Specks 2012

[Liz M]

We are looking forward to seeing these plants here, when they arrive. Good luck.

[Aiko]

I haven't been to Specks Exotica in about four or five years. I am seriously planning on visiting Specks Exotica next week again, when on Saturday morning they will open up for the first time this year (to private sellers).

It is about 170 kilometers to drive. Quite a bit. As I have free train traveling thanks to my work train card, instead I was thinking of taking the train to the nearest Dutch railway station (Roermond), bring my own bike along and cycle from the trainstation to Erkelenz in Germany, which should be about 25 kilometers. The weather promises to be good (hardly any rain). Also a good restriction for me not to buy too many or too bulky and fragile plants, as I need to cycle them back to the train again too.

Anyone else up here planning on visiting Exotica next week?

[Tina]

Aiko
Sounds a terrible plan, how can I give you my wish list when you will have no space left for your own shopping .

Somewhere I would love to go to but would be very dangerous as he has my type of plants.

My lavrannea came from here 3 or 4 years ago so best to ask him if he has any more

[TS Hakansson]

I´ll be visiting Specks in the middle of May, and even that may be a bit early for the Euphorbias I`m looking for. Two years ago he told us that a lot of african plants arrives middle-late june.Will be interesting to hear what you found this early in the season

[Tina]

What euphorbia are you looking for, the one I can't track down is euphorbia sapinii.
Only seems available in Thailand.

[TS Hakansson]

Hi Tina! Just a few of the more common ones pachypodioides, buplerifolia and a few others....

[Aiko]

Hi Tina! Just a few of the more common ones pachypodioides, buplerifolia and a few others....

There were plenty of nice Euphorbia bupleurifolia for quite low prices (odd, as much else is relatively expensive). No E. pachypodioides, otherwise I would have probably bought one myself.

But I did come home with:

- Three plants of Othonna clavifolia
- Two small plants of Sarcocaulon multifidum
- One small plant of Sarcocaulon crassicaule
- One plant of Tylecodon pearsonii

Any specific advice on growing Sarcocaulon multifidum is much helpful...! I once had a Sarcocaulon herrei, but after a few years of sulking (it barely grew leaves) it finally rotted from the inside (I think it was rotting from the start very slowly).

[AnTTun]

You need a bigger bike Aiko

[FlorentG]

Hi Tina! Just a few of the more common ones pachypodioides, buplerifolia and a few others....

- Three plants of Othonna clavifolia
- Two small plants of Sarcocaulon multifidum
- One small plant of Sarcocaulon crassicaule
- One plant of Tylecodon pearsonii

Any specific advice on growing Sarcocaulon multifidum is much helpful...! I once had a Sarcocaulon herrei, but after a few years of sulking (it barely grew leaves) it finally rotted from the inside (I think it was rotting from the start very slowly).

Habitat plants can be hard to root, and Sarcocaulon is one of these. Better leave them in their habitat.

[Aiko]

- Three plants of Othonna clavifolia

Two of these were in flower in spring, so I tried to pollinate them.

Today I had found something I think is just a dried out flower. But was in doubt.
It is something alike what I see here:



It is a picture from this website: http://hkplants.com/thread-131216-1-1.html
It says on that site (I had to computer-translate it from Chinese first, of course) that there are seeds in there.

But I really wonder what are the seeds. Not the yellow stuff, I take it, as those are probably flower remains. The fluffy stuff usually holds the seeds so they can be spread around by the wind. But I don't see anything I could tell is a seed attached to it, nor on my plants nor on the above picture.

What am I missing?
Nothing missing, and the pollination just failed?