back at last

[Bjoern Malkmus]

Hello Shawn,
some more thoughts on your species:

> > 1.) My A taiwanense is 4 years old ( this will be it's 5th season) and
> > sets a huge seed head, none of which are viable. Does it need
> > a 2nd to produce seed?
>
> Arisaema come in male & female versions and it takes two to tango.
> (...)

Partially right. Some (very few actually) species will develop viable
seeds without being pollinated, e.g. the group around  A. erubescens
and the North American native A. triphyllum and its forms.
Unfortunately it seems that the rarer species will indeed require to
"tango" before any viable seeds might be produced.

> > 3.) My A.sikokianum, du bois-reymondiae, and candidissimum
> > both red and white) were purchased from a local nursery (who
> > purchased from Chen Yi) and are now in there second season.
> > I have planted them in pairs. Does this help and what can
> > I expect?

As stated by Ray, du-bois-reymondiae is some form of A. engleri,
and A. candidissimum in general is not what it is supposed to be.
Chen Yi never had any A. sikokianum (and probably never will). From
my own experiences these are (usually) A. serratum with serrated
leaves and dark-brown/blackish-red spathes.

> Most Chen Yi plants bloom the first year, but I couldn't predict the
> sex. But, you should be prepared to loose a few. The tubers often rot in
> the first season.

Shawn, the plants from Chen Yi are indeed highly succeptible for
rotting in their first growing period and most will develop only
deformed leaves and spathes. Once they mastered their
transplanting, most will show their real beauty in the second season.
In order to avoid rotting I would suggest that you keep them rather
dry in their first growing season.
One of tha major problems with her plants is that these are
completely (over)cleaned before they are shipped. Refer to the recent
discussion here concerning natural protection of uncleaned corms
during dormancy.

Anyway it is a lot easier to successfully raise Arisaema from seeds
than to grow on (wild collected) Chen Yi plants - own raised corms
are just better adopted to your specific growing conditions.

[By the way - thanks for the nice choice of seed from the SeedEx,
Craig ! As I told you before - you did an impressive job !!!]

Cheers,

Bj=F8rn Malkmus