Oncos in flower in southern hemisphere

[arillady]

Joakim,
Closest source to you would be Hans Achilles or Rafa Dominquez in Spain - both are members of this forum. They should do well for you if you can keep them dry over summer. Received Jim and Jenny Archibald's new seed list yesterday. They had a number of oncocyclus species listed 5 seeds for 9E - seeds are cheaper through the Aril Society International seedlist - when we have some of the different species but the original sources are not listed.
Pat T

[Joakim B]

Hi Pat thanks for the information !
Do they need to be absolutely dry so that NO rain hits them or is the normal rain free with only a few scattered rain clouds OK. We would talk about rain once a month or so. Is having them well drained enough so that they do not stand in wet conditions enough for them "dry during summer"?
Please inform more about the Avril society!!
Is seeds an easy way where the seeds can be scattered and then left to its own devices. But for 5 seeds for 9€ I would not do this approach at all. Then panting in pots sounds better but I prefere if mother nature can do the nurtering with just the smallest assistance from me.

Kind regards
Joakim

[arillady]

Joakim,
The Aril Society International website: www.arilsociety.org
Here you will read all you need to know about membership.
I leave most of my rhizomes in situ now. We do have the odd summer thunderstorm and they have come through ok. I did remove some that were on the side that any water runoff might effect them adversely. If you can have them growing high enough above the ground surface level and plenty of gravel around the rhizomes and you don't get feet of rain you should be fine.
I once tried planting seeds straight in the soil but that year there was hardly any germination. With aril seed there is an inhibitor in the seed coat - this needs to be soaked out. I have seedlings coming up occasionally from seed that had not germinated when I planted out pots of germinating seeds - after 15 years.
I never water the arils after their initial seedling stage.
When I first grew the arils I would cover them with sheets of galvanised iron sheeting raised up on a few bricks so that there was air movement still. This worked well. But now I have the arils planted in odd sized beds scattered over the hillside so the iron sheets would not be practical now - and very unsightly.
Pat T

[Joakim B]

Hi Pat
Thanks for the information seems as they would work here.
I will look at the website and get more info it sounds interesting.
Kind regards
Joakim

[Regelian]

Pat,

are any of the pictured flowers representative of the seed parents of your ASI and SIGNA donations?  I have been lucky enough to get quite a few of your crosses.

[Maggi Young]

Hi, Jamie, welcome to the Forum..... I guessed with your username that you would be an Iris lover. There are some good growers here, also some folks lucky enough to be able to show us wondeful photos from the wild..... I think you will like it here!

[arillady]

Hi Jamie,
Yes the donated seed that you received would be possibly from some of the stock shown. Even though many are not pure arils species but hybrids between hybrids of species they are beautiful in their own right. Would be good to be able to just pollinate the same species to get pure seed but I have often not another clone of a species - I do try to pollinate eg; haynei hybrid x haynei hybrid to get close to the species.
First rain all year last night and this morning so there should be new growth appearing soon. The nights are cooling down and this seems to initiate new growth.

[Regelian]

Maggi,

thanks for the welcome! Yes, I do have a thing for arils, partly due to their beauty, partly while they are a challenge. I'm breeding with tet regelias, as well as pumilas and other tetraploid entities.  My main perennial, if one can call it that, is Hemerocallis, of which I hybridize about 2,000 seedlings per year.  In the end, if it has flowers, I'm interested. Maples, magnolias, paeonia.... But most of you fall into the same category.  Here's to the choir!

Pat,

thanks for the info.  I kinda suspected as much, as the crosses seemed to lean in this direction.  I plan to do karyotypes of most of the seedlings and see if there is anything directly observable, which may help to place individuals.  Should be fun, but a long learning curve.

[arillady]

Jamie,
I hope you keep us (SRGC and ASI) informed with your findings.