PBS Forum

I have been ordering seed from Silverhill for something like 20 years and have had the occasional mis-identified seeds and I would probably never buy certain genera again (from Silverhill or anywhere else) - Gasteria and Tylecodon have very, very seldom germinated for me, although one pkt. of Tylecodon from Silverhill did come up like cress. Even back some years, some batches of aloe seed, when inspected with a lens, were empty husk, complete with a hole where the weevil or whatever exited.

I hear rumours of a higher than reasonable number of misidentified species, but that apart, sad to tell, seed from Lifestyle has much to recommend it over Silverhill - standard pkts. are 100 seeds, (though plenty of rarer spp. are offered in smaller quantities), locations and harvest dates are given and their website is updated whenever anything new arrives in stock. They also stock lots of ephemeral species (which usually sell-out fast).

I have grown a handful of different H. a. for well over 40 years and none have had bright green and shiny leaves. That said, it may easily be something to do with how things reproduce any any one screen.

Brunsvigia and Haemanthus, and especially H. a., are more different than very different. Within each genus, normal growth is also very different from species to species, even from plant to plant - I have two H. coccineus from the same location that started into growth maybe 4-5 weeks ago - one has one leaf, one has two, all leaves around the same size and around 70-80-90mm long at the moment.

Quote from: Uli on October 27, 2023, 12:25:06 AMThis looks like a fresh leaf of a winter grower.

Looking again - a good point Uli - it does not look like albiflos. The neck of the bulb also looks wrong, and the leaf too tapered, and too shiny and green (albiflos leaves tend to be more matt and with a more greyish tone). The leaf stub at the top of the neck also looks very like an abscission layer rather than where it has been cut, and, so far as I am aware, it is also pretty much always evergreen unless seriously badly treated.

Albiflos varies a huge amount, but probably not like that.

On the plus side, if it is not albiflos, you should have paid quite a bit less than what it is worth. (Albiflos is generally very cheap, unless the variegated/spotted form.)

The damage looks like mechanical damage rather than anything else or some form of damage caused by uneven growing conditions.
I certainly would not worry.

H. albiflos is usually (atomic) bomb-proof, so I would think it unlikely to anything but "teething" problems as a result of the move S to N.

Default is (or certainly was) for Silverhill to use post. Two problems - it takes for ever, and, it only takes for ever if the item isn't stolen. You can get them to send via courier.
The SA PO is shambolic and no-one uses it - it no longer operates at all in large parts of RSA. Most people who want to send or receive stuff use DHL or another courier.

Prices are pretty horrible once you do not use the PO, but at least you receive things. Minimum charge RSA/UK, either way, is around US$30.

Within the UK (and presumably the EU, as our laws are still pretty much as the EU), to run a joint order, the person organising has to register as a dealer so that they can then register to issue plant passports that travel with the items that they themselves do not keep.
It is, in theory, not essential, but within the UK, imports should be pre-notified to DEFRA via what was PEACH, and is now transferring to IPAFFS. PEACH cannot cope with anything that is posted - it only functions with an AWB no. and port of entry details. I have not yet waded through IPAFFS.

(I have been organising joint orders from RSA for a year or so and imports for myself for a couple of years before that.
There are masses of instances of conflicting information on the DEFRA website and having asked DEFRA,PEACH and PlantHealth people various questions, I have yet to get any categoric answer about anything at all. It is more shambolic that the SA PO, but at least nothing goes missing.)

Kniphofia seem to be "odd" in terms of hardiness.

When I moved here to my current home, there was a very large clump (several stems, maybe 4 feet (1.2m) across) of what was probably a very ordinary cultivar, which was overgrown with grass and much besides. It was rescued and survived for several years until we had a string of days below freezing. That killed the entire plant.

Kniphofia ritualis seeds tooks 2? 3? seasons to show above ground here on an outdoor bench, but never really got going.

K. caulescens does not like my climate at all..........

I have often wondered what the plant was in the garden next to us as kids - the base looked like a small pampas grass - (Cortaderia selloana),  maybe 2 feet across, 18 unches tall, with arching leaves with no obvious structure beyond being a tuft of tough foliage. So far as I recall, it flowered every year with several flower stems.

