Growing ALSTROEMERIA from Seed

Alstroemeria are without a doubt a standout amongst the most elaborate of all pre-fall blossoming plants anyway they are similarly costly to different herbaceous plants and quite often just accessible as pot developed stock. Nevertheless, Alstroemeria are generally simple to develop from seed and on the off chance that you can't discover any to buy in your nearby garden stores then you can simply gather your own seed from set up plants. Know however that you should break seed lethargy to begin with, and, after its all said and done feasibility of the seed will change.

Alstroemeria seed unit

Under typical development old blossoming stems are reduced to close ground level in late harvest time or late-fall, yet these stems should be left set up on the off chance that you need to gather the seed later on.

You can sow Alstroemeria seed whenever from mid winter to mid spring. Fill a modula seed (with around 1 inch sq modules) with a sodden, soil-less and very much depleted preparing manure. You may need to blend in some agricultural coarseness to enhance the seepage further. John Innes manure won't be reasonable for this. Ensure that the fertilizer is just at any point kept sodden and never waterlogged amid the germination time frame generally the seeds can spoil.

Sow two seeds in every module at a profundity of ¼ inch. Delicately water in and once the overabundance water has depleted off place the plate inside a warmed propagator at a temperature 21 degrees Celsius.

Alstroemeria seedlings

Following three weeks expel the plate from propagator. Water again if important and afterward seal the plate inside a reasonable polythene pack. Presently put the plate inside the fundamental compartment of a cooler for the following three weeks. Simply check the temperature to ensure that it is set at 5 degrees Celsius.

When this cool period is over restore the plate to the warmed propagator, again at 21 degrees Celsius. You can anticipate that your Alstroemeria seedlings will develop in 10 to 14 days. Expel the plate from the propagator when the main seedlings show up as the high moistness can make parasitic decays grab hold.

Once the root arrangement of seedlings have turned out to be set up in their modules painstakingly pop them out to bother the root framework as meager as could be expected under the circumstances. Pot them into 3-4 inch pots utilizing a decent quality multi-reason compost and develop them on in brilliant, ice free conditions. Once the risk recently ices have passed they can be solidified off and planted outside in a shielded position into all around depleted soil.

Growing and Spreading SNOWDROPS

Considered by many to be the harbinger of spring, the humble yet flawlessly shaped snowdrop is a magnificent small spring blossoming plant which cheers the heart - or if nothing else it mines. While not a genuine local of the United Kingdom, its regular propensity carries crosswise over Europe from Spain and France and eastwards to the Ukraine. In any case it has turned out to be so effectively naturalized in England's green and lovely land that you can be pardoned for imagining that it has dependably been one of our own.

Albeit regularly found in little bunches, under good conditions snowdrops can frame amazing floor coverings of white. While this show possibly be staggering, unless you have greatly positive condition the best way to accomplish something comparative is to approach a lot of stock or proliferate the plants yourself which fortunately enough can be shockingly simple.

float of blooming snowdrops in forest

There are various famous routes by which snowdrops can be spread, prominently by balance knobs, either via cautious division of bunches in full development or evacuated when all best development has kicked the bucket back and the plants are lethargic. Business producers are referred to utilize a system known as 'twin-scaling', where after a specific measure of planning the knob is then cut neatly start to finish a few times to make various sections. At this stage the sections are planted into pots or plate of manure and permitted to develop until the point when they are sufficiently substantial to make due in singular pots or the open ground. Notwithstanding this somewhat forceful procedure snowdrops have been known to blossom in their first year!

That being stated, the most famous and plainly the least difficult approach to engender is the point at which the plant is in full development, known as being 'in the green'. You should simply precisely lift a bunch of snowdrops, isolate them out into littler clusters and either pot them on or replant them into their last position.

