South African bulbose plants 2009

[angie]

Dave, looking forward to seeing it growing up.
Angie

[Darren]

Dave - well done with the marlothii , this is really interesting as I've usually found that gladdys that don't germinate in year one never do so for me. Perhaps I need to look again at how I treat them.

James - I'll be back in touch in the summer regarding swaps!  My tuberous Pelargoniums are now limited to oblongatum, plus volunteer seedlings of barklyi and alchemilloides (the parent plants have long since gone). I used to grow several forms of incrassatum (one of my favourites in the wild) but I found it flowred very early and so the stems got really leggy in the poor light. One day I hope to find a more compact or later flowering form. 

[pel1]

Thanks for the offer Darren, I will kook forward to swapping with you!

My own experience with p. incrassatum was the same, the long floppy flower stem really detracts from the beutiful flower.

My gladiolus seeds all germinated within one month of sowing, are you giving yours too much heat? I sow mine in a cool greenhouse in late autumn/early winter-I have read that they like a difference between day and night temperetures, so they are not in a heated propagator, just hung in clear bags from the greenhouse roof and left to get on with it!

James.

[Darren]

Hi James - I give my Gladdy seeds the same treatment as you. I should say that the problems have always been with imported seed from south african suppliers so I do wonder about viability? Especially as most does germinate OK (almost all of my gladiolus are from SA sourced seed) but just odd ones don't. Drying the pots off and trying again next year doesn't seem to work like it does for other genera and when I investigate the seed has started to decay.  My own seed germinates fine usually (G maculatus is the exception as I mentioned above).

[daveyp1970]

Darren this is a  pot that never got put in the compost heap i dont know why,my Glads normally germinate the first year as well,this is seed that i bought of ebay and of the 20 seeds i bought there are only two that have germinated,but hopefully thats all i will need,i haven't tried sowing them in bags will give that a go this autumn.None of my Lapeirousia have shown there faces this year i have had a look in the pots and they are there perfect but just haven't done a thing this season does anybody have any ideas?But when i say Lapeirousia i have only two species  corymbosa and oreogena so any advice is welcome.

[Darren]

Dave - don't give up on the Lapeirousia. I sowed jacquinii and oreogena in september 2008 and only one of each germinated. I left the pots undisturbed, dried them off last summer, kept them warm under glass, then watered again in september. All the remaining seed germinated in year two.

Next I will face the biggest problem i have with these - persuading the young dormant corms to reshoot next autumn! They are prone to deep dormancy and I've intact corms nearly ten years old that have never reshooted. I now have a clue from the Goldblatt & Manning encyclopedia which suggests never lifting the corms when dormant. So the plan is to pot-on the whole lot into a bigger pot without disturbance. I'll let you know if it works! 

Given that in the wild the corms can grow at shallow depth (in jacquinii certainly) and presumably get very hot in summer I also wonder if keeping the dormant corms at 30C for a few weeks, then soaking them, might break dormancy as recently discussed for my Walleria gracilis under the 'sleeping bulbs' topic.

[Hristo]

Moved to 2010, Happy New Year!!!

[pel1]

I am posting a photo of my seed raising method under South African bulbose plants 2010-see you there!
-James