Pleione 2015

[Nova]

It's fantastic Paul, two thumbs up!!!

[Michal Mikita]

Paul, it's gorgeous site (y) (y)

[Alex]

Paul, it looks brilliant. A definitive Pleione resource.

Alex

[Steve Garvie]

Congratulations Paul!

What a visually stunning and highly informative site.

[angie]

Really lovely site  

Angie 

[Maren]

I agree with all the above, beautiful and useful. I have been re-reading the old Pleione Reviews, amazing how much has changed and also how much still very much applies today.

[gregork]

I agree with everyone, great site indeed!

Today when i got home i noticed a leaf drop on my P. Confirmation. It looks like it has break in half because it was too week to stand up straight or something. Does this happen often or is there something wrong? Like humidity or temperature. I noticed the same thing happened with my P maculata 1 week ago. I have them in my house the temperature between 18-23°C humidity arround 45%.

Thank you in advance for your answers!

Regards
Gregor

[Nova]

Gregor, sounds like they are growing too fast due to high temperature. My autumn flowering Pleiones are in an unheated room and the leaves are just starting to grow. I keep maculata in my kitchen windowsill with 20°C max in daytime.

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Many congratulations with the awesome work on the renewed website Paul !
It's magnificent and so  informative !

[gregork]

Yes Khadija,... i think this is the problem. I have to place them somewhere else. Does anyone know how will this affect on future growth?

Regards
Gregor

[Michal Mikita]

1) Pln. Askia 'Cinnabar'
2) Pln. Britannia 'Doreen'
3) Pln. Glacier Peak

[Alex]

That's a lovely Glacier Peak. Love the yellow lip and contrast with the petals.

Alex

[Michal Mikita]

That's a lovely Glacier Peak. Love the yellow lip and contrast with the petals.

Alex

Alex, thank you. I love it too. It's from Ian Butterfield and it's on my own  TOP-Pleione list 

[TC]

  Paul,  Wonderful website, I drooled over it for ages !  It appears that to grow seed successfully you need a degree in Bio-chemistry.
I decided to give it a go in a very simplistic manner.  In the wild, Pleiones set seed, disperse it and new plants grow without clinical conditions.
So, I collected some seedpods when I was cleaning out the pots, replanted the bulbs and scattered a mixture of fine composted bark and peat -sterilised- round the bulbs.
Then I opened a pod and let the seed fall on this mixture.  A light mist spray and then some more coarse bark on top.  Of course, I have no idea if this will be successful but it costs nothing to try
I have tried this for a couple of years and have had what appears to be a limited success.  In late summer I have seen a few tiny little pleione leaves appear near the outside of the pots. I only get about 5 of them to a pot and sometimes nothing.  I note where they are and collect them when I do my repotting in late January.   They look like lentils and are about 3/4 mm long.  I then plant all the ones I find in a nursery pot to grow them on.  They are kept in an unheated greenhouse and move out in April to a shaded bench where they stay until late autumn.
My knowledge of pleione cultivation is rudimentary and I work on the principle that they know how to grow and reproduce better than me.
The one niggle I have is are these just offsets which have moved from a bulb and come into growth ?  They appear about 70mm from the nearest bulb and I cannot see any connection between them.

[Paul Cumbleton]

Thanks everyone for your appreciation of the new website.
Tom, your approach to sowing Pleione seeds could work to some extent - it all depends on whether there happens to be the right fungi present (and pathogenic fungi absent). Others have had some success sowing on bark or even cardboard without sterile conditions, but all these methods are rather unreliable and unpredictable compared to laboratory sowing. If they are not actual seedlings, the alternatives could be that they are bulbils that have dropped in either from the adult bulbs already in the pot or from other bulbs in adjacent pots. You will know eventually because when they flower they will all be identical to the parent.

Paul