Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Seed order

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It's my first time since Kindergarten that I'll be trying to grow something from seed.

My current list (so far) is so much more awesome than whatever type of bean we grew back then.


Amorphophallus bulbifer - this is the reason I'm placing the order. Love the colour on the inside of the spathe, love the patterning on the outside and on the peduncle (the same as on the petiole when it produces its leaf).
(photo by scott.zona used under CC license from here)


10 Amorphophallus bulbifer seeds
10 Tillandsia polita seeds
12-15 Echeveria seeds (mix)
10 Lapidaria margaretae seeds
10 Ficus elastica seeds

And I'm only half way to the minimum order.

I had more in my list but Tillandsia rotundata sold out within the last few hours and I've been reading up on Cycas revoluta seeds... and I don't think so. The female plants will apparently produce seeds which are not fertilized and will never sprout. The grower should be making sure that these don't ship but you never know. Germinating them takes a long time and is overall a fairly complicated process. They are also by far the most expensive seeds from this list and on top of all that they are toxic to cats, dogs and potentially the niece/nephew. I just don't think it's worth it right now.

Lithops are out of stock right now and I don't want to get into things like "mixed aloe" or "mixed agave" seeds (or even worse, "mixed cactus"). Plumaria mix is sold out as well.

I figure if all I can get out of this is 2-3 A. bulbifer (they apparently produce enough offsets/"bulbils" that even just one will be a few in very little time), 2-3 Tillandsias and a few Echeverias that I maybe will have gotten my money's worth.

I don't know if I should start adding things I don't really want or just double up on everything I already have there to double my chances of success... I Think I'll double the Echeverias since they're a mix and that'll increase my chances of getting something really nice out of them. For everything else though I'll either have success or not... and if not then do I really want to lose 20 seeds? if so do I really need 20 plants?

Currently considering adding the following to the above:
a further 12-15 Echeveria mix
10 Tillandsia polystachia
10 Heliconia wagneriana (Medium size for a Heliconia, can reach 6-8' but not so likely in a pot. Can flower in a pot.)
10 Musella Lasiocarpa (Banana relative, stays small, 4' or less)

This would bring me up to the minimum order, plus shipping and I'm still under $20.

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Alright well my order is placed and here we go.

Final list:
10 A. bulbifer
10 Tillandsia polita
24-30 Echeveria seeds (mix)
10 Lapidaria margaretae
10 Ficus elastica
10 Tillandsia polystachia
10 Heliconia wagneriana
10 Musella Lasiocarpa

Hmm. That's a lot of plants. The Tillandsias require light to germinate, the Echiverias and Lapidaria benefit from it ("do not exclude light"), the Musella needs cold stratification, the Heliconia needs to be kept at a soil temperature of at least 75F to germinate and may take a long time (shorter with scarification, also required/suggested for Musella) before I see anything. This will be interesting, and certainly a learning experience. And sure to fill every last surface in my house for the next few weeks.

6 comments:

  1. Cool!!! Where are you ordering these awesome seeds? Matti's taking a propagation class this semester and would love to get his hands on some of these.

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  2. Great list. I'll be excited to see their progress!

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  3. RareExoticSeeds.com

    I think I'm going to have one last look through their catalog and then place my order tonight/tomorrow morning.

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  4. I love starting from seed -- it is a super cheap way to experiment with a lot of cool stuff.

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  5. I don't want to rain on your parade, but from my order from the same place last year which was something like 100 Echeveria, and tons of others species, I got a grand total of - wait for it - zero germinated. The only ones that did grow (until the chipmunk found them) was the Lithops. Talk about disappointing. I also found that they didn't respond to emails when asked about Lithops availability (I thought I'd try those again, as that was the only ones that grew!). Let me know how it goes. Like you say, it's pretty reasonable price, so not much lost.

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  6. Well, it's as much an experiment in trying to start things from seeds as it is a way to get plants that interest me. That's really half the reason I only got 10 of most of the plants on my list, that way if I find out the only things I can grow from seeds are Ficus or w/e then at least I'll know for next time (and hopefully they'll have Lithops back in stock by then too!).

    Hopefully I'll have some luck but it's always good to look at it realistically too.

    And I've definitely blown $20 on plants that have since died (rarely on a single plant, easily with combined failures), so I figure I'll probably look at a 0% success rate about the same - too bad and I'll know better for next time.

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