Arisaema surprise

[John Gwynne]

Jim- congrats to you and yes  OP hybrids are something we need to be thoughtful
about  Very sound suggestion..  These plants sound great.. hope fertile for you.

Curious as to how your Kaichens did and how your season has progressed.. After
a terrible dought h last year, lots of plants retrogressed amazingly to juvenile
and lost some old old standbys.. most of a big angust. penn varieg patch
including my best big female. Rats! Also  lost some to a tough winter apparently
including all circa 15  franchetianum.! I  some would have made it  in reduced
size if it had been dry conditions only.  I guess they're not very hardy..
Strangely Sauromattums look fine!
Ironically now that I have a new powerful well, we"re having tons of rain  this
year. Zero days over 90 in july  too , in marked contrast to last year. Presume
you are in similar condition or are you  also picking up the dry hot weather
from the south as well?
Thanks for Kaichen info . This year I 'm going to be much more selectivein
ordering due to heavy mortality.  Had about 40% of species finally sprout in
pots of kitty litter held dry in garage until sprouts started or to May, then
transplnted to richer garden soil on sprouting strongly..Then maybe too wet, but
I suspect fungus with bulbs caused too many to leaf out , then loose top growth
after a week or 3...too fast for normal.  Well, will hope for reappearance in 01
but  suspect the worst.  Is it that the bulbs are too super scrubbed and rough
handled? Did you have similar?
One of my 98 Dysosma difforme that had 6" velvety  hex leaves last year
converted to 12" shiny black and silver and green  ...wow... like some odd
turtle. Super I'd like to try for more odd Dysosma and Paris.. Lost  nice cut
-leafed Dys #1 last winter. Paris # 2  nice sturdy green  ...good stuff....but
which Arisaema to shoot for out of so long a list?.  I definitely need to look
at photos! Have you found any goodies?  All the very best.  John
"Jim McClements, Dover, DE z6" wrote:

> One of the most enjoyable things that can happen to a seedaholic is to have
> something unexpected come from seed. Of course, it's only enjoyable if the
> unexpected isn't a weed!
>
> In '98 I planted seed from A. angustatum peninsulae variegata DJH183 that I
> had had in the garden since '96. I remember thinking at the time that it was
> odd that it made seed, since it was the only one I had, but assumed that
> there may have been some male flowers present. The seed were germinated and
> raised under lights, with the usual three months in the refrigerator between
> growth cycles. They came out of their second refrigeration last month and
> were large enough to plant out in a bed.
>
> Yesterday I found that 4 are flowering, almost identical, with a perfectly
> white globular appendix, obviously the result of pollination of the "mother"
> by A. sikokianum. (which were growing nearby). This is a striking hybrid,
> even more attractive than the sikokianum/takedae hybrid that Don Jacobs
> produced a few years ago.
>
> However, it points out a fact that we sometime tend to ignore. Now that many
> of us are growing many newly-available species of arisaemas, the term
> "open-pollinated" will become much more significant. Seed from a given
> species, unless it is completely isolated from other pollen, has a good
> chance of being a hybrid. In the wild this can certainly occur if two species
> grow in proximity, but most often such is not the case. It's also obvious
> that pollination/hybridization can occur without human help!
>
> It might be well for the seedX to ask donors to identify seeds that are
> "O.P". Arisaema taxonomy is confused enough without having a lot of garden
> hybrids introduced into the mix.
>
> Jim McClements