Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
Bulbs => Bulbs General => Topic started by: Hans J on January 25, 2015, 12:04:44 PM
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Hi all ,
today first flowers on my Massonia citrina ( sown 2010 )
This plants are new descriptet in Phytotaxa 2013 from Prof. Wetsching at all
Enjoy
Hans 8)
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Loverly massonia Hans, does it have a scent?
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John ,
who needs a scent with this color ?
I suppose it has a Citron fragrance ;D
Hans
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;D
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Thanks Hans, and I did enjoy your lovely Massonia citrina 8).
Angie :)
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Hi Angie ,
I know it ...you would like it :D
Hans
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Great Hans,
I never saw M.citrina before.
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no wonder Renate !
Du weißt ja :
"Wenn Dir das Leben Zitronen gibt ...mach Limonade draus"
Hans
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Hans, you very kindly shared some Massonia citrina with me and these too are flowering for the first time. For some reason (just genetic variation I guess) two of the bulbs have grown much quicker than the others and have made decent sized bulbs already (pictures below). The other seedlings are all about the same size as the ones in your photos.
I have also noticed some subtle variation in the flower colour. The first two pictures below (of the same plant) show one which has lovely bright, clear yellow flowers. Another has flowers which have a more green-yellow colour (third picture below).
This species is a wonderful addition to the range of Massonias, adding some welcome colour that all the other species lack.
Paul
Massonia citrina
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Wonderful Hans & Paul!
One for the wish-list!
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Hi Paul ,
great to see my seedlings again :D :D
It is always good to share plant material with plant friends ...
Hans
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Paul - Your greenish flowered one is quite lovely.
johnw
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Wonderful citrinas Hans and Paul! I´m green of envy!
:D
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Great plants Hans and Paul. Certainly one for the list.
Chris
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Here some photos from my Massonias:
2 different Massonia depressa from Kamieskroon
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Massonia pustulata JAA1498
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A reminder that the preferred maximum size for pictures in the Forum is 760 pixels wide : http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=65.msg321035#msg321035 (http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=65.msg321035#msg321035) -- there are more notes in that thread, too.
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Oh sorry Maggi, i only have seen that macimum 200KB is allowed. I try to chance it later after work
:-\
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Ok, changed already
8)
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Ok, changed already
8)
Thank you !
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Hi Bernie ,
great to see your pics of your flowering Massonia :D
It is interesting to see that you have the "real" M.pustulata ( in sensu Prof. Wetschnig )
Those other "wrong" pustulata are now M.longipes
Do you have a location information from the Archibald plants ?
Best wishes
Hans
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Hi Hans,
thank you
:)
Sadly i have no more details.
Archibald?
I thought Audissou:
http://cludwigfr.dyndns.org/collector.asp?Acronym=JAA (http://cludwigfr.dyndns.org/collector.asp?Acronym=JAA)
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I found it on Audissous sale list:
pustulata RSA JAA 1498 S. Swellendam
And i found more destails:
http://cludwigfr.dyndns.org/fn.asp?FnID=148809 (http://cludwigfr.dyndns.org/fn.asp?FnID=148809)
Field number : JAA 1498
Collector : Jean André Audissou
Species : Massonia pustulata
Locality : Koppies, S. Swellendam
Date : 25/09/2010
But his plant looks different, maybe alba form?
Photo Source:
http://jean-andre.audissou.pagesperso-orange.fr (http://jean-andre.audissou.pagesperso-orange.fr)
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Hi Bernie ,
ooops you are right ::)
I have mixed JAA with JJA :-[
"Da war wohl der Wunsch der Vater des Gedankens"
Hans
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Bernie ,
thats great that you found those information ;D ;D ;D
I have just looked - Swellendam is given as locality for M.pustulata ( sensu JACQUIN )
Hans
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Hi Bernie ,
ooops you are right ::)
I have mixed JAA with JJA :-[
"Da war wohl der Wunsch der Vater des Gedankens"
Hans
Ja, für mich auch! ;D
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Maggi ,
could you please translate it ?
