It is called Climbing Onion. Volubilis means: whirling, changing, rolling, flowing. The Bowiea name of the genus maybe comes from the name of somebody. I know of a James Bowie in Texas in the 19th century but I don't know if he has something common with the name of this plant.
It is a bulbous perennial (in fact it is not a real bulb, I think). It is native to South-Africa, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Zambia, Tanzania. Therefore it is not hardy here in Hungary, it must be wintered at about 10°C. It belongs to the family Hyacinthaceae – well, I could never guess this.
The flowers are very little and green, maybe it could be nice with plenty of them. Our plant has not too much flowers yet. I've read that after seed ripening the greenery (not quite foliage) will die. The lady I bought it from told me that it begins to grow again in Spring. On the net I've read that this happens in the Autumn. OK, Autumn in South-Africa is Spring in Hungary... It likes much water in Summer but the bulb is also prone to wet rot so it should be buried only 2/3 in the compost. The bulb hates hot and sun, but the plant itself likes it. So I covered the upper 1/3 part of the bulb with grit. During the resting period the compost has to be left dry.
The flowers are very little and green, maybe it could be nice with plenty of them. Our plant has not too much flowers yet. I've read that after seed ripening the greenery (not quite foliage) will die. The lady I bought it from told me that it begins to grow again in Spring. On the net I've read that this happens in the Autumn. OK, Autumn in South-Africa is Spring in Hungary... It likes much water in Summer but the bulb is also prone to wet rot so it should be buried only 2/3 in the compost. The bulb hates hot and sun, but the plant itself likes it. So I covered the upper 1/3 part of the bulb with grit. During the resting period the compost has to be left dry.
It can grow very large, the bulb can reach 25 cm diameter, the plant 2,5 m height. As seen above it has no real leaves, is assimilating with the green stems and fringes and climbs vigorously on what it finds.
Not that it is a beauty, just interesting maybe. I bought it in fact because I wanted to let something to climb on the trunk of a dead Fuchsia.
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