Rooftop botany goes to ground - my plant nursery: Siberian irises

Monday, 25 October 2010

Siberian irises - and temperatures

Good morning! It's almost 6.45am here in London and the sun is already beating down with the thermometer touching 40C.

Can you spot which part of that introduction is true? That's right, it's dark and cold and I don't have to be at work for another five hours but I was awake so I thought I might as well get up and cheer us all up with a nice picture of a Crocus speciosus taken by my bood self yesterday.

They don't last long but they are beautiful when you get up close and personal! © Chris Mackay

The BBC are doing a feature on the morning news from Harlow Carr gardens near York, which I visited when I was about 7 seven yeard old and after which of course the strain of candelabra Primula hybrids is named. Apparently the have 250,000 daffs and tulips to get in in the next few days! I prefer to go for quality rather than quantity!

I caved in to personal pressure and pricked out the Iris sibirica seedlings as six came up in a few weeks and then nothing. This doesn't mean there aren't more to come and I was very careful not to disturb the pot too much and once I'd finished I covered with a .5cm of compost in case I'd brought anything to the surface that I shouldn't have.

An Iris seedling showing perfectly seed, roots and cotyledon (shoot), just right for potting into a 2in pot

Any ideas?

It will be dead in a fortnight (never buy orchids from outdoor markets that have had a life cycle of: test tube, Dutch greenhouse, Dutch flower market, British flower market, windy pavement, my centrally heated house, bin)

Oh, remember I collected some fresh seed from the stunning blue Salvia patems to see if it would come true (I've got about a dozen young cplnes from cuttings) but one of the seeds has popped up, hopefully to be followed by more.

The Lathyrus chloranthus (dazzling annual yellow sweet pea, distribution from Turkey all the way to India) has taken its place in a mini window box-style planter against the ugly polythene greenhouse and, considering the temperature last night, looks to be a fairly hardy soul which is good. I know you can plant the classic hybdrids in Autumn for an earlier show so I took a risk with this one too. If they don't make it I have another half-dozen in the greenhouse. It hasn't sent out any tendrils yet but the images of mature plants I've seen on the web do so hopefully it won't need any tedious tying in.

Look mummy, tendrils!

Otherwise everything seems to have gone into stasis as far as seedlings are concerned (to be expected with night temperatures just above freezing so I'm going to struggle to fill this every day without making stuff up. I could, but you'd probably want to see the pictures.

The Iris Douglasiana hybrids have taken the huff since I sprinkled a bit of perlite over them after spotting a few embryos on the surface as well as a lot of green spikes so I'd have expected to see a few through the white covering by now but as the temperature is rarely above 10C I can see its point, I'd rather stay down there too.

I'll have more time for a forensic (yes, I know that's technically a mis-use of the word, I do work for a newspaper you know) examination and hopefully wring some words out of that but in the meantime here's a nice picture to keep you warm. Except I can't cos they're all stored on my laptop at home. Well, just close your eyes and imagine a lovely Iris, or whatever floats your boat.

Till Tomorrow, the plantboy

4 comments:

Betonyjoy25 October 2010 at 05:26
That's a Tibouchina, but I don't know which species
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chrissyboi25 October 2010 at 06:42
Brilliant, that's a great start! Thanks!
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Betonyjoy25 October 2010 at 10:59
Incidentally, I'm betonyjoy on Twitter!
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Keith29 October 2010 at 09:08
It's Tibouchina Urvilleana !
I bought a young plant earlier this year and was made up when it flowered in September. I'll do a blog on it soon.
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My recommended suppliers for plants and seed

(And our only business connection is that I give them lots of money in exchange for high quality plants.) Rare Plants (http://rareplants.co.uk/). Paul Christian concentrates on the very choice and rare (and consequently expensive but not unfairly so. Mainly but not exclusively bulbs and a great stop for the hardcore Iris and Lily collector. Mail order. Growild A small operation on the West coast of Scotland dealing largely on eBay and not a garden centre or public nursery so it's a case of when they have it, they'll list it. So keep an eye out for the odd gem (I recently spent £80 on rare Lily species on eBay so it's the market that sets the prices. An esoteric range, best found on eBay Kevock Garden Nursery in Scotland (www.kevockgarden.co.uk/) specializing in unusual alpine, woodland, and bog plants, many of Asian origin. Think along the lines of Meconopsis and candelabra primulas. Online catalogue and mail order. Cayeux Irises Based in France, near Orléans, this lot deal almost exclusively in bearded Irises (550 varieties, many their own) with a few beardless and Day Lilies. Superb quality plants, sent out bare-root from Late June to mid-October (www.cayeux-irises.com).

SEEDS

Chiltern Seeds I have to start with the suppliers who first showed a spotty teenager that there's more to seed catalogues than Petunias and Sweet Peas (although they are in there too). They offer a huge range of genera and the species within. The catalogue (too comprehensive to illustrate, it would be the size of the Birmingham phone book) is witty and informative (or not, which is refreshingly honest on rare occasions when they doubt the provenance of an item, something usually reflected in the price). I've raised many an Iris, Meconopsis and Primula from them and portion sizes are generous. Germination instructions for the needy (seeds, not necessarily gardeners) care often stuck to the packet, otherwise just stick a pin in and have a go! (www.chilternseeds.co.uk/)

Chileflora.com Suppliers of an astonishing range of South American (mostly Chilean and Argentinian) seeds, especially the likes of Alstroemerias, Tropaeolums (the rare ones), Bomareas and a seemingly endless range of Rhodophialas and other bulb seeds. And remember, a lot of Chile is far colder than you think it is! Hundreds of seeds per packet so experimentation with sowing techniques is possible, if at first you don't succeed (you usually will). Many species yet to be named, eg Calandrinia sp. 1212 (mine have yet to germinate). An amazing website with thousands of stunning images taken by the proprietor, Mikhail Belov, and each entry comes with a wealth of habitat, hardiness and other info. He even rates them for ornamental value! (The aforementioned gets an A+).

Rareplants.de Offering many of the above (don't know if they have a reciprocal deal or something) but many, many more genera from all around the planet, seeds are broken down in to sections such as geophytes (bulbs, basically), climbers, hardiness and geographically. And you ALWAYS get a free packet of some Aeonium (Houseleek) species that I never sow. I must have a dozen. Also well illustrated and a HUGE range. Prices are in Euros (the .de domain name should have given that away so be aware of that minute's exchange rate when you order!

Secret Seeds A UK firm specialising in rare perennials (that's where I got my Impatiens namchabarwensis seeds, although at the time of writing they have a picture but no stock), they also deal in grasses, veg and herbs, should any of that float your dinghy. All seeds come in little packets, sometimes a bit on the stingy side but they do tell you how many are coming so fair's fair, with detailed cultivation instructions. Top stuff. (www.secretseeds.com)

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