{"id":72,"date":"2007-12-26T08:48:46","date_gmt":"2007-12-26T16:48:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/garden\/?p=72"},"modified":"2015-11-24T07:33:25","modified_gmt":"2015-11-24T15:33:25","slug":"star-of-bethlehem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/star-of-bethlehem\/","title":{"rendered":"Star of Bethlehem"},"content":{"rendered":"

STAR OF BETHLEHEM
\n<\/font><\/font><\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In the spring many of us look out into our yards and see a clump of pretty but weedy little flowering plants.\u00a0 The flowers are white and a bit lily-like and observant gardeners may notice that the clump of these plants seems to be larger than it was the previous year.\u00a0 It is Ornithogalum umbellatum, aka star of Bethlehem, nap-at-noon, summer snowflake, eleven o’clock lady and dove’s dung.\u00a0\u00a0 Once the ground warms, star of Bethlehem sends up grasslike leaves that are distinguished by the white stripe down the middle.\u00a0 A few weeks later, six-petaled white flowers appear, each sporting a green stripe on every petal.\u00a0 They are beautiful flowers, which is a good thing, because no one in the history of the world has ever had just one star of Bethlehem plant for more than one year.\u00a0 The species’ expansion tendencies are so pronounced that southern garden writers Steve Bender and Felder Rushing included star of Bethlehem in their very funny classic book Passalong Plants<\/em>. <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I have been thinking about star of Bethlehem lately because one of its relatives, Ornithogalum dubium, has shown up in many of the better catalogs, websites and retail nurseries this holiday season.\u00a0 While the garden variety star of Bethlehem is native to southern Europe and northern Africa, the hothouse O. dubium is a native of South Africa.\u00a0 O. dubium is much bigger than its common cousin, rising to fifteen or even eighteen inches when it is flowering.\u00a0\u00a0 The medium green leaves are straplike, and will remind you of slender daylily or iris foliage.\u00a0 The flower spikes consist of elongated clusters of six-petaled flowers.\u00a0 The most common O. dubium variety sold at this time of the year seems to be ‘White Star’, a name that describes the flowers perfectly. \u00a0<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The chief virtue of ‘White Star’ and other O. dubium cultivars is that the flowers last a long time, even when watering is infrequent.\u00a0 Individual blossoms open up gradually along the stems, so if you deadhead every once in awhile, the plant will continue to look fresh and attractive.\u00a0\u00a0 Give a healthy specimen as a gift and it will see the recipient through the holiday season without a problem.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The species name, “dubium”\u009d comes from the Latin word for “doubtful”\u009d, which seems appropriate to me right at the moment because I am not sure why it was applied to this particular species.\u00a0\u00a0 Looking at the nursery tag that came with my O. dubium, the only doubt that enters my mind is exactly how to take care of it after it blooms.\u00a0 Unfortunately this is a common problem with nursery plants of any kind.\u00a0 Tags frequently have incomplete or misleading information.\u00a0 Sometimes you are lucky if there is any plant tag in the pot at all. <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 My ‘White Star’ plant tag does not give the plant’s Latin name or even the most frequently used common name, which is probably because the grower figures that nobody cares about them.\u00a0 However, having that information might help the more conscientious among us look up additional cultural information in books or on the internet.\u00a0 It does read, “Keep potting mix uniformly moist.”\u009d\u00a0 This does not mean drown the plant daily.\u00a0 South African natives are generally used to a bit of dryness.\u00a0 Watering should happen when the top of the soil feels dry, but don’t wait for the plant to droop.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Under “Temperature”\u009d, the tag reads “USDA Zones 9 and 10.\u00a0 Not tolerant of frost.”\u009d\u00a0 USDA hardiness zones are determined by the average annual lowest and highest temperatures in various parts of the country.\u00a0 Generally, the higher the number, the warmer the climate.\u00a0 For those of us in cold winter climates, O. dubium is a houseplant.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The tag contains post-bloom instructions for those who live in Zones 9 and 10 and are therefore able to plant the specimen in the garden.\u00a0 This advice has to be modified for the rest of us.\u00a0 If you can, put the potted plant outside after all danger of frost is past; if not, place it in the sunniest possible window.\u00a0 Eventually the foliage will begin to die back.\u00a0 As it does, cut back on watering, but don’t stop completely.\u00a0 The bulb-grown plant is entering a dormant period. When you bring the plant back inside in the fall, begin watering again and start applying liquid fertilizer diluted to half strength.\u00a0 The growth cycle should start again.\u00a0 If you have tended the plant properly and are lucky, it should eventually rebloom.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Of course the wholesale grower expects that you will probably enjoy your O. dubium during the season then throw it out when the last of the blossoms fade.\u00a0 You should not feel guilty if that is exactly what you do.\u00a0 If we all held on to every gift and holiday plant and every one survived reliably, most of us would be awash in twenty year-old poinsettias and enormous, decades-old amaryllis.\u00a0 If you love plants or receive one that is extremely valuable or interesting, go right ahead and follow the cultural instructions.\u00a0 If not, save your guilt for something that matters a great deal more–like relationships with your relatives or unpaid traffic tickets. \u00a0<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 So get your stars of Bethlehem now and enjoy them while they are in fashion.\u00a0 Popularity is a fleeting phenomenon.\u00a0 By next year some other plant will have replaced White Star and its relatives as the brightest lights in the holiday horticultural firmament.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

STAR OF BETHLEHEM \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In the spring many of us look out into our yards and see a clump of pretty but weedy little flowering plants.\u00a0 The flowers are white and a bit lily-like and observant gardeners may notice that the clump of these plants seems to be larger than it was the previous year.\u00a0 … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-winter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1707,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72\/revisions\/1707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}