Pleione 2016

[Sempervivum]

Indian Summer with the Pleiones. The first one among my autumn flowering ones is P. Liz Shan 'Pretty Girl'. Eight flowers out of two bulbs having originated from one bulb I received by Mr. Schreiner, Germany.

[Maggi Young]

Hello Uli!  Eight flowers from two bulbs is very good, eh?

[Mark Griffiths]

does praecox (and the hybrids) need a higher winter temperature, if so, what temperature?

[sjusovare]

It really depends on the clone.
Most seem to be quite happy being treated like regular pleiones, however, I've had a clone a decade ago which was almost constantely in growth and seemed to thrive treated as a tropical epiphyte (like my maculata)

[Mark Griffiths]

thanks Julien! I may give it a try

[john hodgson]

Tiny bulbils.
Some varieties yield more than others from the leaf scar at the top of the pseudo bulb, but I've never seen so many on one bulb as on this pleione chunii:

Now asking for advice...
This year I attempted to grow-on some new-to-me tiny bulbils of Iris Butterfield 'Yaffles'. I planted them into fine bark and a little moss and by April they were outside on a damp north facing bench. They didn't die but they have only made the same number of identically tiny bulbils. I.e. - no further forward!  I applied occasional very weak tomato feed.  I'd be interested in what anyone might advise if they have success with the more tricky bulbils to grow on.

[erf]

does praecox (and the hybrids) need a higher winter temperature, if so, what temperature?

I grow my praecox together with maculata and saxicola and hybrids of these. During winter they never go below 13-15 C. They grow very well and multiply nicely.

During summer I keep them in unheated green house and the rest of my springflowering outside in the garten on a frame system.
Works for me.
Regards Erling

[Paul Cumbleton]

Two of the loveliest forms of Pleione praecox flowering today, the alba and the reichenbachiana. Their scent is an added bonus.

[GordonT]

Paul, that alba clone is exquisite! Now you've given me a difficult task- finding one in Canada!

[Bart]

Wow Paul, the alba is unreal! What a stunning layout of the flowers. Well done!

[sjusovare]

I love the white, I might get one this year.

something totally unrelated, has someone tried to use rockwool as a pot (I mean, putting bark in a hole inside a block of rockwool) in order to mount their pleiones?

[erf]

Very beautiful praecox clones, especially the alba. I bought one two years ago, but I have never flowered it. It has been grown backwards and become smaller every year. I have grown it together with my other praecox clones and they have developed very nicely.
So Paul, what's the trick with the alba-clone
Regards Erling

[Paul Cumbleton]

Hi Erling,
I wish I had a definite answer to your question! I have had this plant for 10 years now and after all that time it has slowly increased to.....2 bulbs! While it has flowered every year for me, for many of the 10 years mine too was growing poorly and getting smaller. Ian Butterfield has the same clone and seems to do a lot better with it. He has always kept his warmer than mine were. After moving house last year, I kept the alba in a much warmer position indoors for the winter along with my maculatas and as you can see from my photo it has grown much better this year (as have my maculatas). So perhaps temperature is the key? - hard to say after just one year but I shall definitely keep it warmer again this winter and see what happens next year. The clone originates from Thailand, so perhaps this too would suggest more warmth. The Chinese praecox seem fine at "normal" pleione temperatures, but these more southerly ones perhaps need a different regime.

Your plants are almost certainly offspring from mine. A few years ago I self-pollinated the alba (as I do not have a different clone to cross pollinate with) and supplied seed to Camiel de Jong (Anthura Nursery who do all the Cypripediums). He successfully grew bulbs from this and supplied stock to several nurseries in Europe. I guess pretty much all the praecox alba that have been available in the past two or three years originated in this way (as well as the reichenbachiana types which I also gave him seed from, though many others of this type have been entering the trade from Thailand). So as I said, yours are almost certainly the same as mine and so if you treat them as suggested (more warmth), hopefully they may improve. It is possible too that being offspring from a selfing that they could be weaker plants generally. The selfings however have also grown a lot better for me this year.

Having said it seems to want more heat, it is worth noting that I do keep it out in the greenhouse in the summer and I leave it there usually until the flowers start opening. This is because I find that if kept cooler while the buds develop, the flowers stay the wonderful pristine white as in my first picture. Kept warmer at this time and you can get some pink speckling showing - as in the picture below

I hope that we all manage to grow this alba better in future - it is one of the most beautiful of all the Pleione in my opinion and it would be such a shame to lose it from cultivation.

Does anyone else have one and how does your grow?

[Steve Garvie]

I also grow Pleione praecox alba. My original pseudobulb came from Camiel de Jong via Christian Schreiner.
I grow it on a west-facing bathroom window (min temp is rarely below 10C) in a very mossy mix. I now have two good-sized pseudobulbs which have two growths each.





I struggle to accept that praecox alba and praecox var. reichenbachiana are simply varieties of praecox. Apart from differences in flower appearance the pseudobulbs look very different. Praecox alba has rounded symmetrical pale green pseudobulbs of moderate size whilst Var. reichenbachiana produces large (huge) dark warty purplish asymmetric pseudobulbs.

I have var. reichenbachiana from two different sources. The most vigorous again originates from Camiel de Jong whilst the other is apparently derived from a source originally imported labelled as Pln. vietnamensis (I have no detailed knowledge of its provenance). The first image below is of the "vietnamensis" clone whilst the remainder are of the other more vigorous clone which has produced huge pseudobulbs -one has six flowers and 3 new growth points. Please ignore the fuzzy coat on the pseudobulb image which is derived from fluffy bathroom towels -have you ever tried to use a Dyson on a pleione? 







.....and for completeness here is the pseudobulb of the "vietnamensis":

[LarsB]

I grow my praecox sligtly colder - down to 10 degres Celsius and that seems to suit them fine. I don't have alba or reichenbachiana yet - ( Erling has not yet made them multiply  ), but I have a couple of clones and even the Thai one, which one should assume would like more heat, do well with the low temparatures.  I think i will try with one of them along with the maculata in hte windowsill and see what happens.