The plants circulating in the UK as N. bowdenii are hybrids that generally stay in leaf so long as the weather doesn't get colder than a degree or two of frost.

Some years ago, new plants appeared, known as Zeal hybrids, which supposedly introduced extra vigor (as well as new colours) due to them being "virus-free". The vrus-free belief has long been regarded as wishful thinking and I suspect that most Nerines in trade and gardens in the UK are now routinely called N. bowdenii. Supposedly essentially all carry plenty of virus.

I do not have a link, but have stumbled across websites for various Australian hobby horticultural societies and clubs over the years - maybe have a search for some of those and contact someone through their website. 
Native Ozzies will at least know where to search or ask.

There must surely be a person or two here, from down under?

So far as I am aware, Australian wildlife laws permit unrestricted international trade in native seeds.
If that is correct, you just need to find an Australian source.

Just one word...........

Androcymbium

It probably only works in English, but -

NPK - shoots, roots, fruits (fruits can only be formed after flowering).

I like to start growth with just water, then a high nitrogen once started for just one or two waterings, then high potash for a couple of waterings during growth, then a low nitrogen as they go dormant - Chempak 2, 4 and 8.

Exceptions (not bulbs) - Proteacae, whch dislike nitrate, so really need urea as a source of nitrogen, and citrus, which do far, far better using commercial specialist citrus fertilsers.

Many thanks all.
I very vaguely remember using the bunch of stamens in tweezers method, but on what and when, with what degree of success................. I had certainly forgotten all about that, so my OP contains a white lie.

Early this year, I had numerous L. a. in flower over a couple of weeks so just used the brush every few days between as many flowers that "appeared ready" as I could be bothered with. I did not check for pollen on the brush or receptiveness. It was curiosity as much as anything as the very few Lachenalia that I had previously, had never set seed, but I did expect at least a few seeds.........

I wil pay more attention this next time around (they are around 5-10mm above the top-dressing currently).

Lachenalia are indeed easy from leaf cuttings, as are Eucomis, or the very few that I have tried are.

Ledebourias - I had two L. luteola in flower at the same time and one appeared to have a partial seed-set after just wiping one spike over the other a few times, but we then had a week or so of scorching weather (35+C in the greenhouse even with a fan running - it was (very) high 20's outdoors), and any seeds that had formed, perished.

I have searched, but cannot find....................

I have never bothered to try previously, with any plant (unless shaking some Philadelphus flowers from one plant, against flowers on another, counts), but last year I decided to try on some Lachenalia aloides (pollinated by a vaiety of creatures in habitat but particularly sunbirds); not one seed was set.
I used a reasonably large, fine-bristled paint brush several times, pushing the brush as far inside the flower as reasonably possible.
I suppose that it is possible that the whole potful is just one clone that has offset innumerable times over years in cultivation in the UK.

So, what are the rules?

Spider repellant? I doubt that there is such a thing. If there was, somebody would have made a very large fortune from selling it, given the number of people that are spider-dislikers, and worse.................

The optical denisty of the webs is probably not great, despite what you see, as defraction makes the webs look white, rather being close to transparent, which they are.

In good weather, your natural light levels may well be far in excess of what plants need, so loss from "shading" by the webs may well be irrelevant.

The healthy human eye can see perfectly well between something like 10 lux and well over 100,000 lux because we have an iris, so what we "see" in our brains, after processing by our software and our irises, is a long way from how the world really is.

If curious enough, buy a cheap lux meter - $20-30 - and experiment.

Quote from: Bern on August 27, 2023, 03:37:15 PMI'm surprised as to its apparent lack of availability. It might have been a passing fad a few years back.  Perhaps it is just too difficult to keep going.

If the few comments that exist online are correct, it would only ever survive long term in the UK as a greenhouse plant and what appears to be a huge tuber would demand a very large pot, which would make it a plant only for a specialist that fell in love with it, probably as an oddity, or as something challenging to grow.