Pulsatilla 2013

[Tim Ingram]

Really wonderful plants of P. rubra, such a rich colour - I hope the seedlings I have growing of this are the true thing. Like Armin we have yet to see a pulsatilla flower in the garden this spring, but it can't be too long now!

[ashley]

Beautiful plants Greenspan, and a stunning photograph of P. halleri ssp. taurica

[Susann]

i found this thread ...reading all 14 pages

Hi! We all welcome you to this thread, and thank you for beautiful pictures! My P halleri ssp taurica has just get rid of their snow cover, they look horrible, the buds are like drown cats, some buds has even aborted. I have not seen that in halleri before. Winter was really tuff, with rain followed by -20 without snow and so on.
Your rubra is very dark, which makes me think -without being an expert- that its origin is France. The Spanish form is usually more to violet. But of course, (Once again...)it varies a lot )But, I am sorry to say, (and you do say that you do not remember the origin), I do not think your friend collected the seeds in Sierra Nevada, because that is down in south Spain, in Andalucia, and according to the floras there are no Pulsatillas. Perhaps it was Cordillera Cantabrica if Spain,  or the Pyrenees, Spanish or French part? Anyway, very beautiful pictures. Hope you will contribute with more. I suspect that a person that put interest in reading the whole thread do grow more than a  few of these lovely and interesting plants.

[greenspan]

you're right susann, my friend must have collected the rubra seed in france (as i wrote he wasn't sure whether in spain or france). i found this info about a rubra habitat in the area of lyon/france with similar dark colored flowers as mine. but you made a joke, when you wrote... -without being an expert-, because this doesn't figure with this "I red Flora of China yesterday (floras are lovely bed-table books)". i don't believe anything.

[Susann]

my friend must have collected the rubra seed in france

Thank you for the link with information about P rubra, very interesting. (But it is a pity that the French speak french, It makes it so difficult to understand). I am hoping to see som P rubra this spring, but I am afraid they might have already flowered when I am in the area. Right now my biggest concern is if the Pp sugawarii and magadanensis has survived the strange winter. I do not have big hope about it. Henrik Zetterlund says that the Botanical Garden in Gothenburg has had big loss of plants this year. As I have understood their winter was not as bad as it was here in the outskirts of the Southern highlands. Please cross your fingers that my plants are still alive.

[greenspan]

i cross all fingers + toes for your rare Pulsatilla. please give me a hint for the substrate of P. sugawarii, P. taraoi + integrifolia. i still have none of them, but i expect some in november from sachiyo yuzawa (sachiyo, is it a female prename?). i imagine a mix of sharp sand, lava grit + peat should work. similar substrate as for P. vernalis (sand + peat). when they will arrive so late, i have to pot + store them in my cold but frostfree greenhouse (min. temp. 1,5°C). a few years ago i got seed of P. magadanensis + ajanensis from dr. berkutenko. a few germinated, but i lost all a year later. i used sand + peat, maybe it was wrong? since dr. berkutenko stopped selling seed, has anybody a seed source for these Pulsatillas?

[Jozef Lemmens]

Pulsatilla magadanensis (collected by Natalia N.) is available via Vojtech's updated seedlist supplement.
http://holubec.wbs.cz/Introduction.html

[Susann]

