Pleione 2021

[Tim Harberd]

This season I got off to a good early start on the Pleione un-potting.... Before Christmas... But somehow I've only just got round to the re-potting.......

These beauties weigh in at around 22g each! The cultivar is  P. Shepherd's Warning ‘Mary B’.

Not long now, Spring is on the way.

Tim DH

[Tim Harberd]

First up here is a bulbocodiodes, which we grow as M205. This year it is ‘celebrating’ 40 years in the family! I attach some of the paperwork associated with it.

I wonder what happened to the forrestii collected on the same trip.... Non of them came Dad's way!

The particular flowers shown are from the pseudo-bulbs which went to France and back over Christmas.. and got cooked in the process… ( I posted about them in 'Bulbs General')... The rest of the stock has yet to poke its noses above the compost!

Tim DH

[Tim Harberd]

Only just behind it is the mighty ‘Ducat’…(P.Shantung) .. I potted up a couple of bulbs singly, with a view to giving one to Dad as a Birthday present. They are flowering a little early this year, but he was well chuffed.

This one is clearing 10cm across.

Tim DH

[Tim Harberd]

Two more today.

P. Shepherd's Warning ‘Mary B’. I find this to be the most reliable of the ‘Apricot Shantung’ hybrids. It’s also the biggest, stretching here to 11cm across.

P. Soufriere 'Sunrise' also has x confusa in its parentage, and could easily be mistaken for an ‘Apricot Shantung’ hybrid.  Nice colour and shape, but not so easy to flower as ‘Mary B’, also the stems are a bit short for my liking.

Tim DH

[Mike Ireland]

My only Pleione which was found growing in a friends peat block outside in his garden.
Could it be P. tongariro?

[Tony Garthwaite]

I gave you the wrong suggestion Mike! I remember now that Jeff gave me one and it was Pleione Formosana Lucy Diamond.   It's the 'Leetle grey cells' as Hercule would say!!
Have a look at https://www.srgc.org.uk/forum/index.php?topic=1186.120
Re: Pleiones -2008 (New Forum section)
« Reply #124 on: April 20, 2008, 08:19:27 PM

[Tim Harberd]

Three more today:

P.Shantung ‘Natasha’ ... Sister seedling to Ducat. Sadly I dropped a ladder on the best pot of this cultivar last week! Fortunately it only suffered flower damage. ... Grrrr

P.Harlequin 'Clown' ... I do like the white tipped petals.

P.Marco Polo ‘168.2’ ... My favourite seedling from this cross. It used to be reluctant to flower, but now all my pots of it are doing well. Individual Pleione cultivars do seem to ‘ebb and flow’ over a long (maybe a ten year) cycle. It is very hard to quantify, but something seems to happen not connected to the normal run of good and bad seasons.

Tim DH

[Tim Harberd]

Four more today:

P.Ueli Wackernagel ‘Regal’, I’m surprised this grex isn’t seen more often. I did think that following the RHS Award of Merit to Don Peace’s pan in 2019 that more people would take an interest in them.

P. Fuego 'Tetra', not the biggest of flowers, (about 75mm across) but reliable and well held above the compost.

‘Ember’, the only Vesuvius left in the collection, there was at one time more than a dozen! All slightly different. This one was finally selected as the best all round performer.

‘Swan Song’ the pink seems a bit deeper than usual this year. Swan Song’s  grex (P.Soufriere x P.Shepherd's Warning) is still not named… Perhaps I should register it…

Tim DH

[Tim Harberd]

Getting towards the end of the season here.

First up M205 again (P. bulbocodioides), showing its unusual way of holding a second flower. In most cultivars, if they put up a second flower it tends to be upside down. See P. pleionoides 'Alice Mary' for example.

Next another P. Ueli Wackernagel. This one (H169.1) is larger flowered than Regal, shown before, but usually puts up less flowers.

Another cultivar doing well this year is  P. Marco Polo ‘H168.18’ Showing why I like this grex. Upward facing flowers on decent stems!

Tim DH

[Tim Harberd]

My P. aurita has seriously swept back petals, which is interesting but makes photographing it a bit awkward. Three photos so that you can see it from different angles. It’s never particularly floriferous. Two flowers in a pot is a good year!

P. Captain Hook is a sweet little thing. This one is either H121.5 or H121.S and to be honest I can’t distinguish it from H121.2 (‘Wendy’) Perhaps I should lump them all together? … Dad’s handwriting was always of ‘prescription’ (!!) quality and he can’t tell if this is ‘S’ for selected or ‘5’ for fifth flowered seedling.

Tim DH

[Tim Harberd]

I usually photograph pleiones as soon as they come out, but here is a pan close on a month after it was first photographed… P. Marco Polo ‘168.2’

Tim DH

[Tim Harberd]

Well!

It’s been a lonely experience showing pleiones on here this year!!

Closing the season for me, as usual, is P. Stromboli ‘Senorita’. This bright little thing will be good for another three weeks. I do love the way it faces upwards.

I put some Senorita in a mixed posy of pleione flowers, as a table decoration for Dad’s first post lockdown restaurant trip, and although they were the smallest flowers in the bunch, they were the stars.

Tim DH

[Maggi Young]

Well!

It’s been a lonely experience showing pleiones on here this year!!

Closing the season for me, as usual, is P. Stromboli ‘Senorita’. This bright little thing will be good for another three weeks. I do love the way it faces upwards.

I put some Senorita in a mixed posy of pleione flowers, as a table decoration for Dad’s first post lockdown restaurant trip, and although they were the smallest flowers in the bunch, they were the stars.

Tim DH

Yes, you have rather  been carrying the  show  on your  own, Tim, but  those  of  us  following  have  appreciated  it!   How  good it  is to hear that your  dear  Dad  has  been out  and  about  now  - good  health to you both!

[Tim Harberd]

Thanks Maggi,
     Dad's doing rather well... Here he is, after lunch, just about to enter the bank! The 'New Normal' is, indeed, a VERY strange thing!!

Tim DH

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Many congratulations Tim !  What a superb series of prime quality Pleione, all clean, free of the wretched virus and in the best condition. 
Thanks very much for showing us!

I guess a lot of Pleione enthousiasts have been disapointed and put off lately by all the outbreaks of virus with many Pleione growers and or breeders.
Paul Cumbleton has stopped and some others are thinking the same...  As for us Europeans (and also the other way round), stupid Brexit (sorry for those who voted in favour) has ended all Pleione exchange or other relations with British growers !