Report from BX 136 - Neomarica - Thanks
James Waddick (Mon, 29 Jan 2007 06:10:20 PST)

Dear all;
Instead of Poisonous plants or seed regulations, I'd like to
report on a recent BX addition.

In BX 136 on Jan 10/07 there was an offer of "Neomarica
candida, small rhizomes with fans of leaves." . I was fortunate to
receive a couple on Fri Jan 19. These were donated by Lee Poulsen. A
few weeks earlier I started some discussions of the genus and Mary
Sue put up a new wiki page.
So the first thing I did was put these small plantlets into a
cup of warm water since they arrived during a cold spell of near
freezing temps. After a couple of hours I potted the small planlets
in a single 3 inch pot, watered it well, drained and sealed in a zip
loc.
Then I looked over all the recent PBS messages about this
species. Lee seemed to grow the most species and have some good
points, but I noticed he did NOT grow this species (the one he just
donated!
So over the course of the next couple of days I wrote back
and forth to Lee for info.

From Lee I learned the plants were recently acquired direct
from Brazil. Lee had organized a trade for a couple of plantlets and
received an abundance -far more than he could use so he generously
donated extras to the PBS BX. I also learned or confirmed what I
thought might be the case. These plantlets were all from pups that
develop from flowering stems, not underground shoots. I was familiar
with these planlets from growing N. gracilis, the common 'Walking
Iris'.

On Sunday Jan 21 I checked the newly potted plantlets and
found that all three had begun growing roots -just 2 days after
planting and probably weeks from being removed from the mother plant
and shipping from Brazil to CA (Lee) to PA (Dell) and to MO (me).
Then one week later Sunday Jan 28, the first new leaf is emerging
from one new plant. All three seem firmly rooted. They were removed
from the zip loc.

I think this is in many ways typical of the generosity of
donors to the BX , the rarity of BX materials and the vigor of
materials offered. Thanks to Lee for the plant, to Dell for running
the BX and Mary Sue for the new wiki and keeping the PBS going.
Thanks to all who keep this a truly special group.

Thanks Jim W.
--
Dr. James W. Waddick
8871 NW Brostrom Rd.
Kansas City Missouri 64152-2711
USA
Ph. 816-746-1949
Zone 5 Record low -23F
Summer 100F +