Helichrysum milfordiae

[Erik F.]

I'm looking for seeds of Helichrysum milfordiae. Would be happy to send any of the seeds I have in exchange. Please send me a private message if you're interested.

Cheers,

Erik

[Lesley Cox]

I hope you have success with finding some seed Erik. I've sown it though a number of times and have come to the conclusion that whatever seems to be seed, is infertile, in cultivation at least. Never anything germinated and I do get germination from our native Helichrysums and their relatives, even Leucogenes leontopodium gives me seedlings from what seems to be just a little bit of fluff. Let us know later how you get on. Good luck!

[Erik F.]

Thanks for the words of encouragement, Lesley, even if the information you shared is discouraging. :-) I guess I'll have to wait until I meet someone who has a plant and who'll let me take a cutting.

[Lesley Cox]

Well it is quite easy to root from cuttings Erik, so maybe that's the way to go if you can find some. It's a plant which in spite of its woolly growth and appearance, really likes a lot of moisture. It comes from the Drakensberg Mts I believe and lives in nature in almost perpetual mist and rain so is well used to dull, damp days. I don't have it at present but when I did, it was happiest near some young rhododendrons and was watered copiously every day, as they were.

[johnw]

Lesley, enlighten me.  Why would a mist dwelling plant have such a wooly coat?  A feature we associate with high altitude, intense sunlight and maybe low humidity.  Predators??? Pondering here.

My mildfordiae lasted a few years, I should have read up on it.

Sunset times start to increase after tomorrow

johnw  - +4c and gloomy.

[Lesley Cox]

Lesley, enlighten me. 

johnw 

Can't do that John, I'm sorry. Yes, it seems odd. When I had a really good plant and propagated it for my last nursery, I loved the way it looked after rain or hosing, the woolly and fluffy coat covered with diamonds of water which didn't soak in but stayed on the coat and glistened until the sun or wind dried them. Perhaps the wool is just to keep the rain out like a good winter overcoat, keeping the branching underneath, dry?

[Tim Ingram]

Philippe showed a wondered flowering specimen of this plant in the Haut-Chitelet garden in his blog a while ago. Generally it is pretty shy flowering in gardens. I first grew it, unsuccessfully, in the sand bed - imagining that it needed warm and dry conditions - and now in sharp gritty sand but at ground level on the shadier side of a raised bed where it does well. Anaphalioides bellidioides and other alpine everlastings probably like that same combination - and those wonderful little celmisias like C. sessiliflora and C. bellidioides (I'm growing these in the same place).

[Lesley Cox]

The cushion celmisias should indeed like similar conditions as you describe Tim. If you have a good big specimen or find one in the wild, you can push your hand into it and find not a mass of brachlets - we'll they're there all right - but  rather a mass (mess) of dying or dead fibre from previous years' growth. This is all brown and usually very wet, even wringing wet and the new growth sends its roots into it and so are never dried out. Even if the surface of the cushion is hot and dry (though bellidioides prefers a cool place), the underneath is always cool and moist. Other cushions such as Phyllacne, Donatia, Hectorella et al, grow the same way with similar results.

[deplantspecialist]

The cushion celmisias should indeed like similar conditions as you describe Tim. If you have a good big specimen or find one in the wild, you can push your hand into it and find not a mass of brachlets - we'll they're there all right - but  rather a mass (mess) of dying or dead fibre from previous years' growth. This is all brown and usually very wet, even wringing wet and the new growth sends its roots into it and so are never dried out. Even if the surface of the cushion is hot and dry (though bellidioides prefers a cool place), the underneath is always cool and moist. Other cushions such as Phyllacne, Donatia, Hectorella et al, grow the same way with similar results.

Lesley,

do you grow any of these cushions from N-Sealand? Do you have cuttings for me?

best regards Peter

[Lesley Cox]

Hello Peter,

I'd love to have cuttings for you but at present I have none at all of the plants I mention, with the single exception of Raoulia loganii. In general I have found them difficult to grow in our coastal, very warm summer climate and with very little snow cover in winter, only lots of rain. I have had some success with Celmisia bellidioides but don't have a plant at the present time.

I wouldn't send material now but when the weather is cooler and perhaps you are entering spring instead of winter, I'd be happy to send cuttings of the Raoulia. It is reasonably easy to propagate this way. Let me know your postal address in a PM and any requirements your country has re packing etc.

Regards and a very Happy New Year.

[Erik F.]

I never thanked you for all the extremely useful information you added to this topic, Lesley – and Tim – not just about Helichrysum milfordiae (of which I now have some seed), but also about Celmisia. Only saw your posts now – life's been too busy to log into the SRGC forum on a regular basis. :-)

[Lesley Cox]

Best wishes for your seed Erik. If it germnates for you I'll be asking what was your source?