Thank you
Hans
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Maggi ,
could you please translate it ?
Thank you
Hans
"Da war wohl der Wunsch der Vater des Gedankens" would translate as " probably the wish is the father of the thought " - in English we would say " must have been wishful thinking" -
and I was thinking JCA too, so I was doing the same as Hans!
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Maggi ,
if two pealpe think the same so we say :
"Two heads ...one mind "
Thanks
Hans
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Yes, we also say something similar - "two minds with but a single thought" or sometimes "great minds think alike" ;)
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;) ;) ;)
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Yes, we also say something similar - "two minds with but a single thought" or sometimes "great minds think alike" ;)
I always thought it was "fools think alike" and "great minds run in the same channel"!
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Certainly there is a fuller saying I know - "great minds think alike and fools seldom differ" :-X
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We say :
"Children and fools says always the truth"
;D
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update for Massonia ...now summer growing species :D
Before some days I could take pictures from my (self sown ) Massonia wittebergensis
Enjoy
Hans
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Hi Hans
how long from seed sowing to get flowers on M wittebergensis?
Thank you
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Hi Hans
how long from seed sowing to get flowers on M wittebergensis?
Thank you
Hi Rimmer ,
I have just looked :
My bulbs are sown in 2008 + 2009 ...I do not remember when they flower for the first time
I have also a pot with Massonia spec. Black Mts. Lesotho ( for me M.saniensis ) and another pot with Massonia spec. JJA 15710 Lesotho Sani Pass ( also M.saniensis ) ...they flowering in the second year
Hans
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here is a pot of M wittebergensis seed started in March
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Really lovely Hans. Worth the wait I think.
Angie :)
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Here is one grown from seed sent by Hans. Had to go out with a torch to catch the pesky snail that chewed the leaves.
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Here is one grown from seed sent by Hans. Had to go out with a torch to catch the pesky snail that chewed the leaves.
Anthony at least he /she never chewed the flower off. I finally have some growing from seed. Just wish they wouldn't take so long to grow.
Angie :)
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Thanks Angie ;) ;)
Anthony : it is great to see that plants from my seeds growing now in NZ ...congratulation ;D
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Where would I be without friends sending seeds? Thanks so much Hans. From now on more seed grown plants will flower each year. I just need a bigger garden.
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Anthony : good news also from me ...your seeds of Dietes are starting with germination :D :D
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Hi Hans
how long from seed sowing to get flowers on M wittebergensis?
Thank you
This is the first flower on any of my plants, seed sown August 2011.
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I have been separating and potting on 2 year old Massonia spp. today. Took them out of a very dimly lit cupboard where they've been sitting potted but absolutely parched. I was very surprised that they were alreay making new roots as you can see in the pictures. Seem very small for 2 yos, maybe I'd better start to fertilize regulaly. M. echinata plentiful but tiny after a year, M. obovata - very few but same size as the pustulatas.
M. wittbergensis I mistakenly sowed last autumn and up they came. I then had to move them under lights to simulate summer and then dried them off and sent them to the cold cupboard till June, after much misting no signs of activity so today I potted them on and found one just breaking dormancy. I will have to extend the season a bit to get them back in sync I suppose.
john
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This M. depressa plant hasn't hung around, I only gave it and the others in my little massonia collection there first watering of the season about a week ago.
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The M. pustalata seedlings (photos 1-2) took about 4 weeks to emerge and amount to anything. You can see in my previous post the bulbs were not a bad size. Perhaps they were slow due to the warm humid weather, quite atypical of August. The tiny M. echinata bulbs (photo 3) also repotted on 4 August are taking their good old time. M. obovata - photo #4, up with M. pustulata.
I will mulch them after they have made good roots and it's a bit safer to water.
Meanwhile I am still watering 2013 Massonia ex JJA seeds that have never emerged. Time to toss them?
Ed. whoops had an obovata pic as pustulata, now corrected.
john
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Hi John you massonia's are looking good, if they were mine john I'd give them another year. I had some iris that took over two years before they germinated.
