Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum

Specific Families and Genera => Amaryllidaceae => Topic started by: Paul Cumbleton on April 17, 2017, 12:51:50 PM

Title: Placea
Post by: Paul Cumbleton on April 17, 2017, 12:51:50 PM
I had almost given up on ever flowering this Placea arzae as it is 11 years from sowing. But excited to get flowers this year; perhaps it likes its new environment in Somerset!

Paul
Title: Re: Placea
Post by: fermi de Sousa on April 17, 2017, 01:18:23 PM
Wow, Paul,
another genus I'd never heard of before!
Quite an interesting one - another one to covet
 ;D
cheers
fermi
Title: Re: Placea
Post by: Maggi Young on April 17, 2017, 01:45:30 PM
One thing about SRGC folks - they're not quitters!! Patience is certainly one of the virtues forum members show in abundance as they wait for plants to flower. Whether that is saintly of daft, I don't know for sure - but a lot of us do it!
Lovely result for your 11 year wait, Paul. What  lovely markings. How tall is the scape?
Title: Re: Placea
Post by: Paul Cumbleton on April 17, 2017, 05:56:01 PM
Hi Maggi,
The scapes are 33 - 38 cm tall (13 - 15 inches) and each scape has 3 flowers. My only disappointment is that the flowers are relatively small - other pictures seen on the web kind of make you think the flowers are quite large, but they are actually just 6 cm wide (2.5 inches) at the widest point. Otherwise, a great flower!

Paul
Title: Re: Placea
Post by: Maggi Young on April 17, 2017, 07:47:23 PM
Flowers are smaller than I guessed, stems taller - but what a colour marking!
Title: Re: Placea
Post by: johnw on April 18, 2017, 12:56:34 AM
Paul  - The Placea is stunning.  Your patience is to be commended.

john
Title: Re: Placea
Post by: shaundouglas on April 19, 2017, 03:03:16 PM
this is a genus that is next to impossible to locate, and to see some one grow it,
have you made seed pods of this plant>???
if so i would be interested in them ???
Title: Re: Placea
Post by: Paul Cumbleton on April 19, 2017, 09:54:22 PM
Shaun, This is the very first flowering so I don't know yet if i will be able to make any seed.

Paul
Title: Re: Placea
Post by: Rogan on April 22, 2017, 06:17:30 PM
Wow, quite an amazing flower! I tried but failed with this one - didn't like RSA (or me?)  :P
Title: Re: Placea
Post by: shaundouglas on May 08, 2017, 04:17:53 AM
Wow, quite an amazing flower! I tried but failed with this one - didn't like RSA (or me?)  :P

good luck and i would hope that you succeed with the pollination for seed
Title: Re: Placea
Post by: Paul Cumbleton on June 05, 2017, 10:30:00 AM
I managed to get 3 pods set on the Placea and each has a good number of seeds. I'm happy to share them, so if anyone would like some seed, please send me a private message. I'm assuming like other Amaryllids the seed will need sowing as soon as possible.