Essentially, you can engender snowdrops by expelling the individual counterbalance knobs either when there are as yet demonstrating green development or promptly after the leaves have kicked the bucket back. For the two methods, lift the parent plant when the dirt is as yet sodden utilizing either a solid hand trowel or fringe fork. Deliberately, to maintain a strategic distance from root harm, bother the cluster separated expelling knobs either as people or as littler bunches. Utilizing a trowel, plant your new material into a decent rich soil in either full sun or fractional shade. The site ought to be all around depleted, however less that it dries out in summer.

Ensure that the knobs are put at an indistinguishable profundity from before with the goal that the dirt line stays unaltered. This will be demonstrated on the knob as a line where the stem shading changes from green to white. Snowdrops do best in a dampness retentive, humus rich soil, like that found in our forests so it's a smart thought to include a decent amount of all around deteriorated leaf shape to the dirt first. To complete off, give you new plants a decent watering in to assist the roots tough situation with the encompassing soil. That way they will build up far speedier than simply being cleared out.

The Best way to reproduce DAFFODILS AND NARCISSUS

With regards to engendering daffodils there are just two powerful procedures that the nursery worker can utilize - regular division by counterbalance globules or bud start by scoring. Despite the fact that daffodil seed practicality is great, seed gathering isn't a compelling method for engendering particular cultivars. Not exclusively would it be able to take between 5-7 years for a seedling to blossom, with such huge numbers of present day half and halves around you can't ensure either the shape or the shading your seedlings bloom because of the high danger of further hybridization.

The simplest technique is to give nature a chance to do its thing as daffodil knobs will normally repeat by division as a component of their yearly developing cycle. They are classed as tunicate globules as they are comprised of a succession of specific meaty and exceptionally wide scale clears out. As they develop the external leaves wind up noticeably dry and membranous which help to secure the knob against drying out. Amid the developing season apical buds will create from the parent plants basal plate, which in time will deliver the new blooming globules. In any case it will take in any event one more year before they are prepared for partition and blooming.

The best time to expel these new knobs is in pre-fall after the bloom stalks have completely gotten dry. Deliberately lift the knobs and disconnect them from the parent globule. They would then be able to be planted into a rich, free depleting soil at around twice their own particular profundity. Endeavor to pick a site that has an open and bright area far from inordinate clammy and solid breezes.

Concerning spreading knobs by scoring you can hope to deliver significantly a greater number of globules utilizing this procedure than by utilizing the characteristic division strategy. The procedure includes making two slices at right edges through the knobs basal plate. Utilizing a sharp blade, make each slice to a profundity of around 5 mm at that point permit the scored knob to remain in a warm situation - at roughly 21 degrees Celsius - for 24 hours. This enables the slices to open which would then be able to be treated with a tidying of fungicide to keep decays from creating. Put the knob topsy turvy on either a raised wire work or a plate of dry sand. Place again into a temperature of 21 degrees Celsius as this will energize callusing which likewise keeps disease from decays. Keep the knob as dry as conceivable without it really drying out. In the case of laying on sand, you may wish to hose it incidentally.

Inside three months new globules would have created on the cut surfaces. You would now be able to plant the parent knob on into a pot, however again it should be put upside with the new globules just underneath the surface of the fertilizer. In March the pot can be taken outside for solidifying off. The new globules will then begin to develop legitimately delivering roots and leaves while the parent knob gradually deteriorates as sugars and supplements are exchanged on to its offspring. Knobs that are created along these lines generally just should be developed on for a further two years previously they are develop enough to begin blooming. This technique takes similarly as long as characteristic division however you can wind up with three to four times the quantity of globules.

The most effective method to REPRODUCE TULIPS

Seemingly the most beautiful of all spring blooming plants, tulip knobs are additionally among a portion of the simplest plants to engender as they do all the diligent work themselves. There are by and large two ways that you can build supplies of these dazzling plants and that is either by seed accumulation or by evacuating the littler balance globules which shape at the base of the parent knob. The upside of utilizing balance knobs is that since they are hereditarily indistinguishable, implying that they will develop consistent with the parent plant. Sadly gathering seed from current developed knobs will ordinarily bring about further hybridisation making plants developed from their seed hereditarily extraordinary to the parent. This is on the grounds that they are effectively pollinated by other firmly related cultivars. So thus the most ideal approach to spread tulips is by utilizing these regular balances. Obviously with wild species globules, for example, Tulipa tarda and Tulipa sprengeri, seed developed plants will even now develop consistent with the parent plant.

