Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
General Subjects => General Forum => Topic started by: Hans J on July 05, 2009, 12:07:00 AM
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This thread arose from a Hippeastrum thread : http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=3557.15
and is for tales of what extremes you go for to see your plants flower and other obseesive plantsperson behaviour..... think of this thread as online therapy!! 8) ;D
The subject arose when Hans J. wrote:
I have taken with me this two Hippeastrum and the Cryptostephanus to see them flowering in Black Forrest....I had fear to come home and the flowers are over .
and continued.....
Hans, that is dedication indeed.... both to see your plants flower and to return from your vaction in time for Le Tour de France!
Fabian Cancellara has made a strong beginning, has he not? I will be most interested to see how the peleton manages to climb Mont Ventoux on the day before Paris!! What a struggle that will be!
Hans replied :
Yes Maggi - now we have a hard time - every day watch the Tour ;D
Like you I'm very enjoyed that the day before the final etap is on Mt .Ventoux .....
I can not go in this year personly to the Tour ....they are near of me ( Vosges Mts. ) ...but it is the wrong day :'(
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Renate -thanks for your pics !
mhhhh : if I remeber me correctly on your last visit -there was not only two nice dogs in your car ...... ;D
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Bye the way: Usually people make journeys with their dogs or cats....but with plants? I though I am a freak!
Renate,
I make trips with plants all the time..... although usually it is taking some with me for friends at the other end, and bringing back WAY more with me when I return. You should have seen how many plants I brought back when I went to visit Otto, Tim, Fermi and the assorted nurseries and shows down there in Victoria last September. I couldn't have fitted many more in on the way home, that is for sure. Yes, I realise that wasn't what you were meaning, but I still had to chime in. I must admit I have never taken a plant with me on a round trip unless I was taking it to show someone at the other end, not just to see it open. In my climate with my sun I would be afraid to cook the poor plant in the car over the holiday, even in winter. ::)
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Paul :
maybe we could make a new topic :
which people take plants with it when thy make travels ? ( Maggi what you think ? )
I confess I have several times taken plants with me - in earlier time when I go to work ( my cacti are often flowering only for few hours ...and so I had only this chance to pollinate it ....)
In this case i was for one week away ....and here was very hot every day ...so if I have not take with we this flowers are wiltet ...
I would be really interestet to hear if I'm the only ???
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Hans that is a lovely H.aulicum,
I think I have told you in our emails I have often taken plants on holiday with me when holidaying in the UK. I thought that was what the parcel shelf at the back of the car was for!
When I was working and could not get home at lunch time or before dark I used to take various things to work to watch them flower.It brightened the day.
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I believe this business of taking plants on vactaion or to work happens a lot.... especially with the smaller alpine plants, or bulb that are so portable.... hard to manage with an hebaceous border!
Alan Newton takes plants to his shop to enjoy them flowering and his customers get to see unusual alpines as they buy their meat! We used to take "specials" on holiday with us in case we missed a flower and I know that John and Rosemary (two more friends who lurk but don't post) take plants, often orcgids in their case, I think) on holiday in their caravan. Quite understandable that, having nutured aplant along and watched the buds growing that one does not wish to miss the beauty of it.
then there are my cactus growing chums , who will sit up all night to catch a fleeting blossom...... there's a lot of slightly obsessive behaviour out there in the plant-loving world! Wonderful, isn't it?? 8) ;D
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My manifestation for that obsession is going out with a torch to check on something that I have thought of.... you know, you suddenly realise that "such and such should be flowering about now", so I go out with a torch to find out, often when I am on the phone discussing it with gardening friends. Just can't wait until daylight the next day. ;D
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Hans that is a lovely H.aulicum,
I think I have told you in our emails I have often taken plants on holiday with me when holidaying in the UK. I thought that was what the parcel shelf at the back of the car was for!
When I was working and could not get home at lunch time or before dark I used to take various things to work to watch them flower.It brightened the day.
Tony :
thank you for your 'confession'
I think that real plantswomen and plantsman make it like we both !
8) 8) 8)
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this thread moved to the "General " section
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My manifestation for that obsession is going out with a torch to check on something that I have thought of.... you know, you suddenly realise that "such and such should be flowering about now", so I go out with a torch to find out, often when I am on the phone discussing it with gardening friends. Just can't wait until daylight the next day. ;D
Yes -I know this symptom too !
....I have heard some gardencenters selling spades with a torch ;D
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Hans,
If I saw someone out in there garden with a torch and a spade..... I'd be finding out whether it was their own garden or whether they were helping themselves to someone elses! :o
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Hans,
If I saw someone out in there garden with a torch and a spade..... I'd be finding out whether it was their own garden or whether they were helping themselves to someone elses! :o
Or whether their wife or husband had mysteriously vanished! ;D
I've posted pics of plants I've brought to work to see them open!
cheers
fermi
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In winter, at night you can often see a shadow, creeping with a torch through my garden. One minute later you will hear a strange noise and again a shadow, creeping with a torch through my garden - always when I got the alarm in my bedroom which tells me: The gas is empty!
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Some day I had an interesting flower which I wanted to show people at work - I will never do this again.
O.k., it smelled not really good but the way to work was only five minutes with the car - again, I will never do this again.
Do you know Sauromatum venosum? Looks really interesting and when it flowers it smells like a dead horse in your car - it doesnīt helps really to open the windows.
O.k. you can say: Beauty is in the eye of the viewer - this maybe right when you are a carrion fly!
