Worsleya bloom

[KenP]

Second time this plant bloomed. First bloom was December 2022. 

[Carlos]

Amazing!!

[KenP]

Here is a photo from today. Not all fully open but rain has started. Not sure what the rain will do to the blooms. 

[KenP]

I am located in central NJ, northeastern USA. USDA Zone 7. 

[Arnold]

Great stuff, Ken.

[CG100]

Somewhere online, maybe here? there is a pic' of a raised bed with several plants in flower.

Based on not much available information/evidence, the problem is availability of plants (at modest cost) rather than in cultivation/propagation.

Single bulbs are £350 (USD450) each here in the UK. LLLLLLLOL

[Ron]

Lovely blooms.  I really like the growth form of these plants, especially the leaves, and the little offset.  What are the two conifers to the right of the Worsleya?

[David Pilling]

there is a pic' of a raised bed with several plants in flower.

Perhaps here (although only one plant):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2NkftDShAM


You can use the search function, top left to find Ken's blooms in 2022 here on the PBS forum, search for worsleya (all lower case).

350 quid a bulb, be interesting to see if high price begets more supply, or if they're just difficult to grow, or is it all fashion. Tulipomania.

[CG100]

I suspect that it is just supply and demand and there was only ever a small number of plants to start with. The £350 is pitched to be able to sell the small number available.

I am told that they are available/being propagated in RSA with one nursery which imported plants from Australia. I was not told, and did not ask, the price, although the implication was that it is large.

I suppose the strange thing is that they have not been micro-propagated. Presumably someone has done the sums and they aren't attractive?

Not that video, David. I recall a still photograph - probably as here, but I suspect that the pic's may have been "borrowed" from where I saw them originally -  Worsleya procera | GardensOnline

Small bulb here - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/266790507032?chn=ps&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=710-153316-527457-8&mkcid=2&itemid=266790507032&targetid=4584757337008491&device=c&mktype=&googleloc=&poi=&campaignid=431353847&mkgroupid=1298523655396099&rlsatarget=pla-4584757337008491&abcId=9301942&merchantid=87779&msclkid=d4be258e72d61b7864ae437b4f5cd7b6

As mentioned by my contact in RSA, how did Australia get them, and how did one SA nursery obtain them from Australia?

[David Pilling]

It is the dream, find expensive plants and grow them for profit. But you'd have to have the knack of growing them.

Like being a professional.

Whatever field of interest you may have as a hobby, if you're good enough it can be a career.

The UK nursery Rare Plants feels like that.

"change in supply due to increase in price is called Expansion of supply"

No good saying it will take you 14 years either.

[CG100]

Lots of hobbies can make excellent pocket money - been there, done that, making profit of £1-2K per year.

Making a reasonable living from a hobby that does not become a way of life is very far from easy, no matter how good you are at it in most cases, and especially so if it requires lots of space. Paying off a large loan on premises is a huge ask, plus, the product of that hobby must be in considerable demand, far out-stripping what you'd normally produce when just selling off surplus from a genuine hobby.

Again, I can't remember where I was reading about it, but if you check the prices for single bulbs of brand new snowdrop cultivars (as in the one for sale may be the only one, anywhere) on ePay UK, they routinely sell for several £100's. Apparently they sell to people/companies who will micro-propogate them to have 100's and 1000's for sale within 3 years or so at several(+) £ each.
In the case of snowdrops, at least the potential market is limited only by price and the number of people inclined to grow them. In the case of Worsleya, you have those limitations, plus buyers must have the space and be able to keep them frost-free.

Fortunately, I am not tempted, and would not be tempted even at just a few ££ per bulb as, as unusual as the plant looks, I don't find it especially attractive - each unto their own, fortunately.

[Anonymized User]

Ok. The only plants available in RSA came from the Frankfurt Palmengarten. I personally knew the horticulturist that acquired them - he was friends with the Curator.

I currently am looking after three of them for a friend. He acquired them from a very well-known bulb grower who acquired them from the same person I knew.

The market in RSA is way too small to justify the importation of such expensive plants. Good grief they barely sell anywhere.
The Australian propagules you speak of were acquired by an American nursery. And importing from the States is even more expensive.