Amid the tulips yearly development cycle apical buds will create at the base of the parent knob. By and large only one of these buds ends up noticeably predominant and will develop on to wind up noticeably one year from now's blooming knob.

Sadly with tulips, once the parent plant has wrapped up its knob will starts to bite the dust back, exchanging it important store of sugars and supplements to it descendants. Inevitably the parent knob will deteriorated, be that as it may it will abandon a substitution, full-sized blossoming globule alongside a bunch of littler globules.

In the pre-winter, painstakingly lift this tulip 'family' and tenderly confine every one of the knobs. Next, plant every one of the knobs into a readied nursery bed of fruitful, free depleting soil at around twice their own profundity. Attempt to pick a site that has an open and bright area far from over the top clammy and solid breezes.

In spite of the fact that the new parent globule will bloom one year from now the littler knobs won't be develop enough to create blossoms until at any rate the next year. When they achieve blooming size they can be lifted come the accompanying harvest time and planted into their last position.

Mites and darkness (9 pics)

It has not been the best year for succulent growers in my area. It has not been cold in winter, it hasnot been hot in summer. It has been just dark and gloomy all year. When sunny days are rare it means there is not much watering. If waterings are rare there's not much growing. Except for spider mites. Those grow nicely when it's dry. At some point I moved Delospermas outside (those are the most tasty) which improved the situation. But I still find mites on my plants occasionally (and kill them on site with my bare hands) and the damage is visible: nibbled leaves, weakened plants. I hope next year is sunnier and better all in all and the plants can recover.

My favorite and oh so perfect Frithias I was so proud of look like this now. It takes them so long to grow those leaves. Much time will pass until they've outgrown the bite marks. Assumed the attack is over. And yes, I've been spraying a lot which has contributed to the damage on some plants I think.

But Aloinopsis got the most of it. The below two are goners.

This one might recover (very big might) but judging by the size of the newest leaves it is extremely weakened by the overall conditions last year. Maybe I should stop growing Aloinopsis all together or just keep a couple of plants as mite-distraction.

The Antimima pumila started very well and then got bitten. I think it will recover though, after the next resting period. It's a bit elongated, too...

Same as these Titanopsis seedlings. Bugs plus spray plus sudden sunlight equals burn marks in addition to everything else. They should be fine with the new leaves coming. But it pains me to see them so ugly.

I know I might be exaggerating. After all it's just a couple of plants that are beyond saving, out of hundreds. But the lack of sunlight is visible to me in all the green-ness everywhere.

Sure, this cute Titanopsis calcarea is growing flowers (thank you planty!) and I did my best to keep it compact through this dark dark year but the green color says it all. 

PS: Sorry for the dusty pics.

PPS: This got too depressing. I'll be posting about my feel-good plants Anacampseros next :)

Avonia quinaria (4 pics)

I feel like I need to read up on Avonia's (as well as Anacampseros) yearly growing cycle again. It

seems they are in an active growth phase now, having flowered for the last time in October. I thought they are supposed to be resting in winter. Maybe they will. It's not winter yet.

Avonia quinaria plants are not very difficult to grow on the windowsill (in pure pumice) and they will flower for you, too. The main cause of death is overwatering. I made a mistake once - I thought the thick root will increase in size if I buried it. The only thing that came out of it was a dead plant, rotten from the inside, and a resolve not to do this ever again. You see, the only clear way of telling whether an Avonia quinaria needs water, at least for me, is to squeeze the raised root a bit. Sure if the plant needs water the branches might drop a little. But depending on the time of the year those branches might be too short to drop visibly. So from now on they all will grow raised and looking like palm trees. Much safer this way.

