| I have found producing plants from seed to be the
easiest way to bulk up quantities of different
clones. It's also by far the most satisfying method as each new plant can be subtly
different. This will provide you with a better understanding of species variety. |
| Click on any picture to see an enlargement |
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Seedlings of CCO 796
H. koelmaniorum at 15 days from sowing in a 50mm
square pot. See the black seed-cases
still attached? |
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Seedlings of CCO 796
H. koelmaniorum at seven months from sowing in a
65mm pot.
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Seedlings of H. truncata/maughanii sown 2004 |
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CCO 790 Crowded seedlings of H. cooperi v. joeyei
- Eastpoort, lifting up from the compost and in need of thinning out into a
more spacious tray before some of them were lost.
- NEW |
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CCO 800 H. cooperi v. venusta GM292. No sign of
the attractive fuzziness at this early age. These seedlings have now been
thinned out into a tray and are coming on apace.
- NEW |
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CCO 750 H. semiviva seedlings showing early
signs of the end window formation prior to it drying up into the papery tip
we are more familiar with.
- NEW |
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CCO 773 H. lockwoodii - wide leaf form. These
promising seedlings were thinned out into a tray and rapidly doubled their
size.
- NEW |
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CCO 772 H. pulchella, - sensitive seedlings
needing careful lighting as they are slow-growing and easily lost. Thinned
into a tray their growth rate is variable.
- NEW |
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CCO 767 H. esterhuizenii the former H.
magnifica v. splendens form of Dunne & Parisi. Thinned into a tray these
have exploded into rapid growth. Great fun here now... should I retain this
one - and that one, or maybe the one over there? Mmmm
- NEW |
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Seedlings of CCO 758 = The seed batch produced from
pollination of CC 2176 with CC 2177 H.
arachnoidea v. aranea - South of Ladismith,
LAV 29777
20 seeds were produced from the Field Collected
pair and these were sown on 23/11/1999, resulting in these 9 seedlings.
Circumstances have prevented me pollinating for
further seed to date but these offspring have now been individually potted
up and added to the Cocozza Collection pool to increase our future seed
production potential.
When more seed has been produced, to ensure more
workable quantities, I would gladly cut two, three or even more of these
seedlings in half to make them more widely available.
However, - to be able to do that without
jeopardising the survival of the young plants you MUST wait until the stem
at the core of the leaves is sufficiently thick to sustain each half after
division.
If you halve a head too soon you can easily lose
both parts – so do be patient. |
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Seedlings of CCO 770 - (CCO refers to each, individual
seed batch number produced by us),
H. arachnoidea v. aranea - a species hybrid
20 seeds were
produced, which were sown on 23/11/1999, resulting in eight seedlings.
Four of them are shown above and there are three
others about the same size plus one that is only about 1cm diameter to date.
These seedlings are somewhat larger than those of
the pure cross. |
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Individual seedlings from
the above two crosses for comparison. On
the left - CC 3701 from the species hybrid. And on the right - CC 3710 from the Lavranos Field
Collected Plants with locality data.
Both were sown on the exact same date but only time
will tell if they remain different.
They’re going to be nice, whatever.
Hybrids are often said to have ‘hybrid vigour’, the
benefit of the additional genetic mix. That could be something to bear in mind when
choosing suitable parent plants, especially if one of them is lovely - but rather lacking in some
respect.
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| All photographs are copyright.
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