New and Unread Tree-Mails
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   twitcher Jul 17, 2010 6:32 PM CST |
Well, nearly all of my heuffelii are blooming this year, include the ones that came in various trades in the past two months. They all appear to be blooming at about the same time as well. I'm at a bit of a loss to understand, as none of my heuffelii bloomed last year and I thought blooming was relatively rare for them.  This year, nearly every single rosette starts from trades are blooming as well as established clusters from previous years. I have not had enough experience with flowering heuffelii to know if a single rosette plant that flowers will survive to grow other rosettes. Anybody know what happens when a single-rosette plant flowers? I'm keeping my fingers crossed. The other thing I've noticed is that they do not seem to be growing as fast as they normally do.I think it might be the very unusual weather we've had. It's only mid-july, but it seems like summer has been here forever. I'm not complaining, as I like the hot summer weather, but its unusual to have it so early. But on the plus side, I should have lots of hybrid heuffelii seed to play with this winter.  I noticed the bees out making their way among the heuffelii flowers. Flower photo added by valleylynn. h Red heuffelii Munich univ  |
Name: Lynn Oregon City, OR (Zone 8b)            |
| I have one that is going to bloom, all mine are new this year. So far the others are not showing signs of blooming. Are the ones I sent you trying to bloom twit? You have Cmail. |
| twitcher Jul 17, 2010 10:46 PM CST |
| Lynn, I'll have to check in detail - I was generalizing and yours are the newest additions just now starting to show signs of growth. I do know that Bronze Ingot is crowning. |
Name: BlueFox Grand Forks, B.C. Cdn. Zone 5A (Zone 4a) Romantic & Rustic, Xeric & Organic           BlueFox Jul 18, 2010 1:13 PM CST |
It's my understanding that they are monocarpic and the rosette will die after blooming - keep all the seed you can! Mine are starting to bloom and it seems to take a long time for the stalk to get going and finally make a flower bud. Still waiting to see what they look like... |
| twitcher Jul 18, 2010 2:47 PM CST |
| But I'm hoping the root will survive and generate more. Probably not, but I can hope. |
Name: Lynn Oregon City, OR (Zone 8b) |
| It is strange the way they are doing this year for all of us apparently. I have never had new offsets turn to bloom instead of rooting and and forming offsets of their own before. First time for me. Do you have any doing that way Jacki? Which plant is that in the picture Jacki? It's lovely. |
Name: BlueFox Grand Forks, B.C. Cdn. Zone 5A (Zone 4a) Romantic & Rustic, Xeric & Organic BlueFox Jul 18, 2010 3:43 PM CST |
| Hi Lynn, actually this one is probably either Jovibarba allionii or sobolifera - can't ID them as they never had labels. I'm probably on the wrong thread, as Twit was talking about heuffelii... |
Name: Lynn Oregon City, OR (Zone 8b) |
| It is still a very sweet picture Jacki. : ) |
Name: BlueFox Grand Forks, B.C. Cdn. Zone 5A (Zone 4a) Romantic & Rustic, Xeric & Organic BlueFox Jul 18, 2010 3:52 PM CST |
| Blame that new camera of mine - I just point and shoot! |
Name: Lynn Oregon City, OR (Zone 8b) |
My camera does all kinds of things. All I do is Auto, point and shoot. One of these days I need to take a class and learn how to do all the things it will do.  Wonder when that will be. |
Name: BlueFox Grand Forks, B.C. Cdn. Zone 5A (Zone 4a) Romantic & Rustic, Xeric & Organic BlueFox Jul 18, 2010 4:29 PM CST |
| I know what you mean - you can read the instruction manual until you're blue in the face, but it still doesn't sink in, but if you see it and do it yourself, then you'll get it. I guess I'm a visual learner! |
Name: Lynn Oregon City, OR (Zone 8b) |
One of my new h. Apache is blooming. : (. Sure hope none of the others do that. Most are looking like they will be okay. It will give me the opportunity to add a bloom picture to the database. Silver lining in the cloud.  |
Minneapolis, MN; Zone 4a aka treelover3 @ Dave's Garden greenthumb Aug 6, 2010 7:09 AM CST |
| The heuffelii don't die after blooming, do they? I didn't think any of the Jovibarbas died after blooming. I thought it was just the semps that died after flowering. Or am I wrong? Thanks, Mike |
Name: BlueFox Grand Forks, B.C. Cdn. Zone 5A (Zone 4a) Romantic & Rustic, Xeric & Organic BlueFox Aug 6, 2010 8:07 AM CST |
| I've been under the impression that they're monocarpic (once flowering) and will die after blooming. |
| twitcher Aug 6, 2010 12:02 PM CST |
| Heuffelii rosettes share a common root, so if you have multiple rosettes and one rosette blooms but the others don't, the plant will survive. The rosette that blooms, dies, for Jovibarba hirta, Jovibarba heuffelii and Sempervivum. I am hoping to one day see a singleton heuffelii rosette root survive after blooming and produce additional rosettes. I believe that this is possible, but have not seen it to date. (I've only had heuffelii for a few years) There are exceptions or unusual cases. Sometimes you will have a Sempervivum rosette bloom and while blooming it will create offsets on the bloom stalk. The rosettes formed on the bloom stalk will survive, but the base rosette will not. It is relatively common to see a rosette of J. hirta produce additional rollers during the early stages of forming a flower stalk. It is largely accepted that there is nothing you can do to save a blooming Sempervivum rosette, such as in the case of you having only a single hen of a type of plant. However, I have had some success with vegetative propagation of the plant if caught relatively early in the blooming cycle by dividing the blooming rosette into two or more pieces before the flower stalk is well developed. Some of these pieces will generate new plants and some may go on to bloom themselves. If a piece survives, it will often produce a cluster or group of new plants which should be divided when large enough to survive on their own. Because J. hirta are so prolific, I have not needed to try this division process with a blooming rosette with them. So I do not know how well this procedure would work with J. hirta. Nor have I tried dividing a singleton J. heuffelii that is beginning to flower. I suspect that both heuffelii and hirta would react in similar ways to divisions as Sempervivum and intend to test this next year. Because it takes a little time for the divisions to recover into complete plants, I will wait until next spring to try this with heuffelii and hirta. |
Name: BlueFox Grand Forks, B.C. Cdn. Zone 5A (Zone 4a) Romantic & Rustic, Xeric & Organic BlueFox Aug 6, 2010 2:50 PM CST |
| I'll wait with bated breath for your conclusions... |
Name: Lynn Oregon City, OR (Zone 8b) |
| Blooms on h. 'Violet'. They don't look like much until you see them up close. I will try to get an even closer picture today. |
Name: BlueFox Grand Forks, B.C. Cdn. Zone 5A (Zone 4a) Romantic & Rustic, Xeric & Organic BlueFox Sep 5, 2010 5:39 PM CST |
They are gorgeous close up even when they start to fade - which is good, because it means you might have seeds  |
Name: Lynn Oregon City, OR (Zone 8b) |
| Seeds, I didn't thing about that Jacki. How will I know when to harvest them? |
| twitcher Sep 5, 2010 10:19 PM CST |
| I wait until the flower stalk has dried at the base, then clip it off the plant. The seed heads (in the flowers) don't ripen all at the same time but the seed stalk seems to dry up from the bottom near the plant to the top. I stick the seed heads in an open ziplock bag and just let them dry. This winter I'm going to have lots of seeds to try starting, as I've been collecting all summer. However, some of the seed heads appear to have no seeds. |
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