Whorled Peas and Other Botanical Musings: 2009-10

The fence is coming along! Cannot wait until I don't have to clean up after the neighborhood dogs anymore... The blue tree alone in the yard is an Acacia baileyana "purpurea".

In this photo, if you squint, you can see elements of our production garden. Two Honeyberry (Lonicera)in the foreground; many strawberry, lingonberry and arctic rasberry, two small Paw Paw trees (Asimina), Two Cornelian Cherry (Cornus), two Currants, one Persimmon and just back up in the first picture around the corner is our Goji.

Now that it's officially Fall, many of my South African seeds are germinating now... even though many were sown in April this year... On the list of those that sat for 6mo without a leaf are Veltheimia bracteata, Babiana ringens, Romulea amoena, komsbergensis, and mondelpha and Geissorhiza tulbaghensis... Also two Serruria florida and a single Leucospermum olefolium have germinated in the last week. I had no germination before then.

Here's a picture of part of the bulb seedling area in the greenhouse with weeee tiny leaves poking up everywhere.

Eucharis is starting to bloom. Photos to come when in full bloom, maybe one more week. A few of my Vireya Rhododendrons are also starting to open.

Oxalis versicolor that blooms all winter. Each flower closes at night with its candycane swirls... and reopens in the morning.

The plastic is up, the fan is screwed in, the thermostats are ready to click on and the door closes tight! My Greenhouse is officially 'finished', temporarily. Next step is to get windows, but that's a job for next year or the next. I know the plastic doesn't look terribly nice, especially with the lath, but it was cheap and temporary. Buying 12 4ftX4ft windows is expensive!

From the back (with fan).

Front (with door).

On the side.

Down the middle.

Those Dicentra formosa oregana seedlings from a different posting.

One of my Pygmy Drosera, D callistos, much bigger than he was this spring, but still only the size of a quarter... You can see the little baby gemmae in the center of the crown. All the pygmy Sundews reproduce with these little gemmae, which are modified leaves that grow roots, that splash out and plant themselves during a hard rain. They should produce adult plants within a year. These things are much more reliable than seeds.

Protea seedings started in April 2009.

Aulax and then Leucadendron and Leucospermum seedlings from April 2009. You can see the 3 big Ld argentum seedlings in the middle (they start out green and silver up as they age.)

The smallest in this batch of 6mo old seedlings are Ld rubrum at 1in and Ld modestum at 2in. The tallest are Ld argenteum and salicifolium both at around 6-8in.

I have no idea what's wrong with this species: Ld daphnoides. It and Ld rubrum are the only two species that have died after the cotyledon stage! They have been weak and sickly since germination, though...

Here's a Pr magnifica from the exact same batch and germination date. For some reason, maybe 3 plants of 3 different species stalled in growth at this stage. One died. I haven't a clue what caused it. It was adjacent to all the rest.

Here are some of the plants I started in October 2009, so they're 2yrs old. They do a LOT of growth in two years!

The big ones in the back are Pr repens and the little ones up front are Ls conocarpodendron.

Pr compacta and lacticolor are tall, and the short ones are Pr cynaroides.

Here are some plants that I sowed this September. They're still in the middle of germination, which was delayed for the colder weather in October.

Pr pityphylla

A Pr acaulos with seemingly 4 cotyledons... I'll have to verify that it's a single plant somehow, but I think that I only did 2 seeds per pot.

From this batch, I've got plants of Pr acaulos, caffra, canaliculata, cordata, nana, pityphylla, subvestita (86% germination), Ld album, galpinii germinating.

I haven't had any germination from Pr aristata, decurrens, dracomontana. I read on FineBushPeople's discussion forum that dracomontana requires sub 0C temperatures to germinate, so since then I've been putting them in the freezer for half an hour to an hour at a time to get the pots cold, but not deathly cold. Hopefully they'll germinate! I really wanted to try this species outside!

Last, my Crowning Glory... Mimetes cucullatus. If you don't know this species, here's my picture from UCSC Botanic Garden in 2008. This is a species with reported 2-5% germination from Kirstenbosch. I ordered 20 seeds, which would mean that I would expect at most 1 seedling to germinate. This one came up mid-September. I noticed today that I have another seedling germinating!!! Two plants is more than I could have ever expected! I am certainly not expecting any more luck... Supposedly, it's easy to grow once germinated... so far so good.