting other exotic summer-flowering plants, like eucomis, tiger flower and calla lily

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