Pleione 2017

[john hodgson]

Not Pln. praecox var. reichenbachiana (obviously) but an 'ordinary'  praecox of mine from this year which I now see has 2 rows of 'hairs' each side of the mid-line.. don't know why you wouldn't call this 5 rows rather than 4 though! But serves to differentiate Pln. praecox  from Pln. vietmanensis.

[sjusovare]

We might have different way to count, but I count 3 on the vietnamensis picture and 5 on the praecox (the middle row is still a row of hairs...)

[john hodgson]

I agree with you Julien! The original description specifies 2 rows of hairs... but I don't see how it's possible to have an even number at all when the mid-line has hairs. Or am I 'just splitting hairs'? 
(A British idiom, Julien)

[karel_t]

Hi John,
you aren't splitting hairs  , however as I already wrote the lip of P. vietnamensis can have 2 or 3 rows of haired lamellae. Here is my plant and you can see there are just 2 rows. On Steve's picture are 3 rows (or 2 and 1/2  ). The main point is, that P. praecox has 5 rows. Not 2, not 3, not 2,5.
And one thing more, because I'm not sure about origin of my plant I labelled it as P. aff. vietnamensis.

[john hodgson]

Karel... Hooray! 2 rows ... at last! Just like in the original drawing! And your term 'aff.' ='affinis' ... Yes, I just looked it up to understand. Another slice of taxonomic learning for me. 

Do you do name it 'aff.' because you feel that to be confident in naming it as the true species, it MUST be traceable to that province in Vietnam where the Ngoc Linh Mountains are, where it was originally described?
(Always assuming that the species grows in this area only, and nowhere else, I suppose???)

Making a serious point. As I try to understand more, I wonder (as others have before) how wide the morphological variation can be in a plant and it still be given the species name. (How long is a piece of string I suppose).

Thanks for the photo Karel - a highly useful reference. I'll be interested to hear from Steve G. about his Pln. praecox var. reichenbachiana, (a case for Sherlock Holmes) which presumably will have 5 rows of hairs as you so clearly re-iterate!     John
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichenbach_Falls

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Pleione cuxius is one of my earliest to flower this Spring.

[Maggi Young]

Not one I know, Luc - very pretty, clean flowers.

[Luc Gilgemyn]

He's fairly "new" Maggi and he's new to my collection.  It's a cross between P. albiflora and P. forrestii two beauties in their own right. 

[john hodgson]

Hello Luc - you may already know this - Pln. Cuxius is a 'remake' (by Paul Cumbleton reg. 2010) of the natural hybrid Pln. x confusa.

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Thanks John !

Some more flowering now :

Good old Pleione Zeus Weinstein, but this is the recross by Jan Moors.

Pleione eiger 'To Ah'

Pleione Glacier Peak - Clone 1

Pleione Glacier Peak - Clone 2

Pleione Lhasa 'Blushes'

[john hodgson]

I really like your Eiger 'To ah' Luc - I dont have that clone. The name 'To ah' is odd. Do you know its origin? I know there's a 'To be' as well - also odd to my ears!

Here's one new to me this year. It's Lucey, but its a re-cross. It has a nice tall stem. I can see both humilis and yunnanensis in it. The bud was slightly creased so the petals have a bit of a kink in them, sadly. Still, I like it!

[Luc Gilgemyn]

I really like your Eiger 'To ah' Luc - I dont have that clone. The name 'To ah' is odd. Do you know its origin? I know there's a 'To be' as well - also odd to my ears!

Yes John, there is a story about these Eigers.
They are all crosses from the late Jan Berg from Holland who used Formosana alba to make the recross which resulted in more white based Eigers.
He named three : To Ah - To Be and To See  - a little joke of his, in fact the explanation is they were clones A - B and C 

He is also responsible for the hybrids Riah Shan - Liz Shan - Jan Shan... etc...
Shan being Chinese for mountain, mountain = Berg in Dutch....
His wife's name was Ria Berg , hence Riah Shan (adding the H at the end of Riah to give it a more exotic touch)...

He was a man full of humour and a great hybridizer.

[john hodgson]

Thanks Luc - now it makes sense! I already knew about the Shan name... what a great personality he must have been. A sad loss.
Oh, and Riah Shan has got to be one of my favourites.

The first two started flowering this year during the 3rd week in February - they faded this week after almost 4 weeks. I still have some just coming into growth, so they will provide a display for 2 months!

I don't know any others that have such an extended / staggered flowering period.

[Bart]

I really like Riah Shan, John, but sadly I don't grow it. Tried to get it for years but always lost ebay auctions and then gave up, refusing to pay silly money for bulbils.. It seemed a bit calmer on ebay this past season, with more reasonable end prices- but I have not been that involved, so it might be nonsense.
A new flower to me, Pleione Macaque. In the picture for comparison Pleione Wharfedale 'Pine Warbler' , which has been in flower for at least 4 weeks now. Is it typical for Macaque to be so small?

[john hodgson]

Ebay... calm? ! Well Bart, the reverse turned out to be true. It's been pretty frantic actually, with prices for rarer bulbils running to very strong prices. Like you, I was going to give up, but waiting another year for desired hybrids that might never be acquired made me jump in and buy a few.  And among the bulbils I got was Macaque 'Erratic'. So I have not grown this before, so cant talk from experience. Of course sometimes a new young small pseudo bulb might generate a smaller than usual flower, but as well as this, Macaque's parents, saxicola and forrestii, can often have small blooms, on short stems.