Tigridia--Topic of the Week

Paul Tyerman ptyerman@ozemail.com.au
Tue, 23 Sep 2003 07:12:15 PDT
Howdy All,

One thing that may be worth adding as well is that letting seed set on the
Tigridias is generally detrimental to flower production.  As with Cypellas
and the rest of the alliance flowers can keep being produced for quite some
period of time in each flowering point of the stem, but if seed is allowed
to be produced then there tend to be a lot less flowers after that as the
reserves are used for seed production rather the production of more
flowers.  This has been an observation of mine, but I THINK I have been
told this by others as well..... I know I was definitely told that for some
of the Cypellas and I am assuming that it applies to the Tigridias as well,
at least it does for mine anyway <grin>.

To get around this I tend to wait until late in the flowering season before
I let seed set or deliberately pollinate flowers.  I guess I'm trying to
have my proverbial cake and eat it as well.  I would imagine that there may
be higer seed production within a pod earlier in the season when the plant
is healthier and less close to dormancy, but I have still had at least a
few seeds within each pod on the T. vanhouttei each year and any of the
Cypellas I have set seed on.

I thought this was worth mentioning to people in case they were thinking of
trying to set any seed.  This also definitely applies to the Tigridia
pavonia hybrids as at one point I had seed set on my white one with the red
bowl and within a week flower production had stopped completely.  Some of
the pods that this alliance produces can be HUGE and contain a hundred seed
or more (my white had at least that, in a pod around 3 inches long, and I
had the same happen with Cypella coelestris a couple of years back too).

If people are interested I will try to set some seed on various of the
Tigridias this year so I can donate to the BX.  That is assuming that
people are interested if I am successful?  Would people only be interested
in the species, or in the hybrids as well?

Cheers.

Paul Tyerman
Canberra, Australia.  USDA equivalent - Zone 8/9
mailto:ptyerman@ozemail.com.au

Growing.... Galanthus, Erythroniums, Fritillarias, Cyclamen, Crocus,
Cyrtanthus, Oxalis, Liliums, Hellebores, Aroids, Irises plus just about
anything else that doesn't move!!!!!


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