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Hi John
i also did not know they were summer growers and started M. wittbergensis from the 2013-14 SRGC SX last September, they have kept growing all year. it was only last winter that i learned they were summer growers from a comment by Paul C. so i started another batch. They have been outside on a porch all summer.
here are both batches now.
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Rimmer - I was lucky and was able to trick the M. wittebergensis into 2 years of growth in 10 months but they were very reluctant to come up in late Spring after a winter under lights with a brief cold rest. Mind you they are tiny compared to yours, alive is the main thing.
John - It seems I ordered the JJA seed in 2012 also so I'll have to check the date.
john
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Massonia species are great little plants to grow: this is M. echinata flowering in the wild near to my new home.
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Great to see them in the wild Rogan, the leaves look a bit tatty, looks like something has been chewing on them.
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I like this time of year when the Massonia are just starting to emerge :)
Here are two new shoots:
First is a hybrid between M. amoena and M. hirsuta. I find it hard to stop these two hybridising. Usually with hirsuta as the pollen parent. The reverse cross seems less frequent (presumably as M. amoena has its stigma hidden down inside the tube). The hybrids usually lack the best features of either parent and get discarded. This one is quite nice however.
The second picture is of a seedling from the late Charles Craib's final Penrock seed list. Listed as 'M. hirsuta, very robust form, Nieu-Bethesda'. It is about to flower for the first time. I'm not yet sure it is hirsuta, personally, but the fritillaria-like tesselation on the leaves is fascinating. Sadly this fades as the leaves mature.
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I like this time of year when the Massonia are just starting to emerge :)
Me to, and like I have said before it's thanks to certain forum members that I have a little collection of my own to enjoy ;D
Angie :)
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Me to, and like I have said before it's thanks to certain forum members that I have a little collection of my own to enjoy ;D
Angie :)
The beauty of growing these winter-growers is that we get to enjoy 'spring' twice in a year :)
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The second picture is of a seedling from the late Charles Craib's final Penrock seed list. Listed as 'M. hirsuta, very robust form, Nieu-Bethesda'. It is about to flower for the first time. I'm not yet sure it is hirsuta, personally, but the fritillaria-like tesselation on the leaves is fascinating. Sadly this fades as the leaves mature.
My word, that tesselation is grand, isn't it? Seems that with a lot of these leaf markings as the foliage first emerges, one has to be on the ball to observe and enjoy it while it lasts.
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Darren - I'm growing seedlings of Massonia obovata, pustulata & echinata. None have tessaltion, is there a chance it will develop on any of these next year in their 3 year?
john
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Anything is possible John.
Certainly leaf markings, hairs, pustules develop more as the bulbs age (never write off 'poorly' pustulated forms of pustulata (or longipes if that is what we are supposed to call it now) until year 3 - they do improve).
Usually seedlings of pustulata/longipes that have a faint purple cast in year 1 go on to have pronounced, sometimes blotchy, purple colouring on the newly developing leaves when mature.
That said - I've never seen this tesselated pattern before and I've raised hundreds of Massonia seedlings. Nearest I've seen to it are forms of depressa with purple markings - though these don't seem to have the same regularity of pattern. I don't recall the tesselation being so pronounced last year, when the bulb was still too small to flower.
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My word, that tesselation is grand, isn't it? Seems that with a lot of these leaf markings as the foliage first emerges, one has to be on the ball to observe and enjoy it while it lasts.
Indeed - reminds me of some Cyclamen mirabile forms where the leaves emerge quite pink.
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Anything is possible John.
Certainly leaf markings, hairs, pustules develop more as the bulbs age (never write off 'poorly' pustulated forms of pustulata (or longipes if that is what we are supposed to call it now) until year 3 - they do improve).
Usually seedlings of pustulata/longipes that have a faint purple cast in year 1 go on to have pronounced, sometimes blotchy, purple colouring on the newly developing leaves when mature.