[CG100]

I do not bet, but I suspect that RSA has a far larger market for Worsleya than does the UK, and the ones in the UK are certainly imported, not raised here.
Whether rescued from development sites, or from old collections, I do not know, but large and expensive, ie. old, native bulbs come up for sale in RSA every once in a while, so there is a market for probably similar numbers of expensive plants of other species.

All that said, the limitation on potential sales numbers is purely price which will be pitched to sell all that are available, be that 2, 22 or 222, or whatever. They "barely sell anywhere" because there aren't many to be sold. There is no way that any business is going to pitch things so as to not sell their stock.

I am unsure why importing from any country in particular should be more exepnsive than from another, costs relating to distance of transport apart. Unless US prices for the item happens to be far higher.

[Anonymized User]

Sorry KenP for hijacking your OP.

@CG100  As mentioned: there are very few Worsleya in RSA - they all originate from a single import and are offsets. I acquired seedlings (from the horticulturist that brought them over in his luggage!) and none made it past the second year - evidence of a single clone. Some of the original plants were acquired by the owner of Cape Seed and Bulb. He through the years sold occasional offsets at astronomical prices.

Nobody in RSA buys huge expensive indigenous bulbs for their own collection. They are for export. And they are most likely not even cultivated bulbs. I have grown, as an example, Brunsvigia orientalis from seed and after 20 years I had first flowering. Take the input costs into consideration and those plants have to be sold for stupid money just to recover costs - it is far more profitable to Clivia or Disa.
 As regards prices.......many a nurseryman with exclusive stock will name their price and wait. Those with the means to acquire exclusive expensive treasures will do so just for bragging rights.
If you're investing in bringing in super expensive treasures then you will want a return sooner rather than later given that plants have a knack of dying on you. The market in RSA just isn't there. Very few people will be able to justify spending ZAR 10,000 for a single Worsleya. They just aren't investment plants like cycads are or even Clivia - with those you can at least sell offsets or seedlings and make a return.

As for the US being expensive - the actual commodities are as is the phytosanitary certificate. ZAR is a weak currency. Why do you think everyone here wants to export bulbs?
And before you try and explain the market etc - I was a nurseryman for decades. I am very well versed in the market and its vagaries.

[CG100]

As mentioned: there are very few Worsleya in RSA - they all originate from a single import and are offsets.

I read/understood your comment. I am unsure where anyone has suggested otherwise.

And they are most likely not even cultivated bulbs. I have grown, as an example, Brunsvigia orientalis from seed and after 20 years I had first flowering. Take the input costs into consideration and those plants have to be sold for stupid money just to recover costs - it is far more profitable to Clivia or Disa.
 As regards prices.......many a nurseryman with exclusive stock will name their price and wait. Those with the means to acquire exclusive expensive treasures will do so just for bragging rights.

You are assuming a very great deal, but again, where does anyone suggest other than what you have posted?
That said the Worsleya for sale in the UK are actually on an obscure website (for at least the second year running) that is actually hard to find because it shares a name with places that get found by Google first.
As for bragging rights? Not very likely in this case - they are a large import-export business that has been trading for around 100 years.

How many people in the UK would have ZAR8000 to spend on Worsleya and be willing to do so? I know a few people willing to spend maybe half that on something large and not neccessarily rare, but uncommon in trade, but they have not bought Worsleya. Someone does buy them, obviously, otherwise the exercise of importing them would not be repeated, BUT, how many are imported each year? Given that there are probably rather few in cultivation anywhere in the world, probably (very) small numbers.
At least one small UK nursery has numbers of unusual, some essentially unobtainable, Amaryllid and other bulbs for sale, imported from RSA, that have been listed on eBay for several months. Only the very fool-hardy or anyone with a gambling streak would buy them now, but the fact remains that they have not sold, and they are in the £20-100 bracket, mostly £20-50.

Minimum phyto' cost to export from the UK - £155 (inspection, no testing, maximum of 30 minutes on-site, anything over is charged at a little over £4 per minute), although import inspection is currently free. I suspect the costs within the EU will be similar, but they do have import inspection charges.

The people that I have spoken to in RSA - nursery-owners, far from rely on exports. One business was hit very badly by the storm early this year that led to cancellation of a large sale.