I don't know if they are hard to grow, but in my neck of the woods
they definately seem to be indoor or greenhouse plants. They must
require fairly consistant, warm, temps.
I think Lowrie is just charging what traffic will bear, plus perhaps
he doesn't want to deplete the supply or waste good plants on people
who are likely to kill them (like me :-)).
Check his list again. I'd be surprised if he's still offering the
petiolaris plants this year, as he did a mass mailing earlier this
year.
There are some petiolaris complex plants in the US for sale, but their
hard to hunt down, and expensive. I got a petiolaris aff. K. from
Gordon, and a seedling petiolaris from Chuck Powell.
>>
>>And what's the deal with D.regia? The impression I have is that this is very
>>sought after. Is it difficult to grow?
I get conflicting stories on regia. I had a plantlet and it may
have died. This is what I have on this plant:
* It supposedly dies back to the roots periodically, similar to
D. hamiltonii.
* It may like cooler temps.
* I can be propagated from root cuttings fairly easily, like D.
binata.
That's it. I'm keeping my pot of dead regia plantlet in the event
it decides to come back.
r.