[pbs] Eucomis hybrids?
Diane Whitehead
voltaire at islandnet.com
Sat Dec 16 20:58:17 EST 2006
Here are notes I took at the IBSA Symposium.
Robyn McKenzie's talk was entitled "Beautiful Topknots" and she wore
her hair in a eucomis-like updo. I think her nursery is called
Nurseriwilde, and it is in Natal, South Africa.
She is trying for plants that will be decorative for a long period as
a potplant or a cutflower. She described a plant with yellow flowers
with a maroon centre, black seedpods and a deep purple topknot. This
could be decorative for four months in a pot or three months in a
vase. I did not make a note of whether she already has achieved this
plant. She and/or her mom have been hybridizing Eucomis for 15 years.
Humilis has maroon centres to its pale green flowers and a spotted
topknot. Montana has broad leaves, beautiful black centres, a small
topknot. Vandermerwei has leaves with a crimped edge and lovely pink
flowers.
Now that I look through my notes, I see two species to produce dark
centres, but cannot see where she is going to get the yellow flowers.
She needs to eliminate the stink of bicolor and montana.
She tosses out all seedlings with narrow leaves as soon as they
germinate because a potplant needs short broad leaves. It also
should not produce too many "pups".
Some of the species she has hybridized do not produce hybrid seeds
readily.
Schijffii which was recently discovered in the mountains of Lesotho
can cope with ground that is frozen for two months. It is difficult
to get hybrid seeds from it.
She puts her seeds in the fridge for three or four weeks and then
sows them in a heated bed where they grow over winter. This cuts a
year off but some still take up to five years to flower.
Leaf cuttings are best prior to flowering - the leaves are somewhat
limp afterwards.
She also mentions a few methods of asexual propagation that I am
unfamiliar with:
She twinscales them in heated beds of riversand and has an 80% take.
She also takes cuttings from the flower stem and topknot.
If you remove the flowers, bulblets will form where the flowers were.
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