That said - I've never seen this tesselated pattern before and I've raised hundreds of Massonia seedlings. Nearest I've seen to it are forms of depressa with purple markings - though these don't seem to have the same regularity of pattern. I don't recall the tesselation being so pronounced last year, when the bulb was still too small to flower.
Just spotted on ebay - a form of M. echinata with signs of very similar tesselation:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MASSONIA-ECHINATA-rare-BEAUTIFUL-SP-spiky-white-FLWG-SZ-/252090173308?hash=item3ab1bec77c (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MASSONIA-ECHINATA-rare-BEAUTIFUL-SP-spiky-white-FLWG-SZ-/252090173308?hash=item3ab1bec77c)
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John I think this is very likely to be Massonia depressa which can have this kind of marking. It is certainly not M. hirsuta - you can tell that already from the form of the developing bud which lacks the characteristic overlapping scales of hirsuta but looks just like M. depressa.
I have several plants of M. depressa with purple markings and in all but one the markings fade as the leaf expands through the season. But just one has very pronounced markings that stay for the whole season - see picture below. Oddly I have other plants raised from seed said to be collected from plants with well-marked leaves that have all turned out to be plain green.
Paul
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here are seedlings of Massonia depressa in 4 inch pots started in March 2013 from NARGS seed ex.
the leaves on some are pustulate, does that mean they are hybrids with M. pustulata?
looks like some may bloom this fall.
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here are seedlings of Massonia echinata in 4 inch pots started in March 2013 from NARGS seed ex.
again the leaves on some are pustulate, does that mean they are hybrids with M. pustulata?
looks like some may bloom this fall.
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here are seedlings of Massonia pustulata in 4 inch pots started in May 2013 from PBS seed donated by Arnold T as from purple leaved plant.
this is the first season they are showing the purple and pustulate warts. of the batch i kept, about 50% are darker coloured and 50% lighter colored. and the green ones tend to have smooth leaves while the purple ones tend to have more pustulate leaves. At the same time Arnold all donated seed of a green form of M. pustulate and the seeds from that crop that i grew were far less vigorous (only 3 grew up) but they show the exact same leaf diversity.
i have not seen any bloom yet but i wonder how can one distinguish all these Massonias from each other? they all look about the same especially with the leaf variations. M. pustulata can be pustulate or smooth, the same with M. depressa and M echinata.
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Impressive plants after two years, Rimmer.
Can I ask what treatment/feed you have given them and when? Presumably you moved them into individual pots after the first year.
Thanks, Chris
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Looks like you are going to have fun with all these plants 8), one of my favourite so looking forward to seeing them in flower.
Angie :)
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Impressive plants after two years, Rimmer.
Can I ask what treatment/feed you have given them and when? Presumably you moved them into individual pots after the first year.
Thanks, Chris
Hi Chris
i started each seed lot in a 3 to 6" pot, inside initially with a sandwich baggie on top, then when the green shows the baggie was removed and the pots were placed about 6-8" below a fixture of 4x 4' T-5 53 watt 6400K,fluorescent T5 grow lights (very bright) near a basement window with a 6" fan blowing when the lights are one. the temps was 50-75 deg F (day- night). My mix was left over seed mix from many used pots. essentially builders sand- a dirty local sand with small limestone and other rounded glacier pebbles, sand and fines, plus some bonemeal, turface, granite chips probable some peat moss or leaf mold for organics. these plants need to be kept rather wet during the growing season under these lights which put out a bit of heat.
i posted photos of their progress in prior SRGS forums on massonias.
here is one prior post:
http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=12377.msg317606#msg317606 (http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=12377.msg317606#msg317606)
one thing i learned in growing these is not to use osmocote. it puts the plants into premature dormancy when it gets warm under the lights .
i donated most of the seedlings to the Pacific Bulb Society BX 385 when i potted them into these pots in late August.
http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/pbslist/2015-September/ej00t5njg588rhtvncdga2hvp3.html (http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/pbslist/2015-September/ej00t5njg588rhtvncdga2hvp3.html)
the new mix this past August was essentially the same.
