Buds and offsets-2

Because it's winter again, here are some " indoor plants' " buds.

Veltheimia bracteata

I will write about it when in flower.

Cyclamen pseudibericum (the same as last time, more colourful clothed) 

However, I think it will not too long remain a bud:

Note:

These pictures were made in rather dark room (cloudy outside), without flash, with large aperture, sorry for the quality. It is fascinating for me how the flower opens, so I thought I must show it to the "whole world" anyway.

Here is the plant:

Buds and offsets-1

The watering had a fantastic effect, a lot of beautiful buds appeared. And hopefully more and more will come from now on, so I start a topic with this subject. It's a real joy to photograph them.
Here are a few:

Crocuses

I have shown the flowers of this Colchicum in autumn. Now the leaves are coming:

Colchicum arenarium

Eranthis hyemalis

The same, two days later:

Eranthis with Cyclamen coum

The same, two days later:

Hepatica nobilis

The same, from the back:

Hepatica nobilis

and from close (yes, it fascinates me):

Hepatica nobilis from close

Saxifraga x elisabethae '(had no label)'

and from close:

Daphne sericea

And finally a not hardy Cyclamen:

Cyclamen pseudibericum

Cyclamen Problems

Pests and diseases are afflicting our Cyclamens and consequently me.

First, de disease, which is only supposed yet.

Two or three years ago I got two Cyclamen graecum tubers from the UK. Somebody wanted to get rid of his Cyclamens, which were down at the heel.  I thought I may try two graecums. I potted them up and admired their beautiful leaves every autumn since then, namely no flowers yet.

This picture was taken in October 2009:

Cyclamen graecum

This year they started to grow rather late and slowly, as I showed in an earlier post, despite of the watering. And finally they pushed some ugly, distorted leaves:

I decided to get out the tubers and look into the compost maybe I could find the reason. But the tubers were healthy, hard, the compost had a good drainage and was just moist, and also the roots seemed to be OK, though they have not grown too much during these years.

Especially this one looks rather odd with so much dead leaves on the top of the tuber, and scarce roots:

I showed the pictures to a friend of mine, he suggested to make also a section of the root to see if there is a fungal disease. It seems like healthy:

I found no vine weevil larvae, which can eat all the tuber, as you can see here.

So, we thought it could be a virus infection. I potted the up again in fresh compost with more sharp sand, and give them another year to live. Will see next year if I should discard them or not. Whatever happens, I separate them from other plants.

The other trouble is the caterpillar(s) of some moth, which have disfigured my cyclamen seedlings:

Yesterday I found a culprit. I put it in a pillbox for my friend, who will grow it to see which species is it exactly. In half an hour it ate a large part of a florist's Cyclamen leaf:

Here it is decked out in all its finery:

I don't know if there are any more, I would like very much to find them before they gobble up all my seedlings' foliage...

The following is neither pest, nor disease, just the poor light. This Cyclamen persicum cultivar is becoming a weeping plant, and I must say I quite like it :)

Finally the good news.

One of those chewed seedlings, a Cyclamen pseudibericum has three buds, predicting the coming spring:

Cyclamens

Here are my new Cyclamen seedlings (seeds sown by a friend, not by me):

Cyclamen africanum

 Cyclamen alpinum

Cyclamen cyprium

Cyclamen pseudibericum

Cyclamen repandum

The Cyclamen libanoticum is still sleeping.

Repotting some seedlings-2

This has happend in fact on August 10, but is still absolutely topical, I think.

Lewisia rediviva

I've got the seeds from an SRGC member from England and sowed them on April 13th 2008. 5 seeds germinated after about 9.5 months, in 2009. They are repotted now at the first time. I learned that this is the time when deciduous Lewisias have to be repotted. The seedlings look like miniature carrots. They are approximative 4-5 cm long:

I made a compost with 1/3 commercial acidic compost for rhododendrons, 1/3 perlite, 1/3 sharp sand and a pinch of bone meal. I did not water them after repotting. In the resting period one has to be careful with water, so I better begin to water when they start to grow. That is now, after 3 weeks:

To have an idea about the size of this baby: this is a 6x6 cm pot. The grit is granite, I hope. I have bought it in a garden center, but they had no idea what it is (we are in Hungary!!!). I hope for flowers next Spring.

They are absolutely hardy here. they spent the last Winter outside, in dry compost. The leaves looked awful at the and of the frosty season but recovered nicely.

Cyclamen hederifolium

I've got the seedlings this Spring in our plants society. They rested during Summer almost dry and now I wanted to look 'in the wings' to see what was happening :) The corms were still very little, approx. 3-5 mm, and they just started to push out the new shoots:

They were potted, and after 3 weeks, look at the new leaves emerging:

OTHER CYCLAMENS

I've got these also as seedlings in Spring, and now I only looked what were they making, I had not disturb the roots.

Cyclamen cyprium

Cyclamen libanoticum

Cyclamen pseudibericum

This is beginning to grow! So I watered it.

All these 3 are in 6x6 cm pots.

On this weekend (Sept. 5th) I watered all our Cyclamens to start them growing.