- According to Doug Green of Flower-garden-bulbs.com, tigridia, "is a native of South Central America (mostly Mexico)." Any gardeners living outside of this tropical region will likely experience some difficulty in maintaining the plant. Tigridia will not tolerate frozen soil, so successfully maintaining them requires inside storage from late fall to mid-spring in many locales.
- If you are willing to over-winter your tigridia, though, a few basic planting techniques will go a long way toward a successful harvest each year. The first step is deciding how you will propagate the flowers: if you are using seed, Doug Green suggests sowing in early spring, stating that, "[The tigridia] bulb does not usually increase by offsets but is easily started from seed." If you are planting bulbs, you will need to factor in your climate. Jasmine's Home Garden Secrets recommends planting between March and May; the further north you live, the later in spring you'll need to wait in order for the soil to warm up and the threat of frost to dissipate.
- Planting depth is another important factor. Bulbs should be planted 6 to 8 inches deep in a location that receives full sun. The soil should be a sandy loam to which you need to add leaves, peat moss or other organic material. Tigridia do poorly in humid or particularly wet soils, and the above mixture will facilitate good drainage to keep the bulbs dry in the heat of the summer.
- In order to enjoy these flowers each year, you'll either need to collect the seeds after flowering or dig up the bulbs to store until the following spring. While this is a bit more work than the typical flower requires, many gardeners find them well worth the trouble. The flowers can be used for cuttings, but Jasmine's Home Garden Secrets points out that, "Each bloom lasts only one day, but is succeeded on the next by fresh ones, so that a continuance of bloom is maintained." Cut flowers from this plant won't last long, and you may miss the successive display of color that would otherwise take place if you left them to bloom in your garden..
