PBS Forum

Doesn't Arum maculatum have black spots and not white ones as seen on the pictures?
I grow quite a few Arums but without flowers most of them are lookalikes.

I have not detected any scent, neither good nor bad in this hybrid Arum.

A fantastic Arum hybrid has opened its first flower.
Arum creticum x palaestinum 

I don't think that a heated propagator will help with winter growing seed. Normally heat stops germination. I will ask an experienced friend and will come back to you 

My idea would be to store them in a plastic bag with peat moss or coir (doesn't matter which) and keep it just barely moist and then put it into the vegetable drawer of the fridge. If you live in Texas it would probably sprout before the next BX and thus become much more fragile to handle. Storage in the fridge might delay it. I would check for mildew and rot from time to time.
Hope that helps 

Flowers with apparently no pollen can happen, but I have no explanation for this phenomenon.

The encircled flower is open and the arrow points at the stigma.
Sorry about the low quality of the design.

Quote from: Too Many Plants! on January 11, 2024, 02:42:07 PMUpdate on my L. Lachenalia Viridiflora.

Uli, you had recommended hand pollination. Well these flowers aren't opening up at all to give access to pollen! Any thoughts on this?

I can see the stigma on your pictures. You need a fine thin paintbrush to go inside the flower. The flowers are open, Lachenalia viridiflora flowers do not open wider than that. If you look at the flowers there are some which have a small opening in the middle. If you carefully get the paintbrush inside you will have visible yellow pollen on it. You can then stroke the stigma which is the fine white pin in the middle of the mouth of the flower with the pollen laden paintbrush. You can use the pollen of one flower for several others but it is also good to collect pollen from several flowers. If it works you will find a swelling seed pod after the flowers have faded 

I ike the tradition Carlos is writing about. If it is still done to-day it must be working as it stood the test of time.....

Carlina acaulis is also a native of the German Alps and called Silberdistel which means silver thistle.

When I was still a boy, I had sown seed of this plant in a wooden box outdoors in autumn and it was my very first experience with ,,frost or cold germination" as we call it in German. I remember that I had a lot of seedlings but not knowing better in those days I lost most of them. One thing I can say is that Carlina is an extremely tough plant forming a big and very deep tap root. So for sure it will not be happy in a pot and therefore I recommend planting seedlings into their permanent position as soon as possible. The foliage forms a large flat rosette which will choke everything too close. If you have enough seed it might be a good idea to sow some seed right where you want it to grow and label and protect the site. I still use this technique with plants that hate to be transplanted.

Okay, if you live in Canada, the cultivation of winter growing bulbs will remain a challenge. Much attention to detail is needed. I would assume that the mold is caused by constant high humidity in the propagator. You mention ventilation, though which should reduce humidity. Does water condense on the lid of the propagator? I did not really understand how you ventilate the propagator with outside air.
Apart from perhaps reducing the humidity if it is really too high, my idea is to use a systemic fungicide in intervals according to the manufacturer.
I do not have mould on the pots outdoors but my climate is frost free which allows me to sow winter growing bulbs outdoors. There can be mould on plants inside the greenhouse but that is definitely related to too high humidity in winter. I only very rarely use fungicides.
Another aspect: Janis Ruksans writes in his book ,,buried treasures"that he got much more diseases when he started to sterilize his soil. I never sterilize anything. But probably the commercial compost I use is treated in some way as it is totally weed free. But I also use my own compost from the compost pile (not for seed) for precious plants and never had a problem. Sometimes even small mushrooms appear in a pot without damage to the plant.
I do encourage you to experiment with different approaches.

I received a reply from Viveroscar: he writes that the Paramongaia starts to flower with the beginning of the rainy season which is in December, January or February.

As for the discussion on Paramongaia winter vs summer growing forms, I have just received the attached pictures on Facebook from viveroscar from Peru. If it is a recent picture (I will ask) it shows a summer growing plant as in our northern hemisphere midwinter it is midsummer now in the southern hemisphere. 
Looking at the picture I think that this is not Paramongaia weberbaueri which has more glaucous leaves and a wide open flower. The pictured flowers are more funnel shaped. Does this possibly mean that we are discussing about two different species?

I fully agree with all points Cg100 makes. 22 degrees daytime temperatures may induce premature dormancy. Where are the plants? Greenhouse? Windowsill? A greenhouse may get much warmer than you think. 
I keep all my winter growing bulb seedlings outdoors with temperatures fluctuating which means they can go down to near freezing for a short time in a few early mornings. No losses to low temperatures.
I use a compost of half composted bark, finely ground and half washed sand. 
If you live in a frost free climate I would put the plants outdoors, if you get frost, make sure the maximum temperature does not go over 15 degrees C. Keep constantly moist.
Hope that helps 

Very good idea, indeed. Thank you! I will paint some at first and compare. Not sure if it is right that the water cannot become warmer than the air in the greenhouse. Radiation behind a glass pane is very powerful. Black pots and aluminum become very hot.

I think Lachenalia is self compatible. There is nothing to lose if you try. The thing with hand pollination in Lachenalia is that you have to look for a receptive stigma. The receptive ones stick out of the flower one or two millimeters long. Not every flower will show this. Normally there is a lot of pollen, so that is not the problem.
Personally I do not produce hybrids voluntarily. I know there are some good ones (Aqua Lady is a good viridiflora hybrid which I purchased) but this is another issue. Hybrid seed should be documented as such. I strongly recommend propagating Lachenalia by seed and not by bulbils because of virus contamination.