Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
General Subjects => Plants Wanted Or For Exchange => Topic started by: LarsB on October 27, 2008, 08:16:31 PM
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Hi,
Iøm looking for Pleione, primarily P. vietnamense, P. albiflora, and P. coronaria. I'm also looking for hardy orchids. I have the following to swap:
Disa uniflora (Yellow x ‘Chrismas Gold) seedlings one to two years from flower. Should turn out yellow.
Disa Wilferd Duckitt.
I also got a couple of Epipactis helleborine.
Kind regards
Lars
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Hi, Lars.... I quess you like orchids, then! 8)
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Sorry, I should have introduced myself, but i couldn't find a introduction section here. I live in Denmark and have a house and garden in a Copenhagen suburb.
Yes, i'm primarily into orchids, but growing a lot of other plants as well. Right now, I'm occupied by the Pleiones and although I've been growing them since 96 I still learn something every year. I've been growing orchids for some 27 years now. Disa and Pleione have been my main focus for a number of years but since there's no more room for plants I started on hardy orchids a coupel of years ago.
Kind regards
Lars
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Lars. welcome to the Forum. If you go to the Index, there's a topic called "Let me Introduce Myself," most likely in the General Forum, a few pages back.
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Pleione coronaria!! Good luck with that one - been searching intently for over 10 years with no success. If you do have any luck, please do post here!
Alex
P.S. More usefully, I have lately seen albiflora at a few commercial sources, Crustacare have had bulbils in the past and groundorchids.de will have small ex-flask plants next Summer.
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Crustacare is an unfortunate sounding name though, isn't it? ;D
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They've got two activities :
growing orchids and.... building lobster tanks.... hence.. Crustacare. (They're a Belgian Company ;) )
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Yes, rather unfortunate-sounding - but they are thoroughly recommended!
Alex
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Hi Alex
Tried contacting Crustacare, but email just returned !!
Are they still trading !!!!!!!
Eric
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Hi Lars,
As far as I know, P. vietnamensis is not in cultivation. The photo in Ian Butterfield's book is of the only plants ever collected. I have never heard of it being seen again since, let alone being brought into cultivation. P.coronaria is exceedingly rare in the wild, known from only 2 locations. There are a few bulbs in cultivation, but not many and it has proven difficult to grow. It has been raised just once successfully from seed, but very few seedlings resulted. I would not expect to see it offered for many years yet unless growers can become more successful at growing it. P. albiflora is also still rare in cultivation but has been raised from seed a few times, including by myself, but these have proved slow to grow on - mine are still tiny!!. Crustacare had their albiflora stock stolen a couple of years ago, so I don't know if they have been able to get more since. Sometimes too when I have seen albiflora offered for sale elsewhere it has turned out not to be albiflora at all, so be careful when you buy if you find any.
Paul
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Hi
You are correct Paul. Albiflora when it arrives is often a form of x Barbarae.!!!!!!!!!!
Eric
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Thanks you all for the response. I'm aware of the problem with albiflora. I had hoped that Crustacare would put some up for sale, but I guess I can forget about that.
Crustacare was still trading in October, when I bought some Cyp. seedlings from them.
It sounds like vietnamense will be impossible to get hold of. I know of a few people that have coronaria in cultivation, so I'll wait and hope.
I'm in the process of replanting all the Pleiones now. Now is the time where i can't wait to get tehm growing :)
Kind regards
Lars
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Crustacare was still trading in October, when I bought some Cyp. seedlings from them.
Might they not just be taking a winter break?
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I am new to the orchids. I ordered plants from T&M about 15 yrs ago for pleione hookeriana. There was a crop failure and they refunded my money but I never got anything. So, of course, now I'm on a misssion. I have searched the internet and it brought me to this site. Does anyone have knowlege of this plant or know where I can find some? ???
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I'd suggest you visit Paul Cumbleton's site http://www.pleione.info/ and go to the "suppliers" page.
Good hunting !
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If you are new to Pleiones I would not recommend that you start with P. hookeriana as this is one of the most difficult species to cultivate. Go for any of the hybrids. A good one I always recommend to start with is Pleione Britannia 'Doreen' which is particularly vigorous. If you still nevertheless want to get P. hookeriana, you can get it from Burnham Nursery http://www.orchids.uk.com/paradise.htm - but expect very small, possibly not flowering size bulbs.
Paul
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I have a few Pleione hookeriana, which flowered for the first time last year, very rewarding, have had them for three years and lost quite a few. But I seem to have cracked it now and they increased slightly last year. If you're interested, email me at mtalbot@talktalk.net.
But I agree with Paul's suggestion. If you are fairly new to pleiones, P. Britannia 'Doreen' is really rewarding and a very pretty plant to start with. Mine are now beginning to grow and I have raised temperatures slightly (min 5 degrees C) to get them to flower for the London Orchid Show at the end of March.
Or you could try one of the autumn flowering ones, such as Pleione praecox. This is another great favourite of mine. I particularly like the wonderful scent. If kept cool, it will flower for three weeks. And they multiply quite reliably. I have a fairly large collection of praecox from different sources, all flowering at different times. This year I was treated to P. praecox and its perfume from October to Christmas. :) :)
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Maren, can I ask what minimum temperature you give your praecox? Do you give it a little more heat than most?
Alex
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Sorry I am so late in replying. Broke my right arm at the London Orchid Show which sort of put the spanner in the works. While I was having a party at the hospital (well, not really), my friends built the display for me, using my plants and materials and - I got a silver medal!!!
Coming back to your question, I give some of my Pleione praecox a little more heat, just a couple of degrees, but I'm not sure that they need it, just ran out of space in the pleione house. Light is what they want and lots of food and water. Mine are growing really well this year.
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Oh, Maren, what a disaster! Mind you, the silver medal must have cheered you up rather a lot.... what good chums you have, well done to them for their kindness and skills, eh?
Are you fighting fit again now? Hope so!!
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Alex
I leave my Praecox in the Greenhouse until late January ,which is only kept frost -free .I then bring then into a very cool place indoors that keeps a minimum of about 8 deg c, to get them started into growth. I do not place them back in the greenhouse until June . I have tried leaving them in the greenhouse with the majority of Pleione but find the growing season a little short and the bulbs often don"t grow well enough to flower .
Good luck
Eric
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I do like the Disa uniflora variety of your profile pic. It's so nice, is it a big challenge to grow disas?
As to Pleiones, I suggest Pleione maculata, an antumn flower species, not so sensitive to hot summer in my opinion.
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Yang
Disa"s are not too big a challenge, but it will not tolerate anything other than rain water and very little feeding.
In the UK ,certainly, Pleione Maculata needs ,in my experience, to be grown indoors all year round if to be grown well.
Eric
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The Disa in my profile is uniflora 'Christmas Gold'. It's really beautiful. In my experience disa is dead easy to grow, but Disa got a reputation of being difficult. As eEric has already wirtten, the key is to use clean water, plenty of it.
Kind regards
Lars