This Avonia quinaria ssp. quinaria (that's the one with pink flowers) is particularly pretty this year. It has grown many new branches and looks very happy. 

Argyroderma crateriforme flower (6 pics)

I'm so happy and excited that this plant has decided to flower! :)

It is gorgeous and a bit crazy. Does the name crateriforme come from the inside of the flower?

I have never watched an Argyroderma flower bud develop and I found it very curious how different it is from the usual mesemb flowers I've had so far. Okay, maybe it's not that different but it definitely looks different to me. 

The mesemb flower buds I've seen on my windowsill so far were elongated with tips of the petals showing at some point before the flower opens. The Argyroderma bud started as something round and flat, almost looking more like a seed pod than flower bud. 

It grew larger and when the sepals parted a bit you could see that the petals are actually curved inwards, folded with their tips toward the "crater". 

It stayed like this for a while and then yesterday suddenly it "erupted" and the petals darted out. It stayed like this until today.

It was sunny today and the flower finally opened. I'm so glad I could witness it!

Adromuschus clons (5 pics)

For a while now I have been wondering about price development for succulent plants these days. Prices are skyrocketing for no apparent reason. It's not like the plants have gotten more rare or have grown indestructible. Plants are not an investment. They die. Quite suddenly, too. No regular size plant that's not even old, even if it is extremely rare, should cost more that 20€ and seeds more than 5€. Why would you pay more? Some prices are ridiculous! Out of curiosity I've recently checked Ebay for Adromischus and saw a small plant that was visually nothing special going for 4500€. Why? And especially for Adromischus. It multiplies easily from a leaf, no effort required from the grower.

Fellow growers, let's share our passion, not kill it by making plants and seeds unaffordable.

So, apparently, I am not buying new plants anytime soon. More time to enjoy those I have, am I right? ;) In September 2013 I got one Adromischus marianae v. herrei (green form) and now I have three thanks to the convenient propagation method - leaf cuttings. Sure it takes time and sometimes it can take months for the new leaves to appear even if the root system is fully developed. But the result is a new perfect plant. The below plant looked like this in February 2014, like this in April 2014 and like this in August 2014. Now it has a size of an adult Adromischus and might bloom next year.

The smaller cutting still keeps it's mother-leaf and is a bit slower. In its defense, looks like it is growing two branches simultaneously.

After a time I acquired others but they were not growing too well. I have decided to get rid of them and try anew from their leaves. The one to the right on the above photo is a young cutting of something called Adromischus marianae v. herrei CR1263 and below are my newest cuttings of Adromischus marianae 'Little Sphaeroid'. Hopefully they will develop well in time.

Oh, and here is the initial plant I got the little greenies from. It looked like this back in 2013.

Transplanting for those who live dangerously (4 pics)

Okay, what I'm about to describe below is not the correct way of transplanting, in fact it's very risky and I would never do it with lithops and other mesembs because they rot easily. Yesterday however I was facing a challenge of transplanting over 60 Anacampseros seedlings (An. retusa fa. rubra, An44) from the 5cm container they were growing in. Basically it looked like this:

My goal was to give them more room to grow but at the same time not to use more than 4 new 5cm pots. Also, I wanted to do it quickly. Anacampseros are easy and don't rot when young (rotting sometimes happens to adult plants with thick roots) and I have way too many of them to worry.

The method is simple: fill up the new container with dry pumice, then water the top layer (really just as much as necessary, don't make the whole thing wet), poke holes into it and stick in the plants. 

This way you can fit up to 25 plants all neatly into one 5cm square pot quickly and with little effort.

Remember, if you're not afraid to lose plants and need to do the transplanting in a hurry this is the method to go for. BUT if you use it for mesembs the risk is very high - the seedlings might turn to mush the next day. I warned you! In case of Anacampseros, I have transplanted all my seedlings (hundreds of them) using this method a couple of months ago and had zero losses (you've probably seen the LQ pictures of my huge plantation over on Twitter). Young Anacampseros are low-maintenance.

