Mark Hall

I have a few of these grown from seed and the largest one (1ft ) is showing red markings on the underside of the leaf. Is this correct . I did try to find a picture of one on here but there doesn't seem to be any.

Thanks for any help.

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mrbungalow

What did the seeds look like?

I think it's supposed to have grayish-black stems eventually, maybe this starts out as red? Come to think of it, my "nagensium X" look very much like the Thomsooni featured at RPS.

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Mark Hall

Erland I can't remember what the seeds looked like or where I got them from.
its still only a small plant but it already has a white waxy bloom to the stems also there is a tinge of red/pink where the leaf joins the main stem. The new roller is quite prominently marked red .

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bigdog

Mark, that sounds just like my M. thomsonii. Very reddish undersides to the new leaves, especially in the cigar leaf stage. Waxy bloom on the pseudostem also. It reminds me quite a bit of M. yunnanensis. It has been written about as being cold-hardy, and I plan to test mine in the ground this next winter (yuck, too early to start thinking about that!). Mine has been pretty slow-growing in the greenhouse this winter, even though it's heated. A lot slower than any other species I own. Maybe it will start growing more when planted outside.

Mark Hall

Thanks for putting my mind at rest big dog. I do have a few so maybe I could try one outside this year .

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bigdog

Mark, I just photographed mine this afternoon. It has had a very tough life! The first winter I kept it in my garage, and it kept one yellow leaf for most of the winter. That spring (last spring), it died back to the corm and I thought it was a goner. I left it, and to my surprise it came back and started growing from the same pseudostem! Last summer, it did not grow very well, and seemed to languish in the heat. I kept it in the greenhouse at school this past winter, and it grew some. It still is not very vigorous at all, although I just spotted a pup today. Maybe the pup will be more healthy than the mother pseudostem. I still believe that this could end up being one of the more cold-hardy species, much like M. yunnanensis or M. sikkimensis, even though it is native to lowland, subtropical Himalayan regions. We shall see!

Deepest apologies for the weeds.

Tropicallvr

That's interesting that it's slow for you, since here it was(last summer) one of my fastest growers in partial shade. Maybe it resents high nighttime temps. In the mountains of Nor Cal the temps drop significantly at night throughout the summer. It also came back from pseudostem at about the same time as sikkimensis.
M.cheesmanii was also a really fast grower here, was it slow for you also?

MediaHound

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bigdog

M. cheesmani did pretty well last year (but not starting out so well this year). I think M. thomsonii does better in partial shade here, so I have to find a spot where the afternoon sun won't hit it too hard. I also think that the corm was significantly damaged as a young corm, and has never fully recovered. Perhaps the new pup will show more vigor. At least the poor thing is still alive, that much is still a miracle to me. You should have seen it in December of '05. One small yellow leaf on a pseudostem with the diameter of about 1/2 the size of a pencil.