Re: aglaonemas

From: "Clarence Hammer" chammer at cfl.rr.com> on 2001.10.25 at 13:48:28(7680) Paul-- Good ole Aglaonemas used to be THE houseplant way back when, and they went out of vogue for years. They're now making a strong commercial comeback in the form of hybrids created by Dr. Frank Brown of Valkaria Fla. But even the 'old' ones make wonderful houseplants, and in my opinion are well worth the space in an Aroid collectors greenhouse. Interest has seriously waned for this and other genera among Aroiders, in favor of the tuberous Amorpho's and company. I've been looking for years for many of the old ones, such as 'Francher', 'Malay Beauty', 'Pewter', 'Belvedere', the many forms of costatum, 'Mutton-fat Jade', 'San Remo', the many forms of crispum, 'Nocturne', etc, etc, etc. +More 'Treubii' is only occasionally seen here in stores among displays of 'Silver Queen' and Brown's hybrids, along with an 'Elegans' very rarely. I'm sure many of these antiques exist in small numbers in various collections. An excellent old softback book for newby's wanting to learn about Ag's and their history is the 'Aglaonema Grower's Notebook' by Roy N. Jervis, 1978, 80. It's magazine size, and only black and white, but is a wealth of information on this genus about which little has been written. It's probably difficult to find. Most interesting is the natural 'hybrid swarm' found by chance on Luzon, Philippines in1980, and Dr Brown was guided to this find shortly afterwards. These were not just a few plants from a chance cross, but hundreds of plants in a ''giant 'hybrid swarm' of more complex parentage and background''. Russ. ----- >

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