Last October I bought some Bowiea volubilis bulbs online after seeing a mature specimen at a friend's place. The bulbs turned out to be pretty tiny. They seem happy and have increased in size a little but so far made only those long narrow leaves and no climbing stem. Does anyone know what the growth cycle is with young Bowiea bulbs? I presume these leaves will die off at some stage and a climbing stem will appear, but how long will this take? Will they just keep making leaves and increase bulb size for the first few years?
They are on a south-facing window sill which gets about 4-5 hours direct sun, if there is sun - this is Dublin, Ireland...

Be patient. One of these days, the newest leaf will be a wispy climber. I remember having that same conversation with myself but I can't remember how long it took. I even called the company I bought it from and accused them of sending the wrong thing! I could say it took forever but I think that would be my impatience speaking.

well predicted! This morning I checked and the newest leaf on the biggest bulb looks like a climbing stem. Any idea how tall it might get? I'm giving this one to friends in a home-made hanging pot and am debating whether I'll hang it high up and tell them to let it trail or whether to hang it low with a really long wire that it can climb up on.

It will twine itself UP whatever is holding up your handing basket. Plan for up.

yes, I think up is better. They don't seem to like trailing and would probably double back on themselves and make an unholy tangle if one tried to make them trail. Here's a picture of my friend's Bowiea, which made me buy the bulbs:

urbanplantswoman said:yes, I think up is better. They don't seem to like trailing and would probably double back on themselves and make an unholy tangle if one tried to make them trail. Here's a picture of my friend's Bowiea, which made me buy the bulbs:

That's very nice. How much sun are those in? I've been growing them for over 10 years; they'll grow and split new bulbs but I've got oak trees so only partial light and they never get that big.

alpharalpha said:

That's very nice. How much sun are those in? I've been growing them for over 10 years; they'll grow and split new bulbs but I've got oak trees so only partial light and they never get that big.

They are about 2-3 feet away from a south-west facing bow window on the first floor, and the house is in southern Germany. So very little direct sunlight except in the winter, but very good indirect light.

Their growth rate does seem to vary a lot. I gave several of my tiny bulbs away to friends in Ireland, and all theirs are now bigger than mine (which has barely reached the size of a small walnut). One friend keeps hers in a greenhouse and her bulb is the size of an apricot.

Mine are twin baseballs.