Soap plants, with their long wavy leaves, are found all over the Bernal hill. In late spring their flowers open in the the afternoon and early evening and they are pollinated by bees and night-flying moths. Like other members of the Chlorogalum species, they grow from bulbs. During the summer the foliage may disappear.
Soap plants are members of the lily family and they are very slow growing if you grow them from seeds. It can take 10 years to grow a plant from seed to flower. The bulbs are long-lived and were of great use to the early Native Americans. The roots contain saponin, a natural sudsy detergent good for bathing and washing clothes. The bulbs were also cut up and thrown into streams to stun fish so they could be easily caught. They could even be eaten, if they were slow-cooked for a long period of time.
It’s easiest to grow soap plant from bulbs in the fall. Plant them to a depth about double the size of their bulb in a sunny or lightly-shaded location. Keep them watered the first winter. They may disappear in the summer but will grow again in the winter when the rains return.