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Massonia jasminiflora - sumptuous! 8)
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Hi Chris
i started each seed lot in a 3 to 6" pot, inside initially with a sandwich baggie on top, then when the green shows the baggie was removed and the pots were placed about 6-8" below a fixture of 4x 4' T-5 53 watt 6400K,fluorescent T5 grow lights (very bright) near a basement window with a 6" fan blowing when the lights are one. the temps was 50-75 deg F (day- night). My mix was left over seed mix from many used pots. essentially builders sand- a dirty local sand with small limestone and other rounded glacier pebbles, sand and fines, plus some bonemeal, turface, granite chips probable some peat moss or leaf mold for organics. these plants need to be kept rather wet during the growing season under these lights which put out a bit of heat.
i posted photos of their progress in prior SRGS forums on massonias.
here is one prior post:
http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=12377.msg317606#msg317606 (http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=12377.msg317606#msg317606)
one thing i learned in growing these is not to use osmocote. it puts the plants into premature dormancy when it gets warm under the lights .
i donated most of the seedlings to the Pacific Bulb Society BX 385 when i potted them into these pots in late August.
http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/pbslist/2015-September/ej00t5njg588rhtvncdga2hvp3.html (http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/pbslist/2015-September/ej00t5njg588rhtvncdga2hvp3.html)
the new mix this past August was essentially the same.
Thanks for that detailed reply, Rimmer. With that attention to detail it's no wonder they are doing well. :)
I'm banned from yet more projects so will have to follow a more conventional route and wait a bit longer for flowering.
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Massonia jasminiflora - sumptuous! 8)
They look very healthy, Rogan. A different approach from Rimmer's, crowding them all in one pot, but they seem to like it.
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From seeds sown 4 years ago (they came from Hans J....many thanks again my friend):
Massonia pustulata (ex G. Koehres)
and Massonia sp. (ex Burdach 11182)...never knew if this one has been named to species so I kept it under it's collection no.
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Two questions about Massonia, first I am running my Massonias quite lean and wonder if I should be fertilizing and with what?
Lastly, do Massonias offset underground? I ask as I have had a couple of small shoots arise 3-5cm from the mother plants. All were individually potted in August and not a chance multiples went into any of the single pots.
john
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Two questions about Massonia, first I am running my Massonias quite lean and wonder if I should be fertilizing and with what?
Lastly, do Massonias offset underground? I ask as I have had a couple of small shoots arise 3-5cm from the mother plants. All were individually potted in August and not a chance multiples went into any of the single pots.
john
John, I fertilise them a bit with K2SO4 (Potassium Sulfate), twice in their growing period and (if I don't forget) once with a liquid tomato feed.
Never heard of them making offsets, always thought that they hardly ever propagate vegetatively, they are quite easy from seed though....
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Thanks Wim. Must have been some tiny stray seedlings that got into the pot whlst transplanting.
john
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They don't normally offset unless damaged - they can be propagated by scoring just like hyacinths. That said, I have two forms of echinata which offset regularly, and a clone of Burdach 11182 which offsets very prolifically.
Incidentally Wim ; I think the Burdach plant is M. hirsuta.
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Incidentally Wim ; I think the Burdach plant is M. hirsuta.
Thanks, Darren, two other people mailed me saying it is M. jasminiflora and M. echinata...I'm more confused than ever
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Wim, you might find this thread from 2010 interesting as it covers offsetting and also has pictures of the Burdach plant (which keys out as hirsuta due to the hairy bracts) and hybrids.
http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=4787.msg171576#msg171576 (http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=4787.msg171576#msg171576)
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Wim, you might find this thread from 2010 interesting as it covers offsetting and also has pictures of the Burdach plant (which keys out as hirsuta due to the hairy bracts) and hybrids.
http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=4787.msg171576#msg171576 (http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=4787.msg171576#msg171576)
Thanks Darren, will have a look!
