Shortia

[WimB]

I have ordered some shortia seed from the Göteborg botanical garden but I have never tried sowing them before.
Is there anybody who could give me some advice about the sowing conditions (ground, temperature,...)

Thanks

Wim

[Kenneth K]

Use a peatbased compost. I use a mix of 2/3 fine grounded, moist peat and 1/3 of sand. Spread the seeds on the surface and sprikle with water to create good contact between the seeds and the sowing medium. Do not cover. Make sure you keep a high humidity. One way to do that is to cover the pot with a plastic film. Place the pot in light and a temperature of about 20 C. Protect from direct sun. The seeds will germinate in 2-3 weeks.

Place the grown-up plants in peat in shadow. Here a picture from Gothenburg Botanical Garden to show how they look there and a close-up from my own garden.

[ChrisB]

Very nice.  I think I may try to get some seed.  Not grown these before.

[WimB]

Thanks for the info, Kenneth. I'll certainly try it like that.
Somebody has e-mailed me that I should try sowing it on peat moss, so I'll try that too and see which technique works best.

[Maggi Young]

Hi, Wim,
 we have grown Shortias and all the tiny ericaceous seeds on Sphagnum moss and we wrote about that in  Journal Number 90. starting on page 39. Main problem is keeping the birds off!
We were inspired by the writings of Alec Duguid, in the Journal Number 72, page 259.
There is also an article, "Growth Trials on Sphagnum Composts by Dr. Henry Tod, from Journal 42, page 22.

I can send you an old paper copy of our article if you like and have no access to the Journal archive CD.

Indeed, I discoverI can send you all by email if you like! M

[WimB]

Hello Maggi,

I would like it very much if you could e-mail me a copy of these articles. My e-mail adress is in my profile.
I can imagine the birds like this indeed. I've been keeping carnivorous plants in peat moss outdoors for a couple of years now and the blackbirds tend to take the moss for nesting or for looking for little grubs and worms beneath it.

Thanks in advance

Wim

[Maggi Young]

My pleasure, Wim, I am going to send it now!

[ichristie]

Hi, I am also growing Shortias, Shizacodon and Berneuxia from seed, we were lucky to get good seed set on our own plants so the seed was sown when ripe, the pods open and you can see the seeds clearly. I have also been lucky to get some of the large peat blocks which came from Sweden so I cut a slice from a block placed in a tray, the seed was sown on top then placed outside in a shaded area I had germination within a month so all the small seadlings are now under cover for the winter, hope they make it looking O/K at the moment,   I send a picture of plants in the peat walls  out in the garden. cheers Ian the Christie kind.

[Kenneth K]

Peat blocks are perfect for Shortia! As a matter of fact they sow themselves sponaneously there. In the Botanical Garden of Gothenburg selfsown Shortia grows on great walls of peat in hundreds. 

[johnw]

There is an issue of the NARGS Journal that is well worth having a look at (someone must have an index).  I think it is the best Journal they ever produced.  There is an article on the Diapensia Family by guru Steve Doonan. He recommends surface sowing Shortia seed on 50:50 coarse moistened peat and sharp granite grit.  Place the pot in a plastic bag under fluorescent lights and wait.

A friend visited Taiwan in 2006 and 2007. He found S.exappendiculata on both occassions. You Diapensaceous types might be interested in a few pictures. If the last one is too small I can re-post separately at a larger size.



johnw

[gote]

Ian,
I assume a newly cut surface of a Swedish peat block is very devoid of "nutrition" I mean NPK and that stuff. Have you any comment on that. Do they survive on the little that is in the peat naturally or do you fertilize or do you move them very quickly? I have always believed that those that live on the peat walls in Göteborg were colonizing them when the blocks have been "enriched" by mosses, lichen and that ilk.
Göte

[johnw]

Göte

I followed Steve's instructions, no fertilizer except for a tiny pinch of superphosphate mixed in with the peat. One year they grow very slowly and take 2+ years to get to .5-1cm across.  Then, using the same method they are that big in less than a year. The tricky part is getting them from under plastic cover to full air - I punch a hole in the bag, 1 week later another small hole, the whole process takes me several months.  Collapse can be sudden even with precautions - much the same as fully hardening off Jankeas which I have never managed to do. Only at the 1cm stage do I move them up into smaller pots with the same mix + some wood from a well rotten pine tree stump. I re-cover for a week or so and then gradually tilt the plastic dome OR move to a shady site during a foggy week. I feed them 1/4 strength or less only maybe once a month. Sometimes I get brave and put them in the peat bed straight away but they must be shaded  the first year.

The autumn colour is glorious.

I will be interested to hear what Ian does.

I'm just about to prick out some Berneuxias, they seem less temperamental  - famous last words.

johnw - spitting snow after a heavy rainstorm. 0c. Hideous weather.

[Diane Whitehead]

There is an issue of the NARGS Journal that is well worth having a look at (someone must have an index).  I think it is the best Journal they ever produced.  There is an article on the Diapensia Family by guru Steve Doonan.
johnw

The index is only from volumes 1 to 50, so I started looking in all the Bulletins
from 51 on.  Fortunately, the article is in 51:2, the one with Gentiana sino-ornata
on the cover.

It used to be wonderful to see Steve's huge pots of Schizocodon and Shortia on
display at every Winter Study Weekend, with small plants for sale.

However, something happened and they all died.  He explained why at a talk,
but I can't remember.  I will look through my notebooks to find out why.

[Diane Whitehead]

OK.  I found my notes.

Vine weevils girdled the stems and then a fungus took over and killed the plants.

Steve said cuttings are easy and flower the second year.

He's had seedlings flower in two years, but it usually takes three to five years.
Seedlings remain in suspended animation for a long time (just like rhododendron
seedlings) so you can prick out some and still have the original seedpot just
in case something happens to the transplanted ones.

and, from the Spring '93 issue of the American Rock Garden Society Bulletin:

Shortia ripens shortly after flowering and must be planted immediately.
Schizocodon capsules will not ripen until midautumn, and the seed remains
viable for several years.

[johnw]

It used to be wonderful to see Steve's huge pots of Schizocodon and Shortia on
display at every Winter Study Weekend, with small plants for sale.

Ah, those were the days! The first time I went out west I was at the Winter Study Weekend in Victoria.  Steve & Phil had a booth with the most incredible pans of Shortia including an unforgettable one of his hybrid 'Leona'. It was the first time I saw Shortias and Schizocodons for sale! I have slides of that sale table.

We invited both of them here to gives talks on Alpines and Growing in Pots and Phil gave a talk on ceramics. We still lust for more of Phil's amazing pots.

Some of the best talks we've ever had.

I had forgotten about the weevil problem but the fungus was even more disturbing at the time and we were worried that Leona would be lost. Wasn't the disease precipitated by the weakened condition of the weevil-ravaged plants?

Here's a shot from Steve's Grand Ridge Nursery from several years ago.


johnw