Yes, you are correct, Sachiyo is a female name, it as very lovely girl. She is the daughter of the family company. The plants will arrive bare rooted, big and in very good shape. The trouble that I have had is that they wake up during the journey although it only takes five days to reach Sweden from Hokkaido.
First time I did as you, kept them potted in frost free green house over winter and they survived, got nice leaves and looked very healthy. Then my neighbour was supposed to take care of all plants, with very firm instructions to water only with few drops but she soaked the plants and they had all rotten by the time I got back. ( Last year the same neighbour managed to kill around fifty P occidentalis seedlings)
Second time I ordered from Yuzawas I decided to plant them in garden directly, and it was not a very good idea, only a few survived and last autumn it was only one P sugawarii left. But Olga has plans to steal the big sugawarii plant belonging to Yuzawa, as you might have red? Perhaps we could share the seeds as the crime is to take place when the plant is full of seeds?
I can not give you any advice about substrate, hopefully someone else can. I am also interested in getting advice about these species. I have used a mix of equal parts of peat, sand and I think it is called grit? (small sharp stonesthat are a little bigger than sand). The P magadanesis was the only seed that germinated from a batch from Dr Berkutenko. I kept it in the same mix as the sugawarii and taraoi, it has survived for quite some years, but never had flowers. I have grown the integrifolia in the same substrate but not managed to get it long-lived. But at least they has got flowers. In my garden they tend to abort the buds. Perhaps Olga can tell you what substrate she uses for the magadanensis.

[greenspan]

But Olga has plans to steal the big sugawarii plant belonging to Yuzawa, as you might have red? Perhaps we could share the seeds as the crime is to take place when the plant is full of seeds?

i'm in!                                ...no...only a joke...

hm...potting of the special Pulsatillas seemed successful, till your neighbour came with the big watering can. accidentally one of my neighbours is a women from tokyo, a native speaker. i'll ask her to send sachiyo an email, what kind of substrate she uses. i'll see. so let's wait for olga, what she says.

@jozef

thank you very much for the tipp. the payment method of voitech is a bit complicated in our times. cheques or an extra amount of 12 € for a simple sepa-money transfer. a sepa transfer costs nearly nothing. it's a normal thing now. but...he has the seed, he lays down rules.

[peter hood]

I've just seen your marvellous pictures of P.rubra, absolutely marvellous colour! My plants are flowering at the moment, not quite as good as last year - and still the 'wrong' colour. They already feature on this thread, about page 6 I think, so I have avoided sending now pictures.

Incidentally, I just send Vojtech payment in euro notes, and it always  to work. Not totally safe, of course, but no problems.

[Jozef Lemmens]

a sepa transfer costs nearly nothing

I believe, this is only true within the Eurozone (countries using the Euro).

[Maggi Young]

.... or an extra amount of 12 € for a simple sepa-money transfer. a sepa transfer costs nearly nothing. it's a normal thing now. but...he has the seed, he lays down rules.

In my ignorance I did not know anything about a sepa transfer..... so I found this ...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_Euro_Payments_Area

[greenspan]

thank you maggi for the information + sorry for my offtopic about the sepa-payment here. last note...i made payments to other czech gardeners always as a simple sepa bank transfer very convenient with online banking from my pc, safe + fast for both sides. that's why i was a bit astonished about the extra amount of 12 € for this payment method. 12 € means 3 packages of Pulsatilla magadensis seed.

[Maggi Young]

Greenspan - no apology is needed - we are very relaxed about "off topic" here - this is primarily a community of plant lovers and we feel it important to  allow threads to digress, as any "real" conversation can do in a face to face meeting.

[Susann]

Regarding international transfers ( sepa transfer is a new word for me, thank you). I have by experience learnt it is not only depending on which country but also which bank you transfer to. Some receiving banks like to put on an extra fee. Many Czechs use a foreign bank, then I pay only 10 SEK ( about 1,10 euro) but if they use a Czech bank it will be 50 SEK. If I transfer money to UK it is also 50 SEK.

The problem is also that you have to make sure that the receiver does not have to pay his/her bank´s fees. That is why Holubec has to charge you so much. Until just a few years ago, you could chose, by ticking a box, to pay the other bank´s fees, but now it has changed, and it is automatically charged of the receiver.

Perhaps this makes you feel a little more confortable having to paying for the fees? And, if we add the thoughts that we did not have to go collecting the seeds, cleaning them, making the list.Then, 12 euros it not that much...And this is a typical female comment I think; 12 euros is equal to 6 chocolate bars. And honestly, you do better without them...