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Renate ,
if you come in winter to my garden you will see sometimes by night a person who goes in the greenhouse with a torch ....to kill the "Raupen" which my Cyclamen leaves are eating !!! >:(
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Renate, how nice to find someone else who grows Sauromatum. I think it a most 'interesting' plant and even put it on the show bench in Aberdeen - unfortunately it did not flower until two days later. Maybe next year.
I don't find the smell offensive, I think cattle slurry rather than dead horses.
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Hi Renate,
is your Sauromatum venosum flowering now? Mine normally flower in Spring. The picture that I have included is a picture of these plants now. They grow outside in the garden in a sandy soil against a south-facing wall and they survive frosts until -10°C. They multiply very quickly too.
I still remember when I bought mine. It was 10 years ago. I placed it indoors on the windowsill because it is a bulb that flowers without being planted. One morning the flower was open and my mother came in and thought that our neighbours (mostly farmers) had spread manure over their land.
I think I laughed for ten minutes before I could explain that it was the flower and not the neighbours that were smelly. ;D ;D
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You grow them outside, Wim? I have a few excess bulbs so I might try that with one.
We keep ours in an unheated room over winter and take it into the greenhouse for flowering. The pots then go outside so that we can enjoy the foliage, probably the best bit of the plant. Ours are looking very much like yours do now. I am noticing that the younger the bulb the earlier the leaves come through?
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David,
mine do very well outside but they get full sun and are growing against a wall in a sandy soil. They survived our very harsh winter this year although a couple of them (which were very near to the top of the soil) had rotted. The younger bulbs get their leaves first indeed, the older ones flower first and get their leaves after they have flowered so maybe that's the reason, the youngest bulbs need to make the more food for the following years.
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Hans, you are a bad, bad man - all those poor, poor "Raupen"
I tried babelfish for a translation of "Raupe" - it says Crawler-type vehicle. O.k. we call that a Raupe too but in first line we mean a caterpillar but for that I needed my oldfashioned Dictionary!
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David,
hmm, cattle slurry could be...
Are you sure people would be pleased if it flowers on a show ???
I cross my fingers for the next year and then you tell me what happens.
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Hi Wim,
some day we came back from England, after holidays. Before I puttet three on a window bench. They all flowered as we came back. I opened the door and puuuuh....
As I potted it late this year they start to grow now and I think I will have no floweres this year.
I heard from people who grow them succesful outside here, too and I think I should give it a try.
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I agree with you Renate, Sauromatum is not a plant I would like to have with me in my car ;D. Mine flowered a couple of weeks ago and filled the garden with a strong nasty smell of manure.
Luckily the flower only lasted from morning til afternoon.
Our little sheltie was attracted to the smell. She likes to roll in smelly things and is very pleased with herself when she finds something really disgusting.
Lots of flies seemed to like it as well.
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David,
hmm, cattle slurry could be...
Are you sure people would be pleased if it flowers on a show ???
I cross my fingers for the next year and then you tell me what happens.
Renate, if the flower had opened this year at the Aberdeen show we would have sent David, and his plant, outside :P That is what we will do next year, also........can't have that stinky thing in the show hall all day.....we are trying to get MORE vistors, not drive those we have away!! ;D
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Gunilla, why is it often the most hairy dogs.... those dogs who are most difficult to wash clean who like to roll in smelly things? ???
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Hans, you are a bad, bad man - all those poor, poor "Raupen"
I tried babelfish for a translation of "Raupe" - it says Crawler-type vehicle. O.k. we call that a Raupe too but in first line we mean a caterpillar but for that I needed my oldfashioned Dictionary!
I mean Frostspanner Raupen ...no idea what is the name in english ....
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Frostspanner Raupen .......... caterpillars who spin frost -like casings? That would be chrysalises that look like icy webs, maybe? No idea.... just trying to work it out!
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Ian said that he appreciated a different plant for visitors to admire! I'm sure that you wouldn't really have thrown me out, Maggie, would you ????
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Oh, yes indeedy! Visitors could have admired it just as well from across the lawn outside!! ;D ;D
That stink could put people off their soup... and that could never be countenanced!! :D
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Maggi ,
after a lot of search .....thats not Frostspanner ....thats Eulen :
Phlogophora meticulosa /Angled Shades
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I am so happy that all you torch and spade night prowlers are very far away from my garden. ;)
I have 3 small and 2 larger Sauromatum bulbs (about 65mm in diameter) and was told that they grow in full sun. Mine all does and are just showing growth above ground for the past two weeks. What size should a bulb be to flower?
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Gunilla,
wonderful pictures. Our Border Collies like them, too.
Normally you should have a cold greenhouse for Sauromatum because if it is cold enouth they donīt smell. If bring a flowering one to place below 10° it takes maybe half an hour and you can have a look without a clip in your nose.
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Ian said that he appreciated a different plant for visitors to admire! I'm sure that you wouldn't really have thrown me out, Maggie, would you ????
If you want, if you really want you could make one from plastic....
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I am so happy that all you torch and spade night prowlers are very far away from my garden. ;)
I have 3 small and 2 larger Sauromatum bulbs (about 65mm in diameter) and was told that they grow in full sun. Mine all does and are just showing growth above ground for the past two weeks. What size should a bulb be to flower?
I think 65mm should be flowering size. I cross my fingers that you get flowers, it is really impressive to watch how they grow.
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Aren't the stinkies just wonderful. I grow a heap of Araceae and just love em, stench or no stench. ;D
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interesting thread--from the title i was expecting a thread about hideous hybrids ;)
.... the arums are very cool... i have some cactus flowers that i miss when i go to work, but i think the driver would rebel if i tried to carry them along...lol