Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
General Subjects => Flowers and Foliage Now => Topic started by: Alberto on March 14, 2008, 04:53:49 PM
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Hi All.
Today with my surprise I have found my A. creticum blooming. It is the first time. As the total plant is really little, just 20 cm high, I thought have to wait more time before getting ready to flower. It is fragrant, lemon-scented! Does anyone have experience with hardiness? Thank you
Alberto
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Alberto, your little Arum creticum is early, I think, even for Italy! :D
Unless you have a particularly small form, I think it will be taller and larger as it gets older in years. Here in Aberdeen we do have some outside in as warm a spot as we can give, but our main plants are in the glass house. In very cold frosty weather the leaves can collapse completely but soon pick up again when the temperature rises. One small flower has quite a pleasant scent but a large plant in a warm glass house - or in a car going to a show - can be overpowering. :P
A search of the Bulb Log Index should give some more details of the plant's habits with us:
http://www.srgc.org.uk/bulblog/index.pdf
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This is the only Arum species I grow that I haven't managed to flower. I guess I'll have to take the plunge and plant some in teh garden. I find some of them a little enthusiastic, so they all stay in pots, but whereas the others manage to flower fine (purpureospathum, orientale, palestinum, dioscoridis, hygrophyllum, cyrenaicum, etc) the creticum just point blank refuses. Could those who flower this successfully please let me know what conditions they grow it in, and whether you've found it needs anything different to the other species?
Thanks in anticipation. 8)
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Some references to Arum creticum in the Bulb Log:
2/03......3/03.........13/03.........22/03...............48/05............12/07
Hope this helps!
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I just have creticum planted in a bed in the garden with other shrubs and perrenials.It is reasonably drained but heavy soil. We do not have a lot of frost which penetrates deeply into the soil and mine have been happy for 10 years or so and flower each year.I have another clump in a border which is often flooded in winter with no problems. I grow numerous arums (100 plus wild collections)and over the years have planted spares in the garden. This is a big mistake they are a terrible weed once they get going. A poor picture of Arum euxinum which has escaped.
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Thanks Maggi, will check on them when I get the chance.
Tony,
That ability to be a thug once planted out is why I have resisted planting my creticum out. The only one I have in the garden is palestinum, and that only in a very specific place or two.
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What sort of conditions do you have palestinum growing in, Paul? I bought it last year and it does not seem to have made any growth. I have repotted it and all seems well with the corm. Also do you know what sort of winter temperature it can take?
Susan
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Susan,
I grow it in pots and the ground, and it flowers in both. Likes lots of sun I find, because too much shade stops it flowering. I grow it in an 8 inch black plastic pot unprotected from winters of -8'C or thereabouts and it flowers if I feed it sufficiently. If you're in NZ it should be just about to start shooting now, as they're dormant through summer. So.... depending when you bought it last year it may just have been dormant and yet to shoot. I've noticed a number of the Arums are just shooting this last week.
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Susan
all the arums start to shoot in late summer and make growth through the autumn and winter.Cold makes the leaves flop but they recover as it warms up each day.It is perhaps best with palestinum not to let the tuber freeze .
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Thanks to both of you. Yes when I repotted it was starting to sprout. I received it in July last year (the middle of our winter) and it looked pretty awful.
Paul I have it potted in exactly the same size pot you mentioned so will await with interest to see if it grows. Will put it into a sunnier place too.
Thank you,
Susan
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Could those who flower Arum creticum please let me know what conditions they grow it in, and whether you've found it needs anything different to the other species?
Thanks in anticipation.
How long have you had it Paul ?
I bought mine 3/4 years ago and it finally flowered this year. No special treatment, its just stuck in a pot, just like A. pictum (which flowered after 1 or 2 years) stored in a cold greenhouse over winter.
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Andrew,
Hmm.... about 10 years or so I think. Something in that region anyway. A. pictum does nicely for me, flowering in autumn most years, and the other species flower fine as I mentioned. Just creticum at this stage which is being recalcitrant. Might just try taking the largest and putting them into a larger pot and see if that helps. Maybe they need more food than the other species do, so I'll give that a go as well. Not like you can really over feed any Arum..... most of the Araceae just lap up fertiliser.
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Andrew,
Hmm.... about 10 years or so I think.
That's long enough for it to flower I would say !!
Maybe they need more food than the other species do, most of the Araceae just lap up fertiliser.
Mine's lucky if it gets watered, let alone, extra fertiliser !
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Andrew,
Yes, but your "not watered" is probably a sight more natural watering than my "not watered" would be given I'd imagine you have a somewhat damper and cooler climate than me? Our dry time is summer, so the Arums are dormant then anyway, but we often get very little autumn rain in the last few years, which could affect things. Rain itself has nitrates within it and acts as a mild fertiliser...... it's why rainfall always gets a better response from plants than hand watering (but again I would imagine you guys don't get as much obvious difference as we do, given that for weeks at a time our hand watering is often all the watering our gardens get ;D), so your plants would get more fertiliser than you may realise.
I'm gneralising here on the differences between our climates. I realise that there are parts of the UK that get a lot less rainfall than others.
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How long does it take Arum creticum to flower from seed? I have several pots sown in 2003 and 2004 and so far not a flower.
