Ericaceae

[johnw]

I hesitate to post this shot of a solitary flower on Rhodothamnus chamaecistus today as there have some amazing photos of superbly grown plants smothered in flowers on the site - one from Bavaria and one stunner by Franz H.  It's enough to make you weep.  This is the first time it has ever bloomed out of season, must have been the bizarre summer weather.

Hope Hurricane Laura doesn't affect the gardens over there.

A chilly 14c today and rain on the way.

johnw

[ranunculus]

You are not on your own John ... both of my rhodothamnus plants are now flowering out of season - one with six flowers and the other (slightly larger) plant with twelve or thirteen rather rain-battered blooms.

Captured this picture in the Dolomites in late July - and that seemed quite late for the area.

[ranunculus]

...And how's this for a cultivated plant - exhibited at Midland AGS Show 2007 ....

[Lesley Cox]

A little bit of 12 or 13-up-man-ship Cliff?

[johnw]

Cliff - Exquisite plants, thanks.  I see I have more buds swelling here, I guess next spring it will take a holiday.  Barry Starling did Kalmiothamnus ornithoma - Kalmiopsis x Rhodothamnus, another beauty. I wish I had a shot of it.

johnw

[Giles]

x Phylliopsis 'Sugar Plum'
(Oh why oh why did I not take that fallen leaf away!!)

[Lesley Cox]

Is this the ususal time for this plant to be flowering?

[Giles]

......it was just trying to cheer me up, Lesley.
(it can't read the books!!)

[nicheplanthead]

...And how's this for a cultivated plant - exhibited at Midland AGS Show 2007 ....

Was it started from seed?
I tried many times without success and will try next time by sprinkling on damp spaghnam moss pot covered with plastic wrap..

stuart

[ranunculus]

Unfortunately it wasn't my plant Stuart but I suspect it was propagated, like most of these gems, from a cutting...

[Lesley Cox]

I have had best success with seed of Rhododendrons, Loiseleuria, Rhodothamnus and other small ericaceae by sowing them on a layer of grit over potting mix. When I've used the sterilized spaghnum method, the mosses take over way before the seed germinates so basically, it never does, while on grit, the tiny seedlings get going and are just about big enough to handle before the mosses are too big.

[nicheplanthead]

I got my plants from the sale at the montreal botanic garden rhodo club they must have been a few years old.

I can't find granite grit locally here and I was never successful sowing with seed with grit on rhodo seed.

I use that coarse spaghnam peat moss and sprinkle the seed on top and keep it damp my misting with a spray bottle and cover it with a clear plastic supported by some sticks on the corners of the pot. I use my flourescent lights in the basement. the problem is getting the seedling out as the roots tangle when you try to transplant them as the seed is hard to spread out.
But since so many good little plants a reasonable price are available from the rhodo society here I don't grown many from seed now.

I thrown in a first blooming pix of a rhodo i got from one of those sales..

[Lesley Cox]

Here are two of my present batches of seedlings sown on grit (seed on grit, not grit on seed).
First Rh. camschatcense album, over 50 seedlings when I counted yesterday and about a month old and Rh. keleticum, about 13 or 14 months. Time they were pricked out and potted. Because the compost under the grit is very gritty too, the little plants fall apart easily without root damage when I want to separate them.

[ranunculus]

... And not a sign of moss or liverwort, Lesley ... superb!

[Lvandelft]

... And not a sign of moss or liverwort, Lesley ... superb!

? ? ? ? ? ? ? 

Super result Lesley. Did you keep the pots outside all the time?