Pleione 2014

[Michal Mikita]

This one is new in my collection : Pleione 'Iris Butterfield' - a cross between forrestii and x confusa... it could hardly be anything else but yellow could it ??

Luc, it's wonderful!

[Michal Mikita]

Tongariro & Stromboli 'Fireball'

[Bart]

Nice flowers everyone!
The last week of sunshine has made all pleiones in the conservatory explode. Haven't taken the time to make decent pictures, but here's a sample:
1) Kituro 'Sulphur', new from I. Butterfield;
2) San Salvador, didn't flower last year but grew really well, and just opened yesterday;
3) Piton 'Ballerina'







Long gone, but nice nevertheless 2 different P. Sirena's:

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Great selection Bart !! 

Here's the eiger ABC as by Jan Berg, the dutch hybridiser (sadly passed away), using Pleione formosana alba in the cross.

1) Eiger 'To Ah'
2) Eiger 'To Be'
3) Eiger 'To See'

(he didn't lack humour naming his clones  )

[Graham Catlow]

It's good to see the season is building. Some nice early starters.

My first of the season is this no-name but I think is P. bulbocodioides can someone confirm for me please or offer an alternative name.

[Transvaal]

hi
My first ever pleione, bought from a garden centre as formosana but it looks a little darker than expected, is this normal for a formosana?

[karel_t]

Hi Graham,
I've never seen so big and purple bulbs of P. bulbocodioides. I think they should be P. formosana or some hybrid.

Transvaal - your plant looks more like P. bulbocodioides. P. formosana never has the central lamellae on a lip. Check lips on this page of Torelli's book.
K.

[Transvaal]

Karel

Thanks for the swift response and extract from Torelli's book, I thought it had more of  the look of a bulbocodioides but wasn't sure of the techinicalities.

Phil

[Graham Catlow]

Hi Graham,
I've never seen so big and purple bulbs of P. bulbocodioides. I think they should be P. formosana or some hybrid.

Transvaal - your plant looks more like P. bulbocodioides. P. formosana never has the central lamellae on a lip. Check lips on this page of Torelli's book.
K.

Hi Karel,
I can see why you think this may not be bulbocodoiodes.
I see you use Torelli for identification purposes and on that page is P. hui. I didn't want to suggest this may be hui because no one else seems to agree that it really exists. However, in my naive early Pleione collecting days I saw P. hui bulbils on e-bay and purchased them and finally they have flowered. What does anyone think of this as an identification?

Graham

[Bart]

Hi Graham,
I bought Pleione hui from Albiflora, knowing about the lack of recognition of its name, but I was intrigued to see how it was different from P. formosana so I bought it anyway. It is not flowering yet , but I have one picture from last year. What I liked about it was its size, more or less a 'Captain Hook' size flower and I like it. Just to sit on the fence I labelled it P. formosana 'Hui'. My other formosana's are 1, 2 and 3, so hui is quite jolly!
Could your plant not be a Hekla?

[karel_t]

Hi Graham,
I support Cribb's theory, that P. hui is synonym for P. formosana, however, if we concede existence of P. hui, so by Torelli's taxonomy it has two lamellae on the lip and P. formosana has got four. We can see four lamellae on your plant.
K.

[karel_t]

Could your plant not be a Hekla?

Yes Bart, it could be bull's-eye 

[Graham Catlow]

Thank you Karel and Bart,
I have just had a PM from someone suggesting the same - so Hekla it is!

Graham

[Alex]

Things are beginning here....a couple of forrestii flowers and a first time flowering of Angwantibo today. I think the first forrestii is a rather good clone, and has a much bigger lip than most.

Alex

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Things are beginning here....a couple of forrestii flowers and a first time flowering of Angwantibo today. I think the first forrestii is a rather good clone, and has a much bigger lip than most.

Alex

I agree, Alex - a very nice form of forrestii !!
Angwantibo isn't bad either... 

New in my collection is Pl. Red Colobus - quite happy with it !!