Paul
Title: Re: Placea
Post by: ollie on June 21, 2017, 02:11:29 AM
Paul - the flowering time for this intrigues me.  April in northern hemisphere is roughly equivalent to October in southern hemisphere where it originates, in Chile.  It is hard to find information on the genus let alone the species but I would have picked this one to flower after the hot, dry summer, with the onset of late summer / autumn rains as do so many other Amaryllidaceae.  Since this is your first flowering in 16 years, the question "is this its normal flowering time?" is somewhat redundant!
Title: Re: Placea
Post by: Martin Sheader on June 21, 2017, 08:59:58 AM
In Chile, Placea arzae grows on sunny mountain slopes, flowering in spring - October to December, so it seems to have got it about right for Paul!
Title: Re: Placea
Post by: ollie on June 22, 2017, 05:07:17 AM
Thanks Martin - not something that my limited searches revealed!
Title: Re: Placea
Post by: Martin Sheader on June 22, 2017, 07:40:48 AM
Ollie, quite a few of the amaryllids and alstroemerias in Patagonia, central Chile and Argentina and a bit further north flower in spring or early summer, usually becoming dormant in summer. So for example,  Rhodophiala andicola, R. andina, R. rhodolirion, R. araucana, R. elwesii, R. mendocina & R. montana are all spring / early summer flowering. Still further north and into Bolivia and Peru I understand flowering times are different.
Title: Re: Placea
Post by: ollie on June 29, 2017, 03:38:13 AM
Great to know Martin - I have young seedling bulbs of a number of these sp so I am now better equipped to manage them!
Title: Re: Placea
Post by: ashley on September 02, 2017, 12:00:41 PM
Seed rinsed in weak sodium hypochlorite solution & placed on just-damp tissue at 4°C began germinating after 14 days, and almost all had germinated by 21 days (photo; 2 mm grid). 
These were planted up in mid-July, since when some seedlings have already gone dormant but others remain in growth (apologies for bad second photo).
Many thanks Paul :)
Title: Re: Placea
Post by: ollie on October 26, 2017, 04:54:26 AM
I was lucky enough to receive some seeds from Paul as well and after no germination on moist perlite at room temperature (22C) after a couple of weeks, I put feelers out for advice on germination.  Received some excellent advice re placing them on moist paper towelling and into the refrigerator for 2 weeks.  Germination commenced almost immediately in the dark and cold of the fridge and I had 100%.  It was all down hill from there unfortunately.  I carefully potted the seedlings (root only, no leaf shoot) into an open pumice based mix, placing the pot in an open top polythene bag (intent being to help retain humidity around the young seedlings) and placed the pot into my unheated greenhouse where at that time of the year, daily temp fluctuations were roughly between 5C and 15C.  They were misted every 3rd day or so but all seedlings just slowly died off - no obvious fungal issues.
I am keen to try again if I can get some more seeds.
Title: Re: Placea
Post by: Paul Cumbleton on October 27, 2017, 04:59:41 PM
Pity your seedlings died Ollie. I sowed some of the seed myself, just in the normal way on the surface of a pot of typical, gritty seed mix and covered the seed with grit. I watered the pot and put it in the fridge for about a month, then in a shady spot in the greenhouse. seedlings emerged about 10 days after, and so far have grown OK as you see in the picture below. Here's hoping.

Paul
Title: Re: Placea
Post by: ollie on November 16, 2017, 10:28:51 PM
I am keen to try again and the next time will follow your lead Paul and try to germinate them in the medium and container they will remain in until established.  They clearly didn't like the transplant process.  Hope your parent bulb flowers again for you next April! (or do you expect to wait another 16 years?)
Title: Re: Placea
Post by: Rimmer de Vries on November 28, 2017, 01:47:02 PM
Pity your seedlings died Ollie. I sowed some of the seed myself, just in the normal way on the surface of a pot of typical, gritty seed mix and covered the seed with grit. I watered the pot and put it in the fridge for about a month, then in a shady spot in the greenhouse. seedlings emerged about 10 days after, and so far have grown OK as you see in the picture below. Here's hoping.

Paul
Hi Paul do you ever have damp off when seeds are sown so closely?
Title: Re: Placea
Post by: Paul Cumbleton on November 28, 2017, 04:14:17 PM
Hi Rimmer,
I haven't found a problem sowing bulb seed like this; in fact they seem to do better overall. Although, I didn't think these were very crowded especially compared to some of the bulb seed pots Ian has shown in his bulb log.

Paul
Title: Re: Placea
Post by: fermi de Sousa on November 29, 2017, 03:55:21 AM
Hi Paul,
the seedlings here died down with the onset of hot weather.
How would you recommend to treat them over summer? Should they be allowed to dry out completely? Or kept moist?
cheers
fermi
Title: Re: Placea
Post by: Paul Cumbleton on November 29, 2017, 04:18:29 PM
Hi Fermi,
I imagine your young Placea bulbs will be exceedingly small and could desiccate if kept bone dry. However, there is always a risk of rotting if kept moist during dormancy. If they happen to be in a clay pot I would keep this plunged in sand and water just the sand. An alternative Colin has successfully used with one year old Fritillaria seedlings in plastic pots is to store the pots in a polystyrene (styrofoam) box with damp newspaper in the bottom and the lid kept on. This keeps some humidity in that stops the compost being desiccatingly dry.

I hope they survive!

Cheers
Paul
Title: Re: Placea
Post by: fermi de Sousa on November 30, 2017, 10:37:03 AM

I hope they survive!

Hi Paul,
I'll let you know! ;D
cheers
fermi
Title: Re: Placea
Post by: fermi de Sousa on June 04, 2018, 01:51:01 PM
Hi Paul,
I'll let you know! ;D

Yay,
a few have already resprouted!
Will they take frost or should they go under cover?
cheers
fermi
Title: Re: Placea
Post by: Paul Cumbleton on June 04, 2018, 04:55:35 PM
Hi Fermi,
Great to hear the Placea have re-sprouted. I have always grown them frost-free, so I don't know if they would take a little frost. I would play safe and move them under cover.

My adult bulbs produced one flowering stem this year (compared to two last year) so I was unable to make further seed. The good news is that this year the flowers were rather larger than last.

Cheers
Paul
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