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Not one I would grow in a pot,it seems to do much better in the garden. It is a big hearty plant and needs a lot of root room.I would expect about four years from sowing to flowering.Here are a couple of pictures of it growing under a dwarf cherry to give an idea of its size
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OK, I'll bight the bullet and plant some into the ground somewhere. I do hope it doesn't become a menace!! ::) Would like some flowers from it one of these years though, so if it does then it was probably worth it!! ;D
Thanks all.
Anthony,
Don't be greedy..... mine was bought as an adult plant and after 10 years it still hasn't flowered..... wanting flowers 4 years after sowing SEED is just plain greediness!! ;) ;D
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Paul, in your climate I would certainly plant them out. I would be VERY surprised if they spread much at all. If you are lucky they will make a very stately clump and lookk very smart, just as Tony's do in England......I don't think they'll manage that well outside in Scotland!
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Maggie
I do not think Dunblane is any colder than here and this species is a mountain plant in Crete where it gets covered in snow.I think it needs rich moist ground in the spring to flower.
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Tony,
Eeeeek! :o You mean I'm going to have to give it a GOOD area as well? Rich and moist in this garden are prime positions, as they have to be worked at quite hard!! ;D I'll see what I can do. I'm assuming full sun as well?
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Here in Aberdeen, and in Dunblane, (which as Anthony Darby always tells us, is actually Atlantis renamed ;) ;) ) the prblem is not the cold, as Ian's Bulb Log photos of Arum creticum utterly collapsed with frost then happily recovered and flowering well..... problem is that of summer wet...... Cretan mountain tops have less rain and rather better drainage than we can manage in Scotland, Tony!! ::) :o
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Maggie
I do not want to get into the 'I have more than you' discussion because I cannot find the statistics without paying for them.So I will only say I have not watered the garden in the last five years.Last summer I only was able to mow the lawn four times and I have candelabra primulas self seeding in it and my fish often leave the pond to have a swim around the garden. That is wet. We have our own little micro climate,its chief feature is it rains most days of the year. It is a totally depressing place to live although there are probably worse.
I am stuck in the house writing this because it is raining,will just have to do some repotting.
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Tony,
Oh My Goodness..... the thought of not having to water your garden is just SUCH a luxury. Not having to spend all that time watering every couple of days would be so wonderful. I am JEALOUS as anything. (to put it mildly). ::)
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Last summer I only was able to mow the lawn four times and I have candelabra primulas self seeding in it and my fish often leave the pond to have a swim around the garden. That is wet. We have our own little micro climate,its chief feature is it rains most days of the year. It is a totally depressing place to live although there are probably worse.
I am stuck in the house writing this because it is raining,will just have to do some repotting.
Crikey, Tony, now I know why you travel so much! ::)
I suppose the position of the arum by the dwarf cherry must give it some assistance in using up all that extra water....a pointer perhaps to a successful planting spot for others wishing to try it outside.
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Tony, waterlilies rot in Dunblane because it's too wet. ::) I will try some outside as I'm redoing a west facing bed.
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The first of my arums is now in flower.It is one of the Turkish 'flag' ones and stands about 2 feet tall
arum rupicola, turkey
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Tony,
Not sure I've seen A. rupicola before, although the name rings bells (is it a subspecies of something else? ???). Interesting flower, with a very prominent spadix. Nice!
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Paul
rupicola is a true species formerly conophalloides which is widespread across Turkey and Iran.
here is the next one which is euxinum which is rare in cultivation but very easy to grow
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That is a beautiful spathe Tony.
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Lesley they are one of my passions,so intricate in their form,plenty more to come
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Gosh Tony. Some lovely arums. Seeing as you've shown us yours I'll have to show you mine, but they are a day or two off unfurling. Am halfway through cleaning out my west-facing bed. Two wheely bins of phlox and astilbes have already gone to that big compost bin in the sky. ;)
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Tony,
Thanks for the confirmation of rupicola. Haven't seen it before. Have seen pics of euxinum before, but not as nice as that. Neither species have I seen here for sale, although I was given a piece that is supposed to be euxinum but has not flowered for me (or the source) as yet.
Great pics. 8)
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Some more in flower now.The one from Cyprus is very strange and although I have been told it is a dioscoridis I wonder if it is a hybrid with rupicola.Some plants have more spotting like dioscoridis but it is very flag like in its growth.
arum13 dioscoridis cyprus
arum20 elongatum turkey iznit
arum 154 alpinum greece florina
arum sp turkey macka trabzon
arum dioscoridis turkey k'maras
The last one is a dioscoridis in the wild,a little difficult to see but quite spectacular.
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Tony,
Great to see so many species that I don't grow. I just love the elongatum, and that Cyprus dioscoridis is very unusual. I certainly never would have picked it as that species, not in a month of Sundays. :o
More plants on my want list now..... must do some research and find out how many more Arum species there are that I am unfamiliar with and need to have in my collection. ;D ;)
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Paul you seem to like them, I have a few more to flower yet and hopefully will be able to post pictures
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I find it very hard to accept that the top pic would be A. dioscoridis Tony.
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Lesley I agree that it is difficult to accept as dioscoridis but that is what an expert told me. Here is another from Cyprus no 15 and you can sss that it has similarities with my no 51 which is a dioscoridis from Turkey. The numbers are my database records, I have about 120 arum collections
I think it is a hybrid but I am no expert