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It does illustrate how taxonomy moves on. The 'jasminiflora pustulate leaf form' is now described as M. amoena. The nice form illustrated (with quite silvery leaves) died soon afterwards but several of its seedlings have inherited this feature.
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Thanks again, Darren, it does seem to be M. hirsuta indeed...I've changed the label!
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It does illustrate how taxonomy moves on. The 'jasminiflora pustulate leaf form' is now described as M. amoena. The nice form illustrated (with quite silvery leaves) died soon afterwards but several of its seedlings have inherited this feature.
Hi Darren, where do you look to find taxonomy of Massonia? is there a book or paper on these plants? the Massonia i have grown from seed ex seed don't seem to be as described. I have been told that any Massonia that are not protected at flowering likely produce hybrid seeds.
Thank you Rimmer
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You have been told right. M.hirsuta especially for me, it readily hybridises with amoena and pustulata (which we are now supposed to call longipes).
Paul Cumbleton has been good at flagging the recent taxonomic changes via this forum. The literature is not easy to obtain if you don't subscribe to the right journals or are lucky enough to have access via an academic institution. The most recent attempt at a monograph was Alison Summerfield's thesis but this is not published, though a useful summary was published in the U.K. South African bulb group newsletter a few years ago. Since then, things have moved on and a research group in Austria has been publishing new descriptions in journals. I can probably send some PDFs once I get back to the office next week if you are interested?
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Hi Darren thanks
yes, i am interested,
here are the first blooms of the Massonia pustulata from the seed Arnold T sent to the PBS BX in May 2013.
Do these look like straight M pustulate? i have no reference to compare to.
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Yes they do. Very nice ones too!
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You're doing well with those, Rimmer!
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The first of my massonia's is flowering for me, this one is M. Hirsuta.
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Massonia tenella -Nieuwoudtville
from a kind forum member
very different flower type here, small plant leaves are about 2-3 cm wide for a scale[attachimg=1]
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started as seeds in March 2013 from NARGS as Massonia
depressa - yellowish flowers
are these identified correctly or hybrids?
Hybrids possibly of pustulata/longipes possibly crossed with echinata from Darren's response below
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started as seeds in March 2013 from NARGS as Massonia echinata - yellowish flowers
are these identified correctly or hybrids?
here are they in fall 2014
http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=12377.msg317606#msg317606 (http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=12377.msg317606#msg317606)
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update on the massonia pustualta from Arnold's seeds started in May 2013- the flowers are pinkish
http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=12729.msg344600#msg344600 (http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=12729.msg344600#msg344600)
it has been suggested these may be M. longipes. However, it may also be that they are hybrids
any ideas?
Thank you.
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I don't think the pustulata are hybrids Rimmer. Nice plants :)
Whether you call them pustulata or longipes is up to you - they are two names for the same plant. It was recently decided that the plant we had long called pustulata was actually a match for the (older) description of longipes. So the longipes name gets priority. Edit: See info from Paul C below.
Your picture of 'M.depressa' from NARGS seed is certainly not depressa though. My guess is that this is more likely to be a hybrid. And I don't think depressa is in its parentage. It looks like pustulata/longipes possibly crossed with echinata, though it is hard to be certain.
The flowers resemble a plant going around as 'M.aff echinata', which has relatively small inflorescences but very large tumbleweed fruits and large plain leaves with a weird rough rubbery texture. I'd be interested to see the fruit next spring.
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Here is the 'M.aff echinata' I refer to above. I've had similar plants from both Silverhill and Summerfield seeds. Also - a plant distributed by Kohres cactus nursery appears to be this as well. The fruit is on top of a 12cm pot - it is the largest fruit of any of the Massonia I have.
