Cycas revoluta

Seedling

Rooted Pups starting to send up fronds.

The first little sprout is so exciting!

Cycad Seeds

Some years instead of sending up new fronds, a Sago Palm will 'bloom.' The male cycads make a cone. Female cycads make a round structure. If there's a male plant within a reasonable distance so the wind can blow pollen to it, eventually the female structure is full of orange seeds.

  Hiding in that soft, fluffy nest are dozens of orange colored seeds bigger than the end of my thumb.
The orange coating on them inhibits growth, so they must be soaked and scraped before planting.
It takes months before the seed coat cracks and a root emerges, then a tiny frond. Exciting.

A squirrel destroyed my first successful seedling when I put it outside for the summer.

I started over when there were more seeds. These seedlings are 2 years old, a long wait.

 This one has the center tuft typical of a cycad from which the fronds grow.

This one still has the seed attached.

I have not decided whether I'll try to grow more cycads from this year's seeds. There's a little new plant  growing beside an azalea I planted nearby the original cycad that I think came from a seed I disturbed when I dug there. I may try just putting them into the ground, using enough seeds so the squirrels and I can share.

Another way to grow cycads is by division of the pups growing around a plant. I successfully rooted 4 pups off Mrs. Cotele's cycad one year, then destroyed one by tugging it out of the pot to look at the roots. I put the pup into the ground, anyhow. This summer the remains of that pup put out a new frond. I still don't know whether the pups that did root and grow are male or female, they've never bloomed.He-Who-Mows ran over the smallest one with the mower. I'd cut the cold-bitten fronds off and I guess he thought that meant I didn't want it despite it having a little clump in the center. I'm waiting to see what comes from the roots next spring, if anything. It was cut awfully close to the ground.

Incubating Fossils

My big Cycad has this huge nest in the center.

There should be dozens of seeds inside this thing, fertilized 

by other cycads miles away by pollen on the wind or by insects.

Scientific paper on pollination of Australian cycads

Last time it had seeds, I planted a few just to see if they were indeed fertile. One of them miraculously sprouted. I had a seedling that lasted until I put it outside for the summer. Squirrels got hold of it.

Soaking and cleaning seeds. 

All the orange part must be removed.

First Sprout. It takes a while. The seed at top

never sprouted. I was tickled to see ONE.

Eventually it had four little fronds and was potted up in a clay pot before the squirrel got hold of it and broke it off at the root.

Now is my opportunity to start over with fresh seeds. It is not a small undertaking.


Meantime, some years back I dug pups from around the huge cycad of my neighbor, Mrs. Cotele. One I broke the root after it sprouted in my eagerness to make certain they were rooting. They were.

Cycad with the cone in the distance.

Near view is pup I rooted in 2011.

One has gained some size and is being overtaken by Hydrageas. I will likely leave the whole mess until spring and cut the hydrangeas back when they show new growth.

Two pups that were smaller and slower growing I put at the outside corners of the oval lawn this past spring. Tuesday I noticed that one has new leaves, not a usual thing for fall but not unheard of.

This one recovered from a tractor tire running over it when we were doing some work; I caged it to keep it safe. There's a small Brugmansia behind it that did not gain size nor bloom this year. Maybe next year they can duke it out for space.

A final look at the female cone with a tiny green anole visiting. He didn't linger for more pics. Seeds will be ripe sometime in the Spring.

I am fascinated by Cycads but I might not make Cycad bread from the seeds nor dance on the oval lawn between the plants nor set them on fire.

Yolngu people produce texts about cycads in several forms: dance sequences, songs and graphic representations. Westerners produce scientific texts.

Seeds Planted and Christmas Cactuses Repotted

Do you Pin photos on Pinterest and then follow through? I saw photos of pots and beds last week with Parsley and Alyssum included that gave me some practical ideas. Today I planted 18 cells with Alyssum seeds and a half dozen cells with Parsley. Parsley has to go 'to the devil and back' before it sprouts, nearly a month. Maybe emerging Alyssum will give me hope before Thanksgiving.

What have you done that came from a Pinterest idea?

While I was busy with potting soil, I went ahead with bumping some plants up to larger pots.

Christmas Cactuses except some large pots were on a single shelf.

The long flats with 6-cell trays held rooted cuttings with roots growing out the bottom. I had just enough potting soil to pot up a Gerbera Daisy seedling and 8 square pots holding 3 Schlumbergera cuttings each of pink, peach, yellow and white.

 I remembered to label them all, even the Gerbera at lower left which started out as a seed in a yoghurt container. There are some small pots of Christmas Cactuses with no label that will be mysteries until bloom.

Eight pots in a flat are too crowded. I'll separate them.

The 8 square pots are at upper left. They need more space around 

each pot for air circulation. At right is a tray of 6 red rooted cuttings 

yet to repot and some small pots of single cuttings. Larger plants 

are in cache pots on the bottom shelf.

Other GH activity:

 

 We will soon see Epiphyllum blooms, always a treat.

Update on the cycad seedling growth. 

Plant Babies

Back in March I wrote in Seedscatterer blog that my Cycad Had Seeds. At the time I planted the seeds, I wrote, "In the article I read, it said that the growing embryo will push a root out the star-shaped end of the seed, followed by a leaf. This is not a quick process. I will wait."

 I didn't write or make a pic when I noticed the first little green bit. Now there's a tiny frond.  None of the other seeds have a root or a sprout.

A pup has formed beside this Vriesea, which bloomed almost two years ago. I  had decided it was just going to die without reproducing. Suddenly there's a pup!

Vriesea bromeliad

New plant forming at the base of a Begonia cutting.

These last two are Camellia seedlings.

The seed of this one is atop the soil.

Camellia seedling.

For me, it's all about new plants from old, whether by seeds, cuttings or divisions. The joy is in the growing.

Do you find more pleasure in new plants from seeds or bought in a nursery? 

Indoor Plants Prepare for the Out of Doors

TThe first bud on Brugmansia cuttings appeared this week. Those who made it over the winter outside  had foliage emerge early only to be bitten back to the ground by frost; more foliage is visible now.

These inside seem to know it is time. I read that they have to have a side shoot before they bloom. This is one of the few without a second shoot. Maybe cuttings are different.

Kalanchoe cuttings are in bigger pots. Looking forward to next Christmas, I expect to have pots of white Kalanchoe and Schlumbergera in five colors. Christmas Cactus cuttings had filled their little six-pack, so now there's a good-sized pot and a little pot. There is another six-pack of small cuttings of each color that I plan to use in filling grapevine balls. I might be getting carried away with Christmas Cactus.

These and Epiphyllums will summer under shade outside.

Easter Cactus has a few buds but I don't think they'll open for Easter. Rhipsalidopsis species is a natural forest cactus, unlike the Schlumbergeras which are tropical forest cacti. The primary difference between the various 'Easter, Christmas, and Thanksgiving' cactuses is their time of bloom. The leaf shape varies as well.

Ike thinks everything in the greenhouse belongs to him. He supervised sorting/soaking Cycad seeds.

 

 

We hope that failure to float means the bigger seeds are viable. When the seed coat that inhibits growth softens and is scraped away, we'll plant seeds.

This is the last bloom on 'Nymph' amaryllis. Amaryllis outside have buds.