Peonies of 2014

This year all of my peonies doubled in size and bloomed. Unfortunately I didn't get good pictures of all of them due to rain and other issues, but here's pictures of the ones I got.

Anemone type peony.

Anemone type peony.

Anemone type peony.

Anemone type peony.

My first tree peony and one of the first bloomers.

Tree peony

My second tree peony.

Epiphyllum Seedling Update

I've been meaning to do some new posts for a while now so there should be several this week. The epiphyllum seedlings have been steadily growing and you can begin to differentiate between different phenotypes. Most of them have started sending up additional shoots; some have as many as five or six. As soon as the weather warms up a little they'll all go out in the hoop-house and hopefully the humidity will promote more growth. The original epiphyllum seedling post can be read here .

Trays of epiphyllum seedlings.

Trays of epiphyllum seedlings.

As the seedlings mature the stems and shoots will begin to flatten out. Most adult epiphyllums have flat stems and leaves.

Flattening epiphyllum stem.

Among the seedlings there are lots of subtle differences. Shoot structure, branching, and size are all different.

Epiphyllum EYM1319 has produced the most shoots and has produced even more since this photo was taken.

Epiphyllum EYM1313 seems to be dwarfed in comparison to the others and is relatively bulbous with short spines.

Epiphyllum EYM1310 is very symmetrical in structure and is rigid compared with the others.

Epiphyllum ESP1307 has barely grown at all even though it has had the same growing conditions as the others, it probably is a dwarf.

Epiphyllum ESP1337 has been unusual since it sprouted. Epiphyllums usually flatten after the juvenile period yet this seedling has been relatively flat from the start.

Another Epiphyllum seedling beginning to flatten with some discoloration on the tip of the shoot.

There will definitely be more epiphyllum updates throughout the summer so be sure to check back to see the growth stages and progress.

Dracaena Mutations

The plants I have the most of in my collection are dracaenas, and when you have a lot of something there's bound to be anomalies. This is the first batch of pictures of dracaena mutations.

The first picture is a Dracaena Dorado that has yellow margins on the leaves instead of the chartreuse margins that the plant is known for. This is not due to lighting, because it has stayed consistent under various conditions.  

Dracaena Dorado with yellow margins.

The first picture is from mid summer, but in the fall the plant did something weird and sent up two new shoots from the tip. If you look closely there's two of them in the center of the photo.

Mutated Dorado with new shoots.

When the two shoots grew out one maintained the yellow margin mutation while the other reverted to Dorado with the the chartreuse margins. After this photo was taken I removed the reversion to maintain the mutation. Hopefully it will stay true to form.

Current photo of the developed shoots.

One of the variegated compactas mentioned in earlier posts stopped growing a few months ago and when it started up again it produced a mutation with half of the leaves having extra white pigment.

Mutated Dracaena; variegated compacta

The next two photos are both from the same plant, one being a side view and one a top view. This is a Dracaena Jade Jewel mutation. The plant lost all of the colored streaking in the center of the leaf and is now only white and half of the plant no longer twists. The plants leaves are also more upright now.

Dracaena Jade Jewel Mutation

Top view. Dracaena Jade Jewel Mutation.

The following two pictures are mutations of a Dracaena Warneckii. One is growing out of the base and the other is the top of the plant.

Dracaena Warneckii mutation. Base.

Dracaena Warneckii mutation. Tip.

Clivia Seedlings

I recently received three different batches of Clivia seeds. The first was for Clivia robusta, the second batch was from an assortment of all different varieties and styles, the third were all seeds from variegated parent plants. Each seed that sprouts will be different from one another and with over a hundred seeds, that's a lot of variation. Within three to five years the plants will bloom and flower color and form can be determined. In the meantime some cool things are happening with the seedlings.

Clivia robusta seedlings.

Twelve out of thirteen seeds from the Clivia robusta have sprouted, with the largest being about two inches tall. I started these in a shoe box tote. The bottom half is a coarse bark, charcoal blend and the top is a fifty-fifty vermiculite seed starting mix blend. This promoted deep root growth for the seedlings in a light and porous mix. While the seeds germinated I kept the top covered to promote humidity.

Mixed Clivia Seedlings

The mixed Clivia seeds have also started to sprout. There was about sixty seeds to start with and almost half have sprouted already, several seeds have rotted and have been removed from the seed tray. This is probably because I used a straight seed starting mix and it holds too much water. There were too many seeds and not enough space to start them like the Clivia robusta so they had to be started in a seed tray with the mix. The seedlings are a little more developed now than when i took this picture but there are already noticeable differences in leaf color, shape and growth. The mix already has one variegate and one seedling that appears to be dwarf but its still a little too early to tell.

Variegated Clivia seedling with one stripe down the middle.

The last batch of seeds started was a mix of seeds from variegated parent plants. I started off with fifty two seeds and more than half have sprouted. Unfortunately due to the number of seeds, these also had to be started in seed trays with a seed starting mix and several seeds have been discarded due to rot. If the variegation is genetic, the ratio of variegated plants is usually 1/3 variegated, 1/3 albino and 1/3 green leaved. Its still too early to determine ratios but there are several albinos in the bunch, several green leaved and many variegates with different levels of variegation. The albinos will all die off once the energy stored in the seed runs out, because they wont be able to create energy without any green pigment n the leaves.

Albino Clivia seedling.

In a few weeks when the seedling have at least two leaves, I'll re-pot them all into four inch pots. It would be better to use six inch but at the moment space doesn't allow for that. Then in the spring all of the seedlings will go out to the greenhouse for the summer to encourage as much vegetative growth as possible so maybe I can get some early bloomers.