YES!!! The "I'm so happy" thread. 2009

[Magnar]

Yesss, I am so happy! Seeds of Ranunculus lyallii have germinated abundantly 2 years after sowing. Seeds from Jelitto, so I guess it is the right thing. 

[Lesley Cox]

I'm happy for you Magnar. I imagine, thinking of what you grow so superbly in north Norway, that R. lyallii will flourish and flower strongly for you. Good luck with it.

[Eric Locke]

I"m happy that a new Pleione cross which only produced five seedlings has three that are starting now to grow.
I was convinced these were lost.

Eric

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Well done Magnar and Eric !
Looking forward to the pix in a number of years... 

[Ragged Robin]

Here,here - no wonder you're both so happy 

[David Nicholson]

Now that Wimbledon is over and the pat-ball grunt and groan merchants have crept back into hibernation for another year we can now get back to the serious business of Test Cricket and hopefully putting the Aussies to the sword!!

[Lesley Cox]

Now that Wimbledon is over and the pat-ball grunt and groan merchants have crept back into hibernation for another year we can now get back to the serious business of Test Cricket and hopefully putting the Aussies to the sword!!

You may say that David, but I couldn't possibly comment.

[maggiepie]

Now that Wimbledon is over and the pat-ball grunt and groan merchants have crept back into hibernation for another year we can now get back to the serious business of Test Cricket and hopefully putting the Aussies to the sword!!

David, bite your tongue, the ashes need to stay in their rightful home, which would be Oz  .

[Rodger Whitlock]

I'm so happy!

I recently posted a few pictures of my garden, including one of my prize specimen of Mandragora officinarum with its clutch of egg-like green fruits. These have now been harvested to finish ripening in the shade rather than the blazing sun, and the happy report is that there were 25 fruits on the plant. Outstanding! There should be plenty of seed for both the AGS and the SRGC exchanges.

Downside: the small study where I keep seed being cleaned and packaged is now scented with the nearly nauseating cheesey-fruity scent of the mandrake fruit as it sits and ripens.

I'm also happy that a visitor pointed out seed capsules on two trilliums I don't pay much attention to, and further, identified them as T. maculatum and T. chloropetalum white form. I'm swotting up in Case's book to try to verify these ids, and will have to mark them as possibly mistaken if I cannot when I send the seed in.

It is important to say that my renewed interest in collecting seed for the exchanges I belong to is due to these very forums and the high level of intelligence displayed in the discussions. You didn't realize, did you, that when you freely use technical vocabulary (or, in the case of Lesley, give a recipe for Neenish tarts), you were causing my study to reek of ripening mandrakes. Yes, I'm so happy. And it's all your fault. 

[gote]

You are welcome Rodger 
Göte

[fermi de Sousa]

It is important to say that my renewed interest in collecting seed for the exchanges I belong to is due to these very forums and the high level of intelligence displayed in the discussions. You didn't realize, did you, that when you freely use technical vocabulary (or, in the case of Lesley, give a recipe for Neenish tarts), you were causing my study to reek of ripening mandrakes. Yes, I'm so happy. And it's all your fault. 

Good onya, Rodger!
I'll look forward to seeing the Mandragora on the seedlist as it's on our "allowed list" for importing into Australia!
The more donors the better!
cheers
fermi

[Maggi Young]

It seems to me that 25 fruits on a mandrake is near a record number.... I'm impressed. 
Pity about the smell, though.... multiplied 25 times   
Perhaps a small note on the front door, Rodger, warning visitors that there IS a strange smell but NO, it is not from the human occupants, might be a wise precaution? 

[Rodger Whitlock]

It seems to me that 25 fruits on a mandrake is near a record number.... I'm impressed.

I'm impressed, too. We had a long cold spring that seemed never-ending, but when the weather turned warm it did so "with a vegeance", as the literary phrase puts it. A number of things in my garden (and others' in Victoria) have flowered much better this year than in the past, perhaps due to more protracted winter chiling starting with a cold December and then hanging on until about May.

I have a group of mandrakes in a shaded bed under the overhang of a deodar, and they only set fruit scantily and sporadically, but this prize-winning plant in full sun has never performed any better than the shaded ones - until this year.

I've posted a note on mandrake cultivation in the General Forum for those interested.

[Paddy Tobin]

Rodger,

I added a comment to your posting in the General Forum about my mandrakes not flowering/fruiting well over the years but now see your comment here as very relevant to the question I raised there. Your poorly fruiting plants are under a deodar - mine are under a large birch and in shade.

Perhaps, I should lift one and transplant it - screaming and shrieking (that will be me, not the plant!) - to a more suitable location. After all the fruits are far more decorative than the flowers.

Paddy

[Ragged Robin]

Can we see your mandrake fruits, Roger, my imagination is running wild with all the descriptions of seed production