Patagonia January 2010 , The Viola tour

[Gerdk]

Ger, I missed your post and I'm reading, re reading and re re reading it for a long time !
Fantastic trip, text and PICTURES !!! Congratulations to you and your wife  I know she had to be patient...
The Viola are simply stunning, fascinnating me and I never seen so many excellent pics from this rosulate species.
many many thank's again for sharing with all of us,
fantastic post again 

Ger,
- so did I, not much to add!  Fantastic!

Gerd

[gervandenbeuken]

John Watson has emailed me that Viola aff. escondidaensis is Viola escondidaensis. So glad we found the real species.
See pic in the first set.

[gervandenbeuken]

Gerd, do you have any experience with the cultivation of the rosulate Viola's.
Germination is not the problem, but it's getting quite difficult to grow up the young seedlings.

[arillady]

What a  thread which I missed till today. Forum members keep posting plants that are absolutely amazingly different to the normal. What a trip and what unusual plants - uhm wonder how many are in Australia already? Not many I should imagine and probably never will be. Thanks so much for sharing Ger.

[Gerdk]

Gerd, do you have any experience with the cultivation of the rosulate Viola's.
Germination is not the problem, but it's getting quite difficult to grow up the young seedlings.

Yes, I tried to cultivate some rosulates. Unfortunately with limited success. For germination I used the same 'toothstick' method like you described. After that I kept the paper with seeds in a sealed plastic bag and stored them in a fridge at a termperature of about 4 ° C until the seedlings appeared. Then these were transplanted in a similar mix as yours.
Elongation was a problem too but not with all species.
Most trouble was caused during hot spells in summer when temperatures were high day and night and the potting medium became dry and warm.
All my losses were caused during these periods. I am in contact with two violet specialists which had the same problems. Sorry - seems not much help from my side.

A very successful grower (Cyril Lafong) gave the following cultivation hints:
The plants were cultivated in a large alpine house with overhead ventilation by fans (on and off every 15 minutes) all year round. Shading provided with whitening agent painted outside during June to August. A lot of water when in growth otherwise they tend to flop.
He pointed to his special climatic conditions (Scotland) where temperatures rarely exceed 25 ° Celsius.
Cyril added that he had reasonable success by using the mothods described  but added that
these violets are definitely not easy. Nevertheless the longest time he managed to grow them was about to ten years.

So only to add from my side: try to give sufficient light, ventilation and cooling under your conditions and there will be a chance to have success.
Please let us know here about your results because the Andean rosulates are really worth to grow here in Europe.

Gerd

[gervandenbeuken]

Many thanks Gerd for your information.
I think however that compared with the Scottish climate it will be much more difficult here in the Netherlands to grow S. America plants.
Anyway, we will see/ I collected some seeds from Viola vulcanica and V. trochlearis and I noticed already the first gemination.

[Maggi Young]

I collected some seeds from Viola vulcanica and V. trochlearis and I noticed already the first germination.

 Bravo, Ger, the first step is accomplished!

[Anatol]

Hello! Sorry for my English. Thanks  for yuor information and photos! It is very beautiful plant!

 In November 2010, my friend from Russia studied the cacti in Chile and found an interesting Viola. What is this taxon?


Anatoly
Omsk, Siberia

[gervandenbeuken]

Hello! Sorry for my English. Thanks Gerd for yuor information and photos! It is very beautiful plant!

 In November 2010, my friend from Russia studied the cacti in Chile and found an interesting Viola. What is this taxon?


Anatoly
Omsk, Siberia

Dear Anatoly, this is definately a Rosulate Viola sp. Unfortunately I'm not able to determinate this plant.Nevertheless it is a fantastic species which we did not see during our tour. In the coming days I will do my best to identify this plant.

[Hoy]

Have you tried here: http://www.chileflora.com/Florachilena/FloraEnglish/ESeeds.htm?G_START=336

http://www.chileflora.com/index.html

Michael have a nice homepage with lots of Chilean plants, and he do sell Viola seeds!

[WimB]

For those who are interested:
Ger will be giving a lecture about his Viola Tour for the Flemish Rock Garden Society on the 5th of February 2011 in Ghent (Belgium).

[Kees Jan]

For those of you who would like to see more pics from this brilliant tour, but can't go to the meeting in Ghent: there are 4372 pics in my Patagonia gallery at http://keesjan.smugmug.com/Botanical-trips/North-and-South-America/Patagonia-January-2010/

The pics are indexed so you can search by plant family or species name. No need to spend a day or two to see all of of them if you are just interested in a particular species or certain plant groups  .

[gervandenbeuken]

In the mean time I was figuring out some things and I think this Viola is very similar with Viola Philippii.
We have also seen this species in the past in Chile . To be sure however, I will try to figure out more about this species. What ever, this is a fantastic plant and thank you for posting.

[christian pfalz]

hello ger,
fantastic pictures from fantastic plants, any expierience of this violas in culture, greenhouse or outside ?

cheers
chris

[gervandenbeuken]

The discription of this way of cultivation is quite extensive in this forum, maybe a better idea to participate in the Discussion Weekend in Dumfries in September next year, where I will lecture on the culture of the more difficult plants, including the rosulate Viola species. However, some hints I can give if desired.