The best (and easiest) leaves to remove are those on the outside of the
rosettes. I've had success growing them in sphagnum, but you have to be
careful with watering and keep the green moss growth from smothering the baby
Pings... The problem is that most of the (few) species I have tend to self
multiply themselves, so I don't normally have to worry about them. The
only exception is P. caerula which I have had trouble with in the past due
to the rapid dehydration of pots during summer (before I switched to the tray
watering method)...
On a related note - when would be the best time to divide a Mexican Ping.
hybrid - if ever? One of our P. morensis x ehreshae? (the cross called
"Sethos" by Slack) is getting crowded in its pot - the large rosettes don't
help much either... This is a very nice, flowering hybrid - ours has about
5 flowers on the main rosette at the moment - even though it is only the
common (but attractive) purply Ping colour.
Now is also the P. "species nova #4" (P. rotundifolia? - I haven't checked
it against the description Jan sent me yet) annual flowering time when the
single, pretty flower is produced by rosettes just before they enter dormancy.
This is one of my favourites because it has an "inverse" colour scheme - light
outside with a dark throat - attractive dark veins too.
| John Taylor [The Banshee] | Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology |