Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
Cultivation => Cultivation Problems => Topic started by: Philippe on June 03, 2011, 08:20:59 PM
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NOt a problem yet, but a try of cultivation:
2 years old now, already spent a winter outdoor.
As I had 5 pots ( plastic), I tried 4 in the open air, without any protection during last winter, and 1 in a rain sheltered place, where it could only get snow, and the water of it by the melt during milder periods.
No problem with the 5 this spring regarding to the winter watering treatment. No difference at all. ( well we had much snow from november till late february, and very few rain after it had melted. So the open air 4 plants didn't get overwatered at all)
BUT: as the warmth increased late april and during may, I started to notice some differences:
The rain-sheltered pot was left in bright light and full sun, whereas the other 4 were shadowed and plunged in moist sand.
The first begun to turn yellowish, the others went on with new green growth.
So the first returned quickly with the others in this more shaded but cooler place, and after 10/15 days, new green growth also reappeared on it.
There could even be some flower-buds in preparation for this last, but I'm not sure yet, everything is still quite hidden within all those little hairs.
Seems like they rather appreciate here some shade and a cooler environment and really resent too much warmth at the roots when in full light.
On the other hand, the only one which has built up several rosettes is the one which grew longer in bright light...
I must find the compromise between both to have a chance to get if possible well-grown and flowering plants.
I'll tell about it in the next weeks, or perhaps even next year if they make it through the next winter.
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Seems like aerial growth is finished this year with the eritrichium here. I even find they have suffered from the very wet ( air + rain) period we had since 15 days ( no rain protection or so), some rosettes on 2 plants beginning to turn brown ( not a good sign at all at this time of the year!). I think my potting mix has also perhpas become old
I decided to repot them this morning, roots looked quite good and a little congested for some, but much rarer and not so healthy for others.
I'll see if that was a good idea in the next weeks, as they really don't appreciate root disturbance ( I had losses when I first picked out the seedlings at the 2 true-leaves stage last year, especially the ones I tried to place directly verticaly in a hole)
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A month later now.
And 2 plants which have given up the fight, after having been potted out. Was no surprise for both, as I didn't really expect them to get much better, whatever I would have done
Another one seems to take slowly this way, and should be gone before the end of fall.
And the last 2 ones have greatly appreciated the new potting mix for the moment, and wear a healthier green. It might even be that they show encouraging signs of new growth.
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Hi
Some news again.
Didn't see last time I posted, some 2 weeks ago, that one of the eritrichium was ready to "bloom".
So I was very surprised for a few days, as I discovered a quite disappointing "muddy" little blue spot somewhere on the cushion.
Unfortunately, I think this flowering "trichi" is just trying to survive, anyhow, before to die, as its look has gotten really worse since last time. I don't even believe it will make it through the next weeks if it goes on this way. I don't expect it to set seed, of course, but...well, who knows? I am not finished with my cultivation tries!
Well, there are still 2 others left, but from these both, only one is in my opinion still able to go on fighting reasonably. The other one should be dead very soon, or is already.
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Oh Philippe, my heart goes out to you on this difficult journey.... but remember the saying.. "it is better to have loved and lost.........."
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Update May 2012
A really big and good surprise for this new season.
I thought I had left last fall with just 2 slowly but surely dying Eritrichiums, and didn't expect to see any of both on the return this spring.
And it also didn't look like I was wrong as I saw what was left of them on early May.
But as the month passed by, it appeared that one of them suprisingly still had will to go on living for a season maybe, getting healthy new growth.
[attach=1]
First one, which I never thought it would come again this year, and which I believe now it won't make it through the season.
[attach=2]
Second one, which might well reserve some surprises for the next weeks to come! Or not, we'll see.
I had decided last year to repot each of them in by far too big pots for their size, using a freely draining, granitic, and quite poor medium. Why big pot, and the risk of having too much moisture or water within during rest period? As I said, I have lost some of the really healty looking seedlings just by pricking out. Having a long term view, I thought it would be wiser to avoid most possible any further root disturbance in the future, using therefore those bigger pots for the second repoting operation. Now in such a big pot, the only survivor, I probably won't have to care about any new stressing or fatal repoting, as the eritrichium should have enough space for the next years to come, if it is what it feels like of course...
It could get some company soon: what about planting an androsace alpina seedling in the same pot, and a gentiana verna? Plants associations are sometimes the key to more success, providing each other shelter/help or whatever else not always really understood.
Next update during the summer ;)
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Hello Philippe,
how is the evolution of the Eritrichium nanum? Please keep us informed :D
greetings Lily-Anne
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Hi
I intended to make an update before the end of august ;) As well for the eritrichium nanum as for the rheum nobile too, in the other topic.
Here are also the 2 eritrichium nanum:
First the healthiest one
[attachimg=1]
Many rosettes, no flower sign untill now ( it's getting late, but last year one of them tried 1 or 2 flowers as late as early september).
The leaves begin to turn yellow, but now I have some experience from previous year, I don't worry that much about it, and think it is just normal at this time of the year.
Roots begin to look out at the bottom of the relatively big pot, a good sign.
The second one didn't recover really since May:
[attachimg=2]
But as one can expect with such a species, patience must be the key word: it didn't lost any rosette, and the one which begun to grow in may look good, with secundary new ones probably more for next year if the eritrichium's still alive. The plant is presently very small though.
