Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
Seedy Subjects! => Grow From Seed => Topic started by: maggiepie on September 14, 2009, 09:52:53 PM
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I grew a few of these plants from seed and the first one has gifted me with a flower. We are having some cold nights at the moment and have already had one frost.
Am wondering if anyone knows how hardy these plants are, am thinking of bringing one inside for winter, the foliage is really lovely and the flower is nice too.
I'd hate to lose them as I am unlikely to get any seeds.
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It comes from Australia, New Zealand and PNG so they may not take to your zone4. They do OK in zone 8
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It comes from Australia, New Zealand and PNG so they may not take to your zone4. They do OK in zone 8
So would they survive as a house-plant over winter, Mark?
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Mark, are they herbacious?
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Not as a house plant Maggi because light levels wouldnt be high enough.
Magpie they are evergreen
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Thanks Mark, I will bring in at least one for winter and see what happens, I don't have much to lose.
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In New Zealand, so far as I know they are native only to the Chatham Islands, off the east coast of the country. Although the climate there is savage in some respects with wind and rain, I doubt if it is as cold as many parts of the mainland.
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They do OK in zone 8
;D ;D ;D
(From the perspective of gardening in zone 3, that almost seems like a given! ;))
Coincidentally, I grew these from NARGS seed this spring and have a couple outdoors too. I have not been graced with flowers though. With Geranium magniflorum (for example) surviving here, it becomes hard to judge what is likely to be a good bet and what isn't. As always, it will be interesting to see what spring brings.
(NB: Being evergreen isn't necessarily the kiss of death - even in a normally patchy, discontinuous snowcover zone 3, the foliage on many evergreen plants does survive to spring; others that are evergreen in milder climates may die to the ground here but they are able to regenerate in spring.)
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Yeo says "it is easily lost lost in severe winters and through winter damp" Farrer said it will root from flowering stems that are finished and fall over touching the soil. I have found it short lived and havent bothered with it for years
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Lesley, I will bring at least one indoors and hope that one might survive outside, perhaps the snow cover will help.
Lori, good luck with yours, I do hope you get to see a flower. My second plant has a bud at the moment,maybe if you have a close look at yours you might see one too.
My seed also came from NARGS .
The colour of the foliage reminds me of G Argenteum.
Mark, thanks for the hint re rooting a flowered stem, I might try that.
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Yesterday while collecting a Camellia 'Cornish Snow' from a local garden centre (to replace the large one from my garden of 20 years ago) I saw a new form of Geranium traversii, probably a hybrid with the little dark leaved G. sessiliflorum var nigricans, in the first place, but subsequently selected. Can't remember the name but I'll go back and get one. The flowers are the usual pink but the leaves are very dark plummy purple and large, compared with other forms. It is extremely handsome.
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Lesley,
G. traversii x sessiliflorum 'Purple Passion' ?
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Lesley, I hope you will post some pics if you manage to get the plant.
I have a few seedings from G. sessiliflorum var nigricans but the leaves are a mid bown and the flowers are white and insignificant. I would love to have a plant with really dark leaves.
I think I had at least 6 seedlings that I planted around and it's really interesting that one made a really nice little clump pretty quickly but most of the others are still tiny plants.
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Rob, do you have a pic of G. traversii x sessiliflorum 'Purple Passion' ?
I just googled it and only saw one and the leaves were so dark I fell in lust!!
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Maggie,
Just took this, with some persicaria as a guide to size and colour. Sorry about the quality - I'm visually challenged ::).
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Dammit! I went to the dentist this afternoon and came away from there totally forgetting to call for the Geranium. I'll phone them and ask for a plant to be kept for me until the weekend.
Rob yours looks pretty much like the one I saw and I think it WAS called 'Purple Passion.' It was even darker than that, but that would be the different light conditions I guess.
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Yeo says "it is easily lost lost... through winter damp"
Only time will tell, of course, but that statement always gives me a thread of encouragement!
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Lori, I see we have another Forum poster in Calgary, called just, JC (pmm).
I accidentally deleted the topic in my Inbox that concerned the tropical waterlilies. You mentioned growing them under glass. I'd wondered about a spa pool. ;D
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G. sessiliflorum var nigricans is quite invasive in gardens here
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Maggie,
Just took this, with some persicaria as a guide to size and colour. Sorry about the quality - I'm visually challenged ::).
Thanks Rob, I'm in love!!
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G. sessiliflorum var nigricans is quite invasive in gardens here
Will keep my eye on mine if they survive winter.
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Geranium traversii grows well and seeds freely for me in the open garden. It should be hardy down to about -3 to 4 degrees though I am not sure how it would cope with being under snow for several weeks. The possums love it and will eat it down to the roots, but apart from that, it is hardy and persistent.
Geranium sessiliflorum has three colour forms, brown, green and an intermediate olive. Leaf colour is determined by one locus with two alleles neither of which is dominant the heterozygote giving the intermediate olive. There is also a coastal form Geranium sessiliflorum var arenarium. I am not sure of the status of Geranium sessiliflorum var nigricans. I am guessing it is a horticultural selection rather than a valid variety. The species in all its forms seeds freely. The flowers are fairly small a borne well down among the leaves - it is not exactly a choice plant.
I am posting a picture of Geranium traversii growing in the wild on the Chatham Islands.
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G. sessiliflorum var. nigricans has survived a winter here, so far.
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Hybrids based on G. traversii shouldn't be invasive even in best conditions. G. sessiliflorum in both green and dark forms does seed about however, profusely.
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Geranium traversii grows well and seeds freely for me in the open garden. It should be hardy down to about -3 to 4 degrees though I am not sure how it would cope with being under snow for several weeks. The possums love it and will eat it down to the roots, but apart from that, it is hardy and persistent.
Geranium sessiliflorum has three colour forms, brown, green and an intermediate olive. Leaf colour is determined by one locus with two alleles neither of which is dominant the heterozygote giving the intermediate olive. There is also a coastal form Geranium sessiliflorum var arenarium. I am not sure of the status of Geranium sessiliflorum var nigricans. I am guessing it is a horticultural selection rather than a valid variety. The species in all its forms seeds freely. The flowers are fairly small a borne well down among the leaves - it is not exactly a choice plant.
I am posting a picture of Geranium traversii growing in the wild on the Chatham Islands.
David, thanks for the information, although I do have to say that mine will be under snow for 3-4 months rather than weeks.
The pic shows you can't beat the way nature plans things.