Germination Elation!

I just posted yesterday that nothing was coming up in my seen trays. Well, I'm not often so happy that I was wrong, but this time I am! I did my morning rounds today and after pulling the lid off of one of the trays I spotted something neon green! It was a very small sprout, but it made me very happy to see. I wasn't a complete failure at germination! It's on the edge of the tray, so perhaps there's too much heat in the middle? I'll give it a few days before I drop that temp a bit to test the theory just in case. Even if this is the only one to come up, I'll be thrilled. My first mutant baby! (P. actinia x P. sidifolia) x P. actinia.

Two days later...

A few more...

Green House

Even though it doesn't get that cold here in Redondo Beach, CA with a mean low of about 50°F during the night, I figured that I would set up a green house to help some of the younger and/or cold sensitive plants keep their rooting. Passiflora cirrhiflora is in there and growing like a weed now. I have two spot lights, a 32 gallon trash can filled with water and a submersible tank heater for constant warmth, a tent fan, and a few timers to make sure things turn on and off as I desire. Together in the pop-up green house, the whole thing seems to be working really well. It climbs into the 80's during the day when the sun is coming through, and doesn't go below the 70's at night.

I have 4 trays of 72 seed wells that I'm trying to germinate in the green house. So far absolutely nothing has come up. Maybe it will take awhile, maybe the seeds are sterile, maybe I'm terrible at germinating seeds. I will have to wait and see what comes up if anything.

Serious Flora: Cirrhiflora

Well, I've really gone overboard yet again. I purchased through ebay.com a P. cirrhiflora. It's a rare find, and it cost me a pretty penny, but it should be a fun one to watch grow and bloom and hopefully fruit. However, it's not the best time of the year for an equatorial species that loves heat to be introduced to the fold. I'll have to and keep it warm and under grow lights for the cooler season here before I can let it run rampant in Pergola-tory in some iron rich lateritic soil.

The other half of the story is that I want to cross breed this one very much. It could be a difficult task since it's not of the typical families (decaloba: n=6 group, or passiflora: n=9 group). This is an n=12 and potentially without many compatible species. From what I've read, I think my options are:

• subgenus Tetrastylis
• subgenus Deidamioides
• P. arbelaezii
• subgenus Tetrapathea
• P. aurantioides
• P. kuranda
• P. tetrandra
• P. pittieri
• P. kawensis
• P. candida
• P. guatemalensis
• subgenus Dilkea
• subgenus Adenia

Great! I've identified them...now to find them. That should be interesting. I'll definitely have to put this to the Facebook Passiflora group for help. Until I can find a mate, I'll just have to wait out the Winter and hope for an early hot Spring.

Update: I found one! I picked up a P. tetranda from Grassy Knoll Exotic Plants today. Apparently it's pretty hardy, so if I can combine that with P. cirrhiflora, that might be something marketable.