Assistance appreciated please.

[Lesley Cox]

T. polyphyllum has the same propensity for loving or loathing as does T. speciosum. I have tried several times to establish the former and failed miserably each time. The one small plant which comes up each year has never produced a flower. Yet I know it in at least two other gardens where it romps about underground and comes up all over the place, flowering madly. In one of these, planted in a regular rock-garden, it has gone under a concrete driveway to reappear and bloom on the other side!

I at last have a small plant from Susan M's seed, of T. speciosum and it is still in its seed pot but a couple of stems have come out the bottom of the pot and crept under the other pots in the tray and is now lapping over the side but will it transplant to the garden?

T. incisum is better for me than polyphyllum. There's not a lot of it but at least it flowers, a sort of milky brick colour with finely cut, almost blue foliage.

I put an ID query back in the General Forum part, called "One for ID please." Paul's answer is most likely right but maybe someone would confirm?

[Maggi Young]

Lesley: Re planting out your Trop. speciosum  - dig a good sized hole, fill with nice open mix with leaf mould and plant the roots , quite deeply ( 8inches/20cms down).... ABOUT two feet ( 60cms) or so AWAY from what ever it is you'd like them to climb up.  That gets tehem into more open air, gives a better chance for them to get more water away from the shadow/rootball of their potential climbing supoort.  Water in well... wait. Perhaps wait a bit longer.  If you are really lucky they will  A) start shooting well and soon reach your intended plant support and head up. If you are unlucky they will B) seem to disappear then reappear some way away and head up something entirely unsuitable. If either A or B happens then probaly  in a couple of years you will C) wish you'd never bothered.

It is a lovely thing in flower and the fruits are such a weird blue/purple that I well understand why folks covet it.

[Paul T]

Neither speciosum or polyphyllum are species I've tried.  Discovered yesterday that my Trop. brachyceras has gone to the great garden in the sky during our wet weather of the last year.  It didn't come up last year, but that doesn't seem to mean much usually as it (a seed grown tuber) often skipped a year..... however nothing remained in the pot when I repotted yesterday.    Trop. tricolour is sending up shoot madly at present though, which promises good displays for this season.

Here's a link to Lesley's ID query up in the General Forum.

[Lesley Cox]

Thanks Maggi, I'll do all of that. Sounds like quite a lot of my gardening really. Mike Ireland sent me seeds a couple of years ago of T. azureum There were enough for two pots. After a couple of months 8 germinated and make little cm wide tubers which have sat on top of the pots ever since, but with no top growth. Now, in the middle of a beautiful autumn, I saw yesterday, they have little tufts of foliage at their tops. Don't know whether to put some compost on the tubers or leave them be. Some grit maybe?

[fermi de Sousa]

Lesley: Re planting out your Trop. speciosum  - dig a good sized hole, fill with nice open mix with leaf mould and plant the roots , quite deeply ( 8inches/20cms down) [and cover with a cubic metre of concrete] ABOUT two feet ( 60cms) or so AWAY from what ever it is you'd like them to climb up.  That gets them into more open air, gives a better chance for them to get more water away from the shadow/rootball of their potential climbing supoort.  Water in well... wait. Perhaps wait a bit longer.  If you are really lucky they will  A) start shooting well and soon reach your intended plant support and head up. If you are unlucky they will B) seem to disappear then reappear some way away and head up something entirely unsuitable. If either A or B happens then probaly  in a couple of years you will C) wish you'd never bothered.

Sorry, Maggi, I realised part of your instructions were obscured so I've highlighlighted them in purple for Lesley
cheers
fermi

[Paul T]

So Fermi, do you grow speciosum?

[Maggi Young]

Lesley: Re planting out your Trop. speciosum  - dig a good sized hole, fill with nice open mix with leaf mould and plant the roots , quite deeply ( 8inches/20cms down) [and cover with a cubic metre of concrete] ABOUT two feet ( 60cms) or so AWAY from what ever it is you'd like them to climb up.  That gets them into more open air, gives a better chance for them to get more water away from the shadow/rootball of their potential climbing supoort.  Water in well... wait. Perhaps wait a bit longer.  If you are really lucky they will  A) start shooting well and soon reach your intended plant support and head up. If you are unlucky they will B) seem to disappear then reappear some way away and head up something entirely unsuitable. If either A or B happens then probaly  in a couple of years you will C) wish you'd never bothered.

Sorry, Maggi, I realised part of your instructions were obscured so I've highlighlighted them in purple for Lesley
cheers
fermi

Oooh, errrr......

[Maggi Young]

Thanks Maggi, I'll do all of that. Sounds like quite a lot of my gardening really. Mike Ireland sent me seeds a couple of years ago of T. azureum There were enough for two pots. After a couple of months 8 germinated and make little cm wide tubers which have sat on top of the pots ever since, but with no top growth. Now, in the middle of a beautiful autumn, I saw yesterday, they have little tufts of foliage at their tops. Don't know whether to put some compost on the tubers or leave them be. Some grit maybe?

Cover them up gently with some sand, Lesley.

[Lesley Cox]

Thanks, I'll do that too, just leaving the tiny tufts of greenery (bluery) above the surface.

[fermi de Sousa]

So Fermi, do you grow speciosum?

No, Paul,
cheers
fermi

[Paul T]

Fermi,

I thought your cubic metre of concrete comment may have been from personal experience!!