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News about the Eritrichium nanum from past year.
The 2 plants, each in a single pot, are still here. But I won't tell about one of them, which still doesn't manage to get better than the previous year, and which probably will never get better I think.
The other one is giving great hopes however. It seems to have some plans with some spring flowering this year. Perhaps then with the true Eritrichium-blue this time ( last time it flowered was in September 2011, but in a quite color-disappointing way, as do most of the plants when they get a second blossom in fall).
With some other potted plants around it in this part of the propagation bed, it had some "arrangement" last winter. Most of the time not really knowing what it is like to stand 5 months under snowcover in the wild, I was wondering how I could prevent the snow from laying on the cushion so long here.
Impossible to place the pot horizontally somewhere between high rocks, this would have been far too dangerous, and anyway, none of the rocks of the garden, as high as they may be, look out of the snow in winter here.
Impossible also to let the pot the whole winter somewhere under a roof or so, protected from every snow or even rain.
So it stayed in the propagation bed, vertically plunged in sand as usual, but to ensure snow would not lay directly upon the cushion and cause perhaps too much humidity in it, I simply put a sort of iron grid over this part of the bed, on which I tied a piece of more fine plastic grid to prevent snow to get through it, as can be seen from the shadows in the pic ( could have done more simply with just a fine iron grid, but I didn't have a fine enough one and it must absolutely be very strong to hold the enormous weight of the snow without crushing down pots and plants under)
Well anyway, here is a pic of the thing I installed last fall.
[attachimg=1]
A first snow in late october confirmed that this could be ok later during winter.
As can be seen on the pic, the plants under the grid remain snowfree and have at least a little air-space above them, thus not suffering from the prolonged contact with snow/humidity which could be too long here.
Androsace helvetica did surprisingly well this way here too.
Eritichium's pic now.
[attachimg=2]
Of course next update will be with flowers, I hope!
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let's hope that your eritrichiums will ever flower. Apparently there are few success stories about eritrichium nanum. please keep us informed
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A dream comes true, the Eritrichium nanum is flowering! Won't be covered with blue, but at least it looks healthy.
[attachimg=1]
Otherwise I will shortly make a new update of the flowers in the garden in the other forum section as usual, but it will probably only be during next week-end or so.
Lot to tell about, winter has finaly stopped, and there are some pretty things out here now ;)
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Hurray! A success, Philippe - how very satisfying for you. :)
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Well done, congratulations; it sure is a beautiful little thing - think it will grow here (ha, ha, ha!)? ;)
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What a triumph for every rock gardener. Congratulations.
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Well the success is for the greatest part naturally due to the climate here. I just had to try to make a convenient soil at the beginning, and the weather would hopefully do the rest then. And so it did ;)
I am thinking on a way to present some Eritrichium nanum in the garden itself for the next years. In a trough maybe. It's the only exemplar I have now. If it gives some seeds, it's ok for a trough-try, otherwise I will have to think about cuttings, but a difficult decision then ::)
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lovely, well done!
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Here is a photo of my Eritrichium nanum, Seed in 2011, from April 2014:
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...and the same Plant on May 9:
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Welcome eritrichium. The plant is growing well isn't it? The foliage is a really good green.
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Yes, the Plant grows very well and is in very good condition. Two seedlings are also in the pot, one from August 2013 and the second from April 2014.
Greetings from Germany
Jan
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Where do you keep the plant, Jan? In an alpine house or cold frame? Where in Germany do you live?
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I live in Saxonia, Eastern Germany. From Spring to Autuum, the plant is in my Garden, in the winter in my glasshouse, protect for winter wet.
When it rain, i put the plant under a roof, directly wet is deadly for the plant.
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I think that the time it spends outside is good for getting the plant to look so healthy.
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Yes, thatīs right. :)
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Congrats, the plant looks very healthy indeed!
Mine didn't stand the winter, this was the last one. Too much humidity under very wet snow for weeks last winter probably helped murdering that poor thing, although after seeing your plant, I also realize mine was probably never really happy anyway, and just waited for that good excuse to give up with dignity ;)
Keep on reporting how your Eritrichiums are doing!
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Thatīs very sad!!! Eritrichium donīt like winter wet and also directly rain in late summer (August).
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This is its American cousin, E. aretioides. (Some botanists say it's nanum.)
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The second cousin, Eritichium howardii.
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I suppose I should mention that eritrichiums are not particularly difficult to grow here, so the pictures don't represent any exceptional skill. One time a very well-known rock gardener from the EU saw the plants in a trough here, and I said, "Oh, those .... There are millions of them up the road about 48km, and about 3km higher up."
What you need, of course, is a terrible climate, just like the ones eritrichiums grow in, and I can provide that for the plants. (You don't see them growing in Bermuda, for instance.)
It's the middle of November, and tonight's low will be -23C.
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Penstemon, those are lovely eritrichiums you're growing. E. aretioides is quite difficult here in the Northeast, but E. howardii is a much better doer. It flowers reliably and even self sows mildly. One popped up in a piece of tufa (they are all in the tufa garden) and has remained there at least 4 years, perfectly healthy looking but no flowers so far.