Main Menu
Menu

Show posts

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.

Show posts Menu

Messages - Leo

#16
General Discussion / Re: Storing Boophone pollen
March 01, 2023, 10:37:03 AM
Follow-up: The 4 seeds never sprouted. The parents are growing strongly this season. A few people requested pollen; it was already too late.

If I get the opportunity again I will pay closer attention and try to pollinate them earlier.
#17
Is there any way to give more sun? They look etiolated to me. Grown in sun they are very tight and compact.

I agree not to water until they are more dry. I must grow Ferraria in clay or sand, in large pots, to give enough water. My climate is much different from yours, of course, and I am a lot farther south. A "1-gallon" / 3.78 liter black plastic nursery pot with many plants in heavy clay will go dry here in 3-4 days. If I don't water soon enough they yellow and go dormant.

I also agree they need larger containers, or try them in the ground if you can. Mine in containers tolerate our rare summer rain when dormant, but I don't know how they would do in an irrigated bed. The smallest container in which I've flowered them is a 20-ounce / 600ml polyfoam cup, which is deeper than standard pots of similar diameter. Others here in metro Phoenix have flowered them in square plastic 3.25" / 8.25cm pots.
#18
I've tried over the years to grow Gladiolus murielae (syn. Acidanthera bicolor) in my very hot summer climate. Bulbs planted in spring in large pots typically melted when it got really hot, even with pots shaded from the sun. There are too many hungry critters here to plant in the ground.

Last spring I backslid again and ordered some. I was even more lax than usual, and didn't get them into a 5-gallon / 20 liter pot until early September, which still would be considered pretty hot by most of you. They did sprout, and continued to grow through the winter. They were undamaged by some nights we had that were a few degrees below freezing. Now they are flowering; plants and flowers have been unharmed by frost that severely damaged Crinum leaves.

In a cursory search I couldn't find much information about their actual habitat, just the countries in which they grow. Are these really summer growers? Are they a high-elevation species? February in Phoenix is a strange time for a summer-fall flowering species to be flowering. Maybe day length isn't a trigger for flowering? Of course, garden cultivars are many generations removed from the wild, and might have different schedules than wild plants.

Gladiolus_murielae_Leo_Martin_20230301.jpg


As an aside I might have some Moraea speciosa seed for the BX soon. Keeping my fingers crossed.
#19
They are a very niche business, offering things available nowhere else; as a result there aren't that many potential customers. Their inventory is huge and their staff is tiny. I would guess much of their inventory is never sold. How much seed can you sell of 20 different tree-like Rhus species? (It is now Searsia for some reason.)  Prepackaging even very small amounts of seed is huge work, as you know. Just imagine prepackaging thousands of species with a staff numbering less than 10, then later discarding the seed when they're too old.
#20
General Discussion / Re: Plants in the News
August 27, 2022, 07:03:00 PM
Quote from: janemcgary on August 23, 2022, 05:24:16 PMThe late "kleptocratic ruler of Angola from 1979 to 2017, Jose Eduardo dos Santos, is survived by a daughter whose name is Welwitschia dos Santos. Was that intended to give her a lifespan of a thousand years?
Maybe two breasts that never stopped growing.
#21
General Discussion / Re: Caladiums
August 27, 2022, 04:06:44 PM
Here's a plug for Caladium World, the lowest-cost source of the most healthy Caladium tubers J've bought. They're grown in south Florida. Get on their mailing list and they will notify you when ordering begins. Over the last 20 years or so I've usually bought a bulk box of mixed colors and mixed sized tubers. They sell individual varieties. They usually offer elephant's ears as well (Alocasia.) They ship at the appropriate time for your zone. There is a lot of useful information on their Web site.

Most Caladiums tolerate full Arizona sun and heat outdoors if watered well. They're not just shade plants. Their only drawback is they don't tolerate even slightly low temperatures, not even when dormant.
#22
General Discussion / Re: Storing Boophone pollen
August 27, 2022, 03:59:34 PM
Thank you. I wound up with only four seeds total, which I am now attempting to sprout.
#23
General Discussion / Re: Are tulips dangerous?
August 27, 2022, 03:55:43 PM
Tulips are dangerous in that people might spend a lot of money trying to find species that might survive in their climate, and wind up being completely unsuccessful.
#24
General Discussion / Re: Plants in the News
August 27, 2022, 03:53:52 PM
Quote from: David Pilling on August 13, 2022, 03:43:41 AMBear cub high on hallucinogenic 'mad honey' rescued by park rangers

Rhododendron ponticum. http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/371384
It happens also with the related Kalmia spp.
#25
General Discussion / Lilium formosanum advice
August 27, 2022, 03:40:08 PM
I bought a Lilium formosanum seedling from Annie's Annuals this spring. I kept it inside my house in a window. It went on to produce one flower in the shipping pot, which is 4" square and low. That is the first time in 38 years at this house a member of genus Lilium has flowered, inside or out.

After flowering the top gradually died down. Today I unpotted it and found a small lily bulb about the size of a Queen Anne cherry.

I have repotted it to a tall, narrow 2-gallon nursery container. I don't know the natural history of these. It is still good and hot here. Should I expect it to grow again this season, or is it likely to remain dormant until Spring? I know I should never let Lilium bulbs in a pot dry completely.
#26
General Discussion / Re: Storing Boophone pollen
July 17, 2022, 01:08:39 PM
Thank you for the information and the offer. I'm going to pollinate the second one with the pollen from the first.
#27
General Discussion / Storing Boophone pollen
July 16, 2022, 11:33:15 AM
I have flowering for the first time two bulbs of Boophone haemanthoides ssp. ernesti-ruschii from Silverhill seed I received Spring 2000. I'll post photos later.

For now, I'm asking about storing pollen. One has had open flowers for some days, and the other is still in bud. I want to store pollen in case they don't overlap. Does the method on Jim Shield's Web page work as well for Boophone as for other amaryllids? I have a -10 F freezer.

A search of the List archives confirms others think this plant not self-fertile. Does anybody have other knowledge? I would rather not waste pollen if so.

These three survivors share a pot. It goes outside when it begins growing in late Summer/early Fall. I bring it into the house when the leaves die back in Spring or early Summer. I keep it in a room with the air conditioning vent shut. The room is warm but never over 95 F. I went in there for something else and noticed a strong sweet scent. I didn't expect any to flower yet because I thought the pot too small. I've been meaning to separate to very large pots for some years but haven't gotten a round tuit.
#28
Thank you both. I filed the pointed end away from the hilum and put them into water. They are swelling.
#29
General Discussion / Re: Mealy bugs and scale
July 07, 2022, 12:59:09 PM
Your tree is too big, but I have many times eradicated mealybug infestations on smaller plants by submerging them in slightly soapy water for 8-12 hours. This drowns the eggs, too. I have used this on cacti, other succulents, leafy plants and various epiphytic orchids. I would not use it on a severely infested plant because there would be so many holes for soapy water to get into the plant tissues.
#30
When the radicle gets quite long and fragile I put a layer of sand deeper than the radicle length over the substrate in a container, and stand it in water the depth of the new surface. It is very easy to put the long radicle into the quicksand without damaging it. Then I drain the surrounding container, and the sand settles in around the radicle.