In search of 'The Holy Grail'

[Chad]

COVID has stopped me travelling the country and buying lots of plants that I didn't know I wanted and it has given me more time to think about what I'm really looking for. In preparation for Brexit I ordered from Canarius in the expectation that it might not be possible to do so again for a while. So I now have Ficus auriculata and Euphorbia cotinifolia. The Piper auritum in the same order didn't survive the COVID prolonged postal trip so that is my first of this year's 'Holy Grail'. Iochroma grandiflora is next, seed having failed to germinate again, and I see Hill House list it so when I can travel again... And I lost Lycianthes quichensis in The Beast from the East and would like it back.

What is everyone else searching for?

Chad

[flounder]

Acnistus australis. I have successfully grown these from seed on many an occasion, but can't stop them becoming slug food. This happens with clianthus as well. Another is tetrapanax. I have been given plants, I have bought plants, I have grown from seed and yet as soon as I plant them they go roots up.
This has led to me being a tad frustrated and annoyed

[Paul S]

I have a permanent place marker for Kumara haemanthifolia. I'll never get one but it doesn't stop me wanting it. I had one years ago from Rob Senior but managed to lose it. I don't think it is the kind of plant you get two goes at but I live in hope.

Other than that my main 'Holy Grail' is a red flowered Aloiampelos striatula. Must keep using the new names. They exist - one of the old 'standard' works on aloes by Reynolds describes a red one. But I am not sure they have ever entered into cultivation. I asked Ondine at Silverhill Seeds, she asked around and no-one there knew of any. When I did a Google search of images for Aloe striatula there was a picture of one that was very deep orange red and it transpired to be the stock photo from Trecanna nursery. So I bought one, just in case. Hopefully it will flower this year but I am not holding my breath about the colour. I also found a majorly desiccated plant in the corner of my greenhouse that had a label stating 'orange'. I have no memory of the plant or the label but it is my writing. :lol: I planted that last year so let's see.

Also Nolina parryi ssp wolfii. An impressively chunky nolina from the USA.

[charlie]

I have been trying to not "want" any more plants! but having said that I have always regretted losing Isoplexis sceptrum :)

[Chad]

Flounder,

At least your wants are reasonable.

Later in the year I should have Acnistus [Iochroma, Eriolarynx or other!] australis. The 'normal' blue has germinated, the white has germinated better and I have access to a 'dark blue' for cuttings later in the year.

Paul,

I had to look all of those up!

The Nolina should be available as 'native seed' from California, but I can't find a supplier.
Would N.siberica work until you can find the real thing?

Several sites suggested Kumara haemanthifolia 'has a reputation for being fickle in cultivation'.

Would the hardier K.plicatilis work instead? My order from Canarius suffered from Covid delays in the post though, so I would wait until the tourist flights are back in operation to speed the post.

Charlie, how sensible, and how odd that Isolplexis sceptrum seed has disappeared from everywhere I looked. I have an old seed head somewhere; I wonder how long the seed is viable?

Chad

[charlie]

Charlie, how sensible, and how odd that Isolplexis sceptrum seed has disappeared from everywhere I looked. I have an old seed head somewhere; I wonder how long the seed is viable?

Chad

It is odd, I have tried the last 4 years to pick up seed on Madeira but with no luck, (I knew its gone back to Digitalis but if I wait long enough there is a good chance it will go back!)
I can only go by my own seed experience which was poor germination after 1 season and no germination after 2 , hence the reason why I no longer have it. I am told you can do cuttings but unlike canariensis it does not make a very branched plant and I was always reluctant to sacrifice a stem to that experiment!

[Paul S]

Paul,

I had to look all of those up!

The Nolina should be available as 'native seed' from California, but I can't find a supplier.
Would N.siberica work until you can find the real thing?

Several sites suggested Kumara haemanthifolia 'has a reputation for being fickle in cultivation'.

Would the hardier K.plicatilis work instead? My order from Canarius suffered from Covid delays in the post though, so I would wait until the tourist flights are back in operation to speed the post.

Chad, I appreciate the thought for your research! I have had Nolina hibernica (the correct name for Nolina 'La Siberica') since my first trip to Mexico back in 2004. It is a tick box thing for me, to an extent, as I have a 'thing' for Nolina and currently have 16 taxa growing here. Probably as close to a National Collection of the things as exists. I have a small plant of parryi waiting for a space but the more impressive parryi ssp wolfii continues to elude me. It is one of the finest and most robust of the genus so worth holding out for.

As it happens I do have Kumara plicatilis outside. It is in a bed that gets a winter cover and after 2 (mild!) winters is still OK. I tried it once before, open to the elements, and it didn't enjoy a -5C but I am hoping a cover will help. Optimistic rather than expectant, perhaps. Although it is my understanding that haemanthifolia is hardier?

[Chad]

OK, I'm probably about to make an ass of myself.

As you all know I don't grow succulents so I'm way out of my comfort zone.

I had K.plicatilis as hardier than haemanthifolia from the sites linked, and it being almost ungrowable even in South Africa from here which includes the disappointing sentence, 'Kumara haemanthifolia does not take kindly to cultivation and simply refuses to survive very long in Cape Town gardens, or any other garden, for that matter.'

Nolina I also know nothing about.

I thought N.parryi had been spit so that was subspecies wolfii was now synonymous with N.parryi and the coastal, less impressive subspecies had been hived off into into its own species [N.cismontana]? Certainly Calscape only recognises the inland populations.

Do you know the provenance of the plant you have? I see seed may be available through the Californian Native Plant Exchange.

I also note everything I have typed is contradicted elsewhere on the web, with San Marcos Growers discussing Nolina wulfii as a species in its own right, and the taxonomy is technically challenging, for example a 2018 review of the genus in Baja starts with the encouraging sentiment; 'Taxonomic problems with this genus arise because it is not easy to make herbarium specimens from plants in the field and the taxa are not well represented in collections.'

All a bit beyond me.

Chad

[Paul S]

Chad - Rob Senior's K. haemanthifolia came through his January 2010 event which saw his garden fall to -12C. It is a high altitude plant that needs freely draining but organic soil and constantly wet but not stagnant soil. A bit like Aloe polyphylla but more exacting. So why I want it is anyone's guess. Just 'because'. :D

Cacti and succulents, in general, are a nightmare when it comes to taxonomy. Worse than most plant groups. In particular Nolina are an absolute minefield as they have been so poorly studied. Often pictures and descriptions are inaccurate, sometimes it is assumed all plants in a particular region are one species where in fact there should be two or more - N. matapensis is a good example of this. Add to that the converse situation where every few years a different author publishes a different opinion and revision and there are multiple names kicking around for the same taxon. That leads to the type of mess that exists with parryi/wolfii/cismontana. And that is the USA ones, which have at least been studied a bit. Every time I've been to Mexico I've seen undescribed species, trunked and trunkless.

Anyway, my seed for the N. parryi came from Alplains http://www.alplains.com/Catalog8.html which always gives good habitat data. The plant shown in the accompanying picture is encouragingly beefy and aligned more strongly with the massive wolfii plants I have researched rather than the more straggly cismontana types.

[AndyC]

There isn't any particular plant I'm after at the moment. I'm stll at the stage of finding out what genera work best for my situation. I have discovered that the bottom of the garden gets quite a bit colder than the average for Falmouth so I've lost Furcraea longaeve, Aloe arborescens and Aloe ciliaris in the lower gravel bed (the latter two survived at the top of the front garden). I'm think that for this year I might populate the lower bed with hardy Sedums and Delosperma while I continue to experiment so if you can recommend some good ones I'd be grateful. Thanks.