Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
General Subjects => Flowers and Foliage Now => Topic started by: Maggi Young on March 02, 2019, 01:01:30 PM
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Ypsilandra thibetica is flowering now - witness these photos from Lisa Wesley of Growild Nursery...
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...and Lisa has shared these tips for propagating this plant, and the similar Helionopsis.....
Here's the conversation that took place on Growild's social media page....
Growild: Ypsilandra thibetica: I thought I'd share the easiest way to propagate it (see photo 3). In three simple steps: cut off last year's leaves with a knife; insert each leaf tip and base into a sharp draining compost; water and keep in a cold greenhouse or frame. Given time, small plantlets will start and form on the leaf tips and, once large enough to be independent, these can be potted on.
SRGC: Would this work the same with Helionopsis?
Chris Parsons:
I believe it does. Though I've never tried it with this plant. The Rankins had a plant that produced plantlets on the tips of the leaves when they were buried under leaf litter.
Margaret Young: I'll be trying this. Counterintuitive that the new growth is at the leaf tips!
Chris Parsons:
Yes Maggie. Sometimes you'll get two plants from one leaf. One from the base and one from the tip. Though I suppose it makes sense for the plant as the old leaf tips reach the ground.
Carolyn McHale: Yes it does work for helionopsis too - I have done it! takes a couple of years to make flowering plants.
Growild Nursery: I should have said that it also works for Helionopsis. The plants do this naturally where the tips touch the soil - only by doing it this way you not only get plantlets forming at the tip but also at the leaf base and sometimes along the leaf blades too. The is the best way to propagate as seed is hardly ever produced on our plants and need to be sown within a week or so and division can be tricky.
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Thanks for sharing, Lisa!