Habitat

The natural habitat of Sandersonia is in the South African provinces of Natal, Transvaal and Eastern Cape along with the Kingdom of Swaziland. It grows at an altitude between 600 and 2000m on moist grasslands.

Sandersonia flourishes best in a free draining soil. A cool and wet winter is needed to break dormancy but tubers will get damaged by frost. Summers are mild with a mean temperature of around 20ºC. Sandersonia is a seed propagation crop, taking approximately 2 growing seasons to grow from seed into a commercial tuber.

Sandersonia in New Zealand

A few Sandersonia tubers were brought to New Zealand around 80 years ago by Donald Ross. Since its introduction Sandersonia has grown into one of New Zealands most promising flower crops with a leading role by New Zealand growers in the world market. At a recent horticultural show in South Africa where BLOOMZ showed both Sandersonia and Zantedeschia, locals were fascinated by this flower, many only seeing it for their first time.

BLOOMZ instigated a long term breeding program in 1994 to create a greater variance both within the species (colour) and crosses with other closely related genera. The work has been done by SANZA Ltd, a Joint Venture between BLOOMZ, Gardenza and The New Zealand Crown Research Institute for Crop & Food Research. Successful crosses between Sandersonia and the related species Gloriosa superba and Littonia modesta have been made and are now being evaluated.

BLOOMZ has exported tubers and developed new management systems fro the crop since the mid 1980's and is now a leading supplier to major clients all around the world.