strelitzia seed

[moonbells]

I've popped this in swaps too, but I've got a trio of seed spare from my plant: noticed about an hour ago that the pod had split. Took photos, planted three and three are left. First person to shout ... :)

moonbells

[moonbells]

[Mrs Ava]

ooo Moonbells, yours set seed!  Mine flowers and flowers, but I have never had seed from it.

[return of the mac]

Very impressive, i have just a seedling from 1 of 8 seeds, 7 of which havent bothered to germinate.

[moonbells]

Very impressive, i have just a seedling from 1 of 8 seeds, 7 of which havent bothered to germinate.

They can take over 6 months to germinate so don't give up!

ooo Moonbells, yours set seed! Mine flowers and flowers, but I have never had seed from it.

I pollinated them by pressing on the blue bit and running my finger along; it gets covered in pollen and then you just dab it onto the very end bit (the whitish bit).

I had no idea if it was self-fertile; for all I know the seed may not be viable but they have grown ok and they're softer at the moment than the ones you get out of a packet. So out of the pod and into the compost!



Oh, I lost my Mandela's Gold :-(  Something ate the leaf off at the base.

moonbells

[moonbells]

Update - a flower spike has just poked its nose out of a leaf base! <bounce>

Did nobody want the spare seeds? I shall plant them in a week or so if not.

moonbells

[Jitterbug]

OOh I know its months later but is tht seed still up for grabs.  I would love it if it was.  I am originally from South Africa and would love to try and see if I can keep one alive.

Let me know and we can organise a swap or something....

[moonbells]

OOh I know its months later but is tht seed still up for grabs.  I would love it if it was.  I am originally from South Africa and would love to try and see if I can keep one alive.

Let me know and we can organise a swap or something....

Sorry I didn't notice your question before - have not been logged on to the forum since the kerfuffle.  But I can't not answer you, so yes, I have still go them, though don't know if they're viable. Mine never came up so I'd like to keep one of them: of the other two, one's a little small, but you never know.

Are pm's working yet?

If not, use the address on the home page of my diary site (url below, click on home)

moonbells

[tibouchina]

Hi Moonbells 
I have two Strelitzia plant, now about 5 years old but no flowers yet?  I have one in the conservatory and one in the greenhouse, what am I doing wrong, I would love to see a flower, they both look healthy! :'(

[moonbells]

Tibouchina: They flower for the first time between 3 and 10 years old, so the books say. I was lucky - mine was almost 4 having been kept in a heated conservatory which doesn't drop below 10 in winter.  By that time it was almost a metre tall and single crowned. In the last year it's split itself (an amazing process - I thought it would grow a new offshoot at the side, but instead the middle grew two of everything and then the two halves pulled away).

My theory:
They like to be slightly potbound but not too much; I think that keeping mine fairly well potted on until it got to the correct size helped. By this I mean not potting it into much bigger pots each time, just slightly. so it grew, got potbound, repotted, grew, got potbound... etc, so eventually it figured it had better flower as the conditions were fairly tough! That and having a major infestation of red spider mite which knocked out some leaves. Stress is a way of making any plant flower as it thinks its only survival is to make seed as fast as possible (which is why some 'like' to be potbound! It's the stress... and mimics competing for soil in the open).

When it finally grew a flower spike, it had gone from still having a few satellite small leaves and 6 large-ish ones to only huge, proper size ones in a matter of months. See January 2004 pic in
http://www.moonbells.freeserve.co.uk/strelitzia/strelitzia.html and compare it with the November one, with 8 full sized ones and a spike.

Currently have 12 leaves and a flower!

moonbells

[Jitterbug]

When I was in Wilks today I saw (and bought) a strelitzia (after seeing moonbells postings).  It is only a couple cm big with about 5 leaves - so I will see if I have any luck with it.  Fingers crossed
;D

[Mrs Ava]

And if you can stand to wait 15+ years, it could be as huge as my baby!

[Jitterbug]

You know Ej has anyone every told you you're just a SHOW OFF ;D

What a beauty - I will live in hope.  ::) My one has 8 leaves (counted them last night) after Moonbells seemed so shocked - and is about 12cm  above the rim of the pot.  If that's how you correctly measure a plant.  But then you know what they say about women and misjudging size hey :P

[tibouchina]

Thank you Moonbells, sorry I have only just got back to you, work keeps getting in the way!!  I will keep on hoping :) 

What a lovely strelitzia EJ has, I hope mine gets to be that big, it is half that size at the moment, and I see you have a Clivia EJ, I have one and its such a beautiful flower, they also enjoy being pot-bound don't they.

[Jitterbug]

Moonbells & EJ

Ahem - take a look at my Wilkinson posting to see a pic of my new baby -- I can post pics now.  Yippeee............. ::)

[smokeygoose]

i have a few of these all started from seed....
filled a pot with damp builders sand popped a few seeds in covered with clear plastic bag and popped in the airing cupboard nearly all germinated and doing well ......
i think i read this tip somewere tried it and it worked ;D