The new Anacampseros free seed list! (2 pics)

Hi guys!

I finally found time to compile the Anacampseros seed list. If you are fascinated by these plants as much as I am make sure to check it out here or to the right under "new!"

Also, this is my 600th post. Congratulations to me :D

Transplanting in general (7 pics)

I've been doing some transplanting. And there is more to be done because I really want to sow again very soon, all the seed rests that are probably not viable anymore, some of my own seeds (Avonia!), and some conophytum seeds I bought this year.

So this is how it goes. 

Step 1. Squeeze the container from all sides. This is why we use plastic and not clay ;)

Step 2. Pull out the plants. If they don't come out easily, stop pulling and squeeze the pot again.

Step 3. Now fill a pot with fresh dry pumice, up to the top.

Step 3.1. Examine your plants for bugs and remove all old soil from the roots. It's ok to pull off some roots as long as the main root is intact. Don't be squeamish. I usually rip off some of the main root as well if it's too long. If you are transplanting from dry soil into dry soil the plants won't mind (roots inactive).

Step 4. Use a stick to plant the seedlings into the container by dragging them down by the root (in case of adult plants you will need to wiggle the stick to let the pumice stones collapse around the plant and drag it down on their own). You can arrange them to your liking and put really a lot of plants all in one pot this way, saving precious space.

All done.

PS: I actually thought I could put a couple more trays on the windowsill but it looks like it's occupied now :D

Flowering season of sorts (7 pics)

Winter is coming. It's dark when I go to work, it's dark when I come back home. Oh and the sun is rarely shining on weekends. That's a bit annoying after the rainy summer we've had here. Still, some lithops and conos have been flowering and there are currently 4 more lithops buds growing. That's not bad considering the conditions they had to endure this year. Strangely (or not?) the lithops that grew flowers this year are all the usual suspects, the plants they are flowering for me every year, L. bromfieldii 'Sulphurea', L. fulviceps 'Aurea' and L. dorotheae. If not for them I would not have any flowers at all. I'd recommend north-earopean growers to have those in their collection if they want to see flowers.

L. bromfieldii v. insularis 'Sulphurea' C362

L. fulviceps v. fulviceps 'Aurea' C363 

L. dorotheae C300

I kept last year's seed capsule to see if the plant will grow flowers out of the same head every year. This is what it's been doing for several years now. This year however the usual flowering head is resting while the other two are growing flowers.

Conophytums were more eager to flower. I could even catch flowers on the plants that have not flowered before.

Conophytum meyeri 'Leopardium' - that's one very yellow flower!

Conophytum verrucosum 

And of course Avonia quinaria ssp. alstonii was so kind to show some flowers as well. Good timing too - I was able to catch them on camera. I really want to grow these plants from seed. So far I was not successful.

Avonias lifting branches: a theory (3 pics)

In the latest post I casually mentioned my observations regarding the behavior of Avonia albissima branches with ripe seed pots. I find it quite interesting. Apparently, the branches that otherwise lie flat on the ground at all times suddenly lift when the seed pod has ripe seeds in it. I've been watching the flowering Avonias closely since then and it happens regardless of whether they've been watered or not. Recently a couple of my Avonia quinaria plants have been flowering, too. They are normally not self fertile but it still happens from time to time that a seed pod develops. This time it happened again and look at that! The branch with a ripe seed capsule goes way up while the other one lies on the ground. 

I've developed a theory as for why Avonias are doing that. Completely unscientific of course!! :D You know, ripe Avonia seed pods workings are the opposite of Mesembs. The seed pods close up when they are wet and open when they are dry. Not only lifting the pod up to the sun makes it dry quicker and throw off the rests of the old flower it also surely helps distribute the seeds better with the wind. Moreover, if it happens to rain and the seed pod is on the ground it will be much wetter and therefore sealed for longer time. If it's in the upright position when it rains the pod can dry quickly in the sun and the seeds fall out before the ground dries ensuring better germination chances. What do you think?