Date: Mon, 18 Sep 2000 08:09:43 -0700 From: Andrew Marshall <andrewm@olywa.net> To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com Message-Id: <aabcdefg2804$foo@default> Subject: Nep. cuttings too happy?
Hi Chris,
It is very common to have Nep. cuttings bloom for you whilst they are still
rooting. I have always been in two minds whether or not this is a drain on
the plant or not but never seem to get around to removing them to see what
happens. I know that on a lot of my cuttings, they continue to bloom even
after they are well rooted and shipped off to other people. In fact, this
method, while unreliable at best, has been used by me occasionally to
induce flowering for the sake of getting pollen when I need it. I first
used it by sheer luck to make the N. 'Bruce Bednar' that I recently
registered. The pollen parent, N. x deslogesi was a massive plant that had
refused to bloom for years. I cut it in hopes of producing more of them,
and all the cuttings immediatly crashed except one. It bloomed and lived
long enough to produce a decent amount of pollen, then crashed. The mother
plant N. x splendiana came into bloom during this bit of mayham and so was
pollinated successfully as luck would have it.
I would keep the blooms on if I were you. If nothing else you will find
out which sex the plant is if you don't already know. As to the success
rate, N. maxima nearly always blooms for me and they all survive just
fine... I don't see why yours shouldn't.
Best wishes
Andrew
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