From: "Ron Iles" roniles at eircom.net> on 2001.03.28 at 15:17:55(6102)
>From warm West Cork, another thank you Aroid-L for being interesting,
helpful and entertaining! Thank goodness I'm not ravenous for psychodelic
Elephans Ears or one off Ravenala and that my name isn't Suwanee. Lots of
US and Canadian Members it seems. What other members are in Ireland, Europe
and Australasia? (Hi Dany I'm searching the older Alocasia and Marantaceae
sources slowly for you) I'm only consolidating Spathiphyllum. With the
problems if finding all the forms and then getting them knee deep in nice
running warm water, that's enough for 2001. Over the past ten years how
commercial culture of Aroids has changed! A few forms of each genus mass
produced by each Mega Tissue Culture Source for global marketing. Anthura
in Holland have many hectares of around a hundred different cultivars of
Anthurium andreanum and A. scherzerianum. Amazing! Availability partly
governed by today's general fashion. Classics today forgotten tomorrow?
Spathiphyllum SPECIES are needed most here but past and present cultivars
need security for future reference. The principle of having safe
Specialist Collections as Sources for everybody obviously applies to all
world genera. Spaths are scattered haphazardly all over in generalised
Collections. There are specialists in any plant according to colour, form,
habitat, variegated, silver, grey, climbing, epiphytic, xerophytic,
aquatic. Lonely Spathiphyllum could be anywhere, forgotten, the last one
of its kind, crying for care, dying. Take the Spath cultivar "Metallica",
grown wholesale in Australia, reported as originating in Belgium. So far,
WHERE in Europe?!!! Exploring in the dark, So a definitive collection of
just boring all the same except for size Spathiphyllums? Anything else
that comes in, its yours if you tell me beforehand that you are ravenous for
it and you can import it from this dreaded foot and mouth area. Thank God
for Aroid L which makes life easier by sharing information and material.
Specially, thanks for posting waterlogging questions and infos. To locate
what's where, is it possible for those with Spaths to email either the Group
or me (roniles@eircom.net), a list? What is common in culture say the US may
not be other parts. For instance, a miniature S. floribundum variety, the
extreme floriferous tiny "Chopin" are in horticulture in Europe. The
apparently unnamed species that I got from the wild in Colombia, now called
S. "Cali" or maybe "Mini", a white midribbed tiny S, floribundum type is now
tissue cultured in the US. It is not apparently available in Europe but
who knows. One major grower in the US has generously shared my idealism and
agreed to sell a hundred or so plants of eight current cultivars, but most
growers having only small overlapping ranges just don't respond to my
appeals. However when THEY need help with new exiting material I WILL try
to help... If it exists hopefully it will soonest be in safe culture in
this Collection if I don't give up in frustration at this early
re-establishment stage and specialise in .
I am still trying to find out whether my late 1980's Collection stiil grows
intact. Some amazing forms apart from the one from Cali. Has anyone got
that one or the tiny with half inch spathes or the genuine S. "McCoy"? If
you had S. solomonense it would save me saturating the Solomon Islands with
my faxes and emails. Having more Asiatic species would however not obviate
my intention to go to Asia via the exquisite culture of Bali, Java and
Sulawesi. Here endeth a letter from Ireland.
The Best to everyone
Ron Iles
| |
IAS on Facebook
IAS on Instagram
