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Tue Feb 8 04:09:11 CET 2000

hardy  Aroids)" <ARISAEMA-L at NIC.SURFNET.NL> Aroids)" <ARISAEMA-L at NIC.SURFNET.NL>
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From: Louise Parsons <parsont at PEAK.ORG>
Subject: Winter Rot/Growth Report
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Finally getting time to catch up on mail and tend to things.  Still some
unanswered e's in my inbox, but living in the land of perpetual winter
rain, I could not resist this topic.  It also reminded me to check-up on
some of my arisaema kids.  Oleg, Jim, Ellen, all have many excellent
suggestions for dealing with the problem of winter rot.  I especially
like the one about using fresh soil.  We have so much rain here in
western Oregon during the winter that I keep many of my arisaemas in
almost dry pots of fresh sterile potting soil (pumice, peat, forest
compost and sandy loam).  This allows them to begin growth naturally.  As
someone on this list had suggested, it is best to water them when growth
begins.

When storing arisaema in bins or peat bags I found to my horror that some
sprouted long before expected.  Some of those in the pots are already
sprouting.  Since my little colony of A. sikokianum has been built-up
over time (this was my first arisaema from seed) I have kept a few of
them successfully in the garden for several years.  To give them partial
protection from rain, they are planted under the broad eves of our house.
Larry and Ruth Korn grew A. sikokianum abundantly in their wooded
Portland Oregon garden.  Last time I saw this garden a number of years
ago, they had begun to naturalize: an amazing sight!  Tree canopy and
modest root competition also help to offset winter wet.

I have kept the seedlings from the past two year's Arisaema Enthusiast's
seedEx in pots, but will get bold and leave some in the garden with only
limited protection in the future.  Incidentally I have had excellent
germination both years and many small but healthy tubers:  I peeked
quickly at just a few pots and here are some informal growing results:

'99 Pots that I am able to peek at:

A. draconitum donor Bush:  9 tubers out of 12 seeds

A. flavum abbreviatum from Gusman 12/12

A. favum from Dambrauskas: There were 30 seeds.  Some of these have been
passed around locally, but I had nearly 100% germination and survival

A. amurense Lager 4/6

A. sikokianum Lively-Diebold 9/12

A. arumense Herold 9/12

'98 Pots are gallons, so peeking might not be such a good idea, but it
looks like I will have lots of:

A. amur v. arurense Gouda

A. tortuosum Wills

A. flavum Wills (I kept fewer germination notes in '98, but did note on
the tag that I had 100% germination)

A. serratum from Lively-Diebold

A. peninsulae from Avent

I am not an overly protective mother and am very pleased with what my
quick check revealed :-)  In addition to the above, I recall having
germination of just about all other seeds.  My fondest hope is to be a
donor to the seedEx as soon as possible ~and to keep better records and
take more pix during bloom season.

<italic>

</italic>My beautiful A. candidisimum from Seneca Hill (purchased at last
year's NARGS Winter Study Weekend) now has EIGHT very healthy babies.
Yup, its stolonifeous. This is so exciting!  A. consanguineum has
tuberlets also.  They are a little ways apart from the parents.  A.
tosaense (from Asiatica) has tuberlets ? still forming on the parent
bulb.  Same thing with A yamatense. A. ternapartitum is doing ~something
too: it has little nubbins.  Incidentally , this one had especially jazzy
"architecture" --that groovey flat-topped look, ya know <<grin> This year
I will try for some pix.

As some of you know I have really been thru the ringer healthwise in the
last year or two, lost family members dear to me, and had a rough time in
other ways too.  Fine people, things such as this generosity and the
excitement of growing arisaema really kept me going :-)  Ty likes them
better than the Dracunculus vulgaris that first caught my araceae fancy.
When some of the arisaemas bloomed and I excitedly showed them to him, he
said, "Dare I get up close? Will these things smell horrible?"

I don't mind getting the same species more than once from the seedEx.
Hopefully growing plants from different sources increases diversity and
the chance for ever more seeds.  But speaking of this subject: how strong
is the tendency in arisaemas for a single group of clones to be reluctant
to set seed or is it just a matter of getting the right sex; ahem, maybe
I should say mixture of gender?  I am very excited about the purchased
ones from Seneca Hill, Plant Delights, and Asiatica.  They all bloomed so
beautifully but did not set seed: I did not expect any of them to in
their youth, but it would have been better to purchase more than one if I
wanted to be sure to have seed to share.

Now suppose I did purchase more than one plant and they were clones: does
that alone lessen the chance of getting seed?  Hmmm...I really have
rambled, haven't I ;-)

Cheers,  Louise

Corvallis, Oregon US

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Will they be required to file some briefs? (Ed Hexter)

Siggie wisdom:

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