Chooch - I have a question for you

Marshall

Do you know of any Canadian bulk seed sources that may have Ceratostigma plumbaginoides available - and will ship to the States?

I've been task to grow 5000 plants for a ground cover in an allee at the arboretum. Suppose to be easy from seed, but I have yet to find a bulk source.

Chooch · Posted: Mon Dec 15, 2008 4:50 pm Post subject:

Where do the growers buy their seed from ??? Or do I assume they just dig the rhizomes for repotting instead of seed ?? I wonder how this fairly trouble free plant will perform in drought like conditions ??? I think you just inspired another experiment for me to perform Smile

Good Luck in finding your seed source !!!
_________________
"I never think of the future. It comes soon enough."
--Albert Einstein, physicist, 1930.

Mr Pasque · Posted: Mon Dec 15, 2008 5:15 pm Post subject:

Marshall...don't mean to be a butt-in-ski, but most plumbago or leadwort is propagated vegetatively.
Small liners are very inexpensive and widely available.

Marshall · Posted: Mon Dec 15, 2008 5:42 pm Post subject:

I would imagine the difficulty of collecting large amounts of seed is the reason none is found. And I did know most if not all is grown from cuttings. Cheapest price we've found is 60¢ a plug or $3000 and we're trying to beat that if we can. We have some on the grounds and today talked about trying to root mostly dormant cuttings, but we're not sure if that will work.

Marshall · Posted: Mon Dec 15, 2008 7:38 pm Post subject:

Here's the allee we're going to rework. Seems to me what you see under the trees is Ceratostigma plumbaginoides , but some folks got reckless with Roundup or maybe it was Scythe and killed off a bunch. And the new park manager wants to reestablish the beds. Many weddings and wedding photo shots are conducted in the pergola and we want it to look great regardless of the season.
http://www.coxarboretum.org/index.html

Chooch · Posted: Mon Dec 15, 2008 8:11 pm Post subject:

For certain if you could find the seed it would be the most cost effective route for this plant . You could probably grow that many plants for $20 to $50 instead of 3 grand . Did you think about splitting the existing plants ???? I am sure once the digging begins there is a lot more plant there than you can imagine .
_________________
"I never think of the future. It comes soon enough."
--Albert Einstein, physicist, 1930.

Marshall · Posted: Mon Dec 15, 2008 8:17 pm Post subject:

I haven't seen the beds lately and don't know how much material remains or the condition of that that does remain. I'll check it out tomorrow though. I just came upon this project today and the first task was trying to find seed.

Marshall · Posted: Fri Feb 05, 2010 7:35 am Post subject:

Update - well through folks donating clumps from their yards and rooting cuttings from arboretum stock, I manage to get 2000+ plants. Doing the same in 2010 ought to get us up to the desired number. I did collect some seed, but failed in getting it to germinate.

Chooch · Posted: Mon Feb 08, 2010 7:09 pm Post subject:

Don't you love it when a plan comes together ...EXCELLENT !!!
_________________
"I never think of the future. It comes soon enough."
--Albert Einstein, physicist, 1930.