I often am asked how to to propagate Lachenalia, especially since many species are difficult to find, or because one wants to grow thier collection. Propagating your own plants is very rewarding,and with Lachenalia, quite easy. Since we are enjoying a very unseasonable late snowstorm today, it's a good afternoon to spend an hour in the glasshouse, listening to the spring Robins, and the sand trucks on the road. I know a promised no Galanthus, purely since I feel that they are all certainly covered well enough on many other garden blogs, along with Hellebores (always in an effort to keep this site more interesting and curious, why show those plants that we all have and grow, when you can learn about others). But I couldn't resist.
Back to Pollenation. Simple crosses can be made between species as well as cultivars, they are easy enough for anyone, even children. A small camel hair water color brush, and that's about it. Simply sweep the brush across the stamens, being sure to get pollen onto the stigma. a tiny cloud of pollen drops out when touched, so you know that it is dry enough, and since I pollenate in the morning, and in the greenhouse, all is kept pure. A clean brush is essential. This year, I am experimenting with more creative crossbreeding between all of the many L. aloides varieties that are currently in bloom. Although, with the more rare forms, I also kept a population selfed with each other.
Seeds will form by June, and shortly after the pods will split. Different species produce different capsules. When you must collect seed at this point, check the capsule daily to watch for splitting, being carefull to get them before they drop (if they do, just don't repot for a season. I have some pots full of seedlings, even though I thought I had collected all of the seed. Since Lachenalia are summer dormant in the Northern Hemisphere, (but our Australian friends are probobly just getting thier season under way) they must be kept dry all summer after the plant goes dormant, and watering started again in September. The same holds for seeds. I jsut store them in an envelope or sow them in dry medium, and start watering them in September. I plant the seed very deep in the pot, perhap 2 or 3 inches down, which I started after seeing that the young seedlings eventually pull themselves down to the bottom of the pots, via contactile roots, and the bulbs lengthen to adjust. By planting deeply, I can save a year or two presumable saving some energy that the little geophytes were wasting in thier attempt to relocate to a more favorable latitude, and thus, I now get flowers after three years instead of five. But wait...there is an even faster way to get bulbs...Leaf cuttings.
Lachenalia (or is is La-shen-ale-ia? perhaps the later, since the plant was named after Werner de LaChenal). Anyway, LAachenalia only produce two leaves. I always harvest one leaf, which I cut into three pieces , dip the bottom end into rooting gel, and place it in to a flat of fast draining yet moist, perlite and sharp sand. Into a bottom heated propagating case, and bulbils grow at the bottom on each cutting . The disticial leave closest to the center of the plant produces the most bulbs, confirmed by reasearch in Holland, so I only cut into three pieces now instead of five or six, as I once used to. Leaves rooted in January, wil produce a dozen or more small bulbs by the end of that first growing season. These bulbs reach blooming size much faster, I have had L. aloides quadricolor bloom in the second year, so this seems to be the far faster way, and seeds are the best way if you eant many bulbs, and one can't really have too many Lachenalia, can they!
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