Pleione albiflora, coronaria, scopulorum

[Graham Catlow]

Hi,
Of the seventeen Pleione species that Paul Cumbleton recognises on his web-site, http://www.pleione.info I have in my collection all but three. I have never seen Pleione albiflora coronaria, and/or scopulorum on any UK nursery lists for me to purchase, (though I doubt have seen them all). P.scopulorum is currently for sale on eBay but I’m not sure about the seller and I don’t want to risk, or pay £30.00, even though that may be a realistic price.
In Paul’s list of hybrids these three have been used as parents infrequently so I suspect that there are not many around. Does anyone know where I can get them to complete my collection?

Graham

[Paul Cumbleton]

Hi Graham,
Ian Butterfield has P. scopulorum in his catalogue this year at £25. If you can wait a year, I am aiming to have a sale of various spare bulbs next season which should include scopulorum. The other two species are still very rare and no-one I know has any for sale. They are also not the easiest species to grow, especially coronaria, which is another reason that no nurseries list them - it is proving all but impossible to build up numbers from the few bulbs that are around.

Some of us are trying to make them available from seed but again they are proving problematic from seed - they germinate well but are difficult to grow on. It can be done but numbers that make it to adult size bulbs are very few indeed. We will keep trying and hope that one day we crack the technique required so that we can spread them around more.

Paul

[Graham Catlow]

David, thanks for the warning. I checked back to one of your previous posts to confirm you had warned us before. The Cyps. would be amazing if that was what they really were and of course the price was affordable.

Paul, many thanks for your response. I had read on your website that they were difficult in cultivation and suspected they may not be available. I will send for Ian Butterfields catalogue and maybe receive a nice Christmas present from Santa (my wife).

I look forward to seeing what you may have to offer next year. How do you inform people of your available list?

Graham

[ThomasB]

Small bulbs of Pleione albiflora (1 year out of flask) are offered at ground-orchids in Germany. I've never seen Pleione coronaria offered anywhere.

[Graham Catlow]

Thanks Thomas,

Possibilities there but I'm not sure I'm ready to try 1yr out of flask albiflora just yet and the scopulorum are a little expensive for me.
I will keep my eye on the website though.

[LarsB]

Scopulorum is not that difficult to get hold of, but it has different growing habits from other Pleione. It dont' like to dry out completely. It took a couple of attempts for me to get it growing. You can normally get it from Crustacare. I don't have their current pricelist (I don't think he is taking any more orders this year), but in 2009 he had two clones, one at 25 euros and one at 30 euros for mature bulbs.

[enrico]

Anyone has ordering experience with http://www.ground-orchids.de/ you cited above?

I tried to order the set of mixed bulbils and a Bletilla ochracaea from them but I wasn't able to get a reply from them except the first email... I sent them maybe another 6-7 emails with the order but I had no reply at all...

[LarsB]

I tried to order Pleione albiflora from them a coupole of years ago and experienced the same as you. They replied to the first couple of mails and then nothing. I gave up in the end.

[Paul Cumbleton]

Graham, I keep a list of people I know are interested and send out an email once a list is available. I will add you to my list so you will be notified in due course. I hope to have a list ready sometime in summer 2011

Cheers

Paul

[angie]

Paul, hope this isn't cheeky but can I be added to your list.

Angle 

[Paul Cumbleton]

Hi Angie, of course that's fine. If anyone else is interested perhaps you would like to send me a private message

Cheers

Paul

[angie]

Thanks Paul 

Angie

[Graham Catlow]

Graham, I keep a list of people I know are interested and send out an email once a list is available. I will add you to my list so you will be notified in due course. I hope to have a list ready sometime in summer 2011

Cheers

Paul

Thanks Paul.

[Maren]

Every year I buy some "Pln albiflora" from different suppliers in Germany, and every year they turn out to be grandiflora.

I wonder whether the species difference is not very well understood???  As it happens, they are usually quite nice and I don't mind too much, I just sell them and be done with it. But it would be so nice to get the real thing one day.

[ThomasB]

I did order some of the very young Pleione bulbs from ground-orchids last winter - it took several attempts to get a reply but finally they sent me the order.

Besides rare species like Pleione albiflora they're offering some rare and new hybrids like 'Iris Butterfield', 'Yeti' and 'Lassen Peak' (on the website there's just the cross not the hybrid name) or coronaria x grandiflora, limprichtii x coronaria and praecox x saxicola. Last year I got 'Bonobo' as well. The bulbs were tiny as could be expected with seedlings one year out of flask. Though in most cases there was more than just one bulb from each hybrid included. At least for me it was harder to keep these tiny bulbs growing than growing bulbils and I can't say that I was really successful ('Bonobo' and x confusa are still very small).