Tecophilea seed
Mary Sue Ittner (Tue, 10 Feb 2004 17:19:04 PST)

Dear Hamish,

I'm very impressed with your seed successes especially after my failures
last year with Veltheimia.

Bill Dijk was selling seed of Tecophilaea when he was in Pasadena at the
IBS Symposium in May 2002. Even though I had yet to get any of the seeds I
had germinated from him before to bloom I wanted to try more so bought some
of all three he was selling. I planted them in October 2002 and they
germinated in great numbers in late December and January about the time
plants show up every year naturally where I live. They have come back
strongly and maybe a few more have germinated this year as well. This is
the second year I have had a Tecophilaea bloom from my original sowing. My
first seeds were sown in December 1999, again from Bill. They didn't
germinate until late March and more germinated the following January.
Perhaps it just takes awhile from when you start them before they come up,
but starting early as Lee suggested means they come up when their normal
cycle should be.

The one that has bloomed for me is Tecophilaea cyanocrocus var.
leichtlinii. It's the one with the gorgeous blue color on the outside with
a white center. Last year in its first year of bloom it didn't seem to last
very long, but this year it has sent up more than one flower and each
flower has lasted a week or so. There is a bud on one of the corms of T.
cyanocrocus that I bought from Bill at the Symposium in May 2002. They
didn't bloom for me that first year growing at the wrong time but now seem
to be on track.

Lee has really good luck with this genus. I need to improve my technique.
Thinking that he gets less rain I have tried sheltering them from my rain
this year. In the past I've just let them be rained on. And I'm making sure
the seedlings get fertilized more when they are young. I'm wondering if
they need a warmer summer too. I never could get my Leucocorynes (one of my
favorite genera) to bloom until they started spending their summers in my
greenhouse. So maybe that's the next experiment to try.

Mary Sue

Mary Sue Ittner
California's North Coast
Wet mild winters with occasional frost
Dry mild summers