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Darren,
Massonia longipes and M. pustulata have indeed been confused but they are not actually the same thing - they are two different species. Most of the plants going round in cultivation as M. pustulata are actually M. longipes, whereas the true M. pustulata is a different species which seems to be much rarer, both in the wild and in cultivation. The scientific paper which tries to sort out this confusion is freely available to read on the internet, at for example this address:
http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Martin_Pfosser/publication/235874810_Massonia_pustulata_JACQ._1791_and_M._longipes_BAKER_1897_(Hyacinthaceae)_two_frequently_misunderstoodspecies__or_how_M._pustulata_becamedepressed/links/0c960519085652f06e000000.pdf (http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Martin_Pfosser/publication/235874810_Massonia_pustulata_JACQ._1791_and_M._longipes_BAKER_1897_(Hyacinthaceae)_two_frequently_misunderstoodspecies__or_how_M._pustulata_becamedepressed/links/0c960519085652f06e000000.pdf)
It includes a lot of helpful photos and diagrams which help to show the differences.
On hybrids, it is worth saying again that massonias cross so readily with each other that you can assume that if you have a collection of them, all seed set will be of hybrid nature unless you have taken steps to exclude bees and other pollinators and then hand pollinated your chosen species. I would urge everyone who sends Massonia seeds to exchanges to adopt this approach or at least to indicate that the plants were open pollinated (which means you will almost certainly get hybrids produced).
Interestingly, I have yet to encounter a hybrid between any Daubenya species, or to produce one despite much trying. Has anyone else been successful with this? Seems that unlike the massonias, daubenyas are most chaste!
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Thanks for the clarification Paul, my mistake. I should have read the paper again before commenting!
Absolutely agree with your point about hybrids. I've previously posted pictures of my Massonia prophylactics - here is one again, on M. amoena. Simply a cone made from stiff shade netting and secured with a paper clip. It serves to keep drone flies and other hoverflies out - which seem to be the main pollinators in a sunny autumn. Little danger this year - I've not seen a single one.
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One of my Massonia echinata, raised from seed, has turned out with a variegated leaf. haven't seen this on a Massonia before - has anyone else seen examples? I'm not overly fond of variegation generally, but I thought this was reasonably appealing.
Paul
Massonia echinata variegated form
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What a beautiful and precious one, Paul :o :o :o I've never seen before like that. Thak you for sharing the pic.
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Your picture of 'M.depressa' from NARGS seed is certainly not depressa though. My guess is that this is more likely to be a hybrid. And I don't think depressa is in its parentage. It looks like pustulata/longipes possibly crossed with echinata, though it is hard to be certain.
The flowers resemble a plant going around as 'M.aff echinata', which has relatively small inflorescences but very large tumbleweed fruits and large plain leaves with a weird rough rubbery texture. I'd be interested to see the fruit next spring.
Thank you Darren
All these came from the same seed batch from a single donor. Do you think the smoothe ones with the roundish leafed are truer M. depressa ?
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These Massonia echinata, raised from NARGS seed in 3" pots look similar in shape and leaf texture to Paul's striped plant.
Are these identified correctly?
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One of my Massonia echinata, raised from seed, has turned out with a variegated leaf. haven't seen this on a Massonia before - has anyone else seen examples? I'm not overly fond of variegation generally, but I thought this was reasonably appealing.
Paul
Massonia echinata variegated form
I've had a M.hirsuta that had white variegation for two seasons then either died or reverted as I don't recall seeing it this year. Mine was also badly distorted (possibly virus?) and wasn't anything like as appealing as your plant Paul.
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Thank you Darren
All these came from the same seed batch from a single donor. Do you think the smoothe ones with the roundish leafed are truer M. depressa ?
Possibly the first one might be depressa Rimmer. The leaves look right but the flowers are not yet open. Depressa has distinctive flowers and I'm pretty sure the rest of the 'depressa' pictures are not depressa.
Your echinata look right - or at least very much like the form of echinata I posted a picture of above.
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Hi Darren
on of the round smooth leaved massonia flowers opened and it does have different flowers and looks like its namesake Massonia depressa.
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Massonia pygmaea in a 9cm pot, today :)
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Hi Darren
on of the round smooth leaved massonia flowers opened and it does have different flowers and looks like its namesake Massonia depressa.
Agree that is depressa :)