Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
Seedy Subjects! => Grow From Seed => Topic started by: Cris on October 18, 2007, 01:54:01 PM
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Hi,
I'm about to receive some seeds of this plant, but i don't know how to do to make them germinate.
I'm in Portugal, now the weather is hot, with the nights a little cold. I don't have greehouse.
Can you help me, please?
Thanks
Cris
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Cris,
What I'm about to suggest may be corrected, but I just returned from a trip to Portugal and suspect the weather you're experiencing is fine for the germination of Brunsvigia. The seed is typically sown fresh and green so don't delay when you receive it. A nice, well draining soil and a pot on your veranda ought to do the trick.
Viva Lisboa!
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Hi Cris,
these seeds are thick and fleshy and should not be buried. The way I usually germinate Brunsvigia seed is to spread them out on the surface of the pot of a free draining potting mix which is topped with a layer of coarse sand. If the seed have already started forming their radicles, just push the root tip into the sand layer and they'll take it from there!
Keep the pot in a well lit but not hot area and keep the potting mix barely moist till the leaves start to sprout, then keep them growing with water or very weak liquid fertilizer fortnightly. When the foliage starts to yellow off keep them dry till autumn when they should be eased back into growth with a soaking (see Ian Young's Bulblog for that!)
They take a LOOOOOONNNGGGG time to flower from seed!
cheers
fermi
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Look at this link to see a photo of a Brunsvigia species in the wild....
http://www.plantzafrica.com/plantab/brunsvig.htm
without an idea of proper scale, don't they look like so many little pink blosson trees? ::)
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Thanks for the replies.
I've already received them, they came already a bit germinated. I've sown them just like Fermides said.
I'll put a photo soon.
Carlo, I hope you have enjoied Lisbon.
Fermides, I'll wait paciently ::) for the flowers. I think the bulb must me very big to can flower, wrigth?
Maggy, what a wonderful field. That must be great to can see them "in loco".
Now the weather changed a bit, it started to rain, the cold at night is not so cold. I'm looking for a little greenhouse to put all the seeds inside.
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Some Brunsvigia (josephinae for example) are said to take up to 14 years to bloom! It is also reputed to be the world's largest true bulb (as opposed to the corms of Amorphophallus for example).
I've started some seed of josephinae and will almost certainly be a grandfather before I see any flowers...
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We'll all wish you the best of health, then, Carlo.... and Cris... though Cris is SO delightfully young that she has more time than most of us to wait for her bulbs to flower! Lucky girl! :-*
Carlo, you and the rest of us will just have to keep our fingers crossed! ::)
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14 years to bloom :o? Oh, I've much pacience, but so much?
I thougt it was a waiting of 4 - 5 years ;D .
But, nevermind, just to can see the biggest bulb of all, it worths
;)
Maggy, thanks for the words "so delightly young". I'm almost in the 40's ;D
Well, when I'll 54 I hope to can show to all of you the amazing flowers of my Brunsvigia :-*
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Maggi, that photo of Brunsvigia is like the one (B. bosmaniae) in the excellent book "Namaqualand" by Cowling & Pierce. Indeed like a forrest! BTW, one of the best books on this region with stunning photographs, clear explanation of climate/geological history and detailed life-cycle descripitoins of bulbs, "vygies" and annuals. I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in plants.
Hans
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Hans, thank you for the details of this useful book!
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Hi
My "baby" Brunsvigias seems to like here. The cotyledon had already grown a bit. I'm very excited with these seeds.
That field with "little trees" is realy a show.
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My B. josephinae are still firm and green but have NOT germinated yet. I've got them set up in moist paper towel so that I can photograph the progression from "green pea" seed to blooming plant...(even though I may go through several generations of camera before that happens).
I've done the same with the Welwitschia mirabilis that I've started...seed to adult is the goal...
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I've done the same with the Welwitschia mirabilis that I've started...seed to adult is the goal...
...and you are HOW old, Carlo? I know ambition can be admirable but I fear you may have bitten off more than you can chew, this time!! ::)
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...apparently I'm either older or younger than you think.
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Doesn't really matter how old I might perceive you to be, Carlo, so long as your cardiovascular system is up to the term of about one hundred years that it may take the Welwitschia to get to maturity!!
Good luck! :-*
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Welwitschia will bloom in as little as 2.5 years from seed. Even if it takes 5, 7, or 10, it'll beat the Brunsvigia!
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Crikey, as quickly as that? I thought that for such a very long-lived plant, it would take MUCH longer than that... there's hope for you, then, eh? ::)
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Hi,
Let me tell you that my Brusvingias have already two little leaves (some of them). In the weekend i'll take a pic to show you.
I leave you a pic of them when i received it and some days after be planted:
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Hi,
my little seeds survived the winter and are now little bulbs.
I left you one photo of some seddlings still with green leaves, the others are in dormancy.
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Cris, these are really looking like "real" little bulbs now, aren't they? Where will you over-winter them?
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Hi Maggi
Yes, now the already are little bulbs.
I'll put them in a mini green house I bought (is realy little), but I hope they will be protected from the rain and the cold.
Now they are growing a bit more, they already have more leaves. :)
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Cris, I would think that in Lisbon that your little greenhouse will make a good home for the bulbs. Often a little protection from worst of the wet is all that is needed, I think.
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By now, I must support it very well for don't go with the wind. It's realy very little (1,40x1,40x2,00 mts). Here we have much wind, I hate it. >:(
I have in mind to buy one or to built one with wood. We must start searching for the materials to start builting it. then I'll show you. I've been looking for the prices of a glass greenhouse and it is so, but so expensive, that I gave up of that idea. We must dedicate realy to the "bricolage"(sorry, I don't know the word in english).
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In English we also use the word 'bricolage' ... to mean the construction of say, sculpture, from "found" objects ( like making a sculpture from bits of a bicycle, for instance) rather than creating all from the beginning,( as in carving a square block of marble into a bicycle !).... so I understand you to mean that you must set about making a greenhouse yourselves, as a "do it yourself" project, usung perhaps, old wood and so on..... right? ::) 8) :D
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Yes Maggi, it's that. We will use old wood, tables. Just te plastic we may buy it. It will take some time to be built, we only have a few time in the weekends.