Re: athyriums

Hello Tony,
    A width difference is bull shit-excuse my french.  Enayone who has
really done some growing and research, visiting English collections, knows
that the progeny vary in height and width and that the saleint feature are
the cruciate crossed pinnae with cruciate tips.  Any naming of progeny is
just greed as far as I am concerend.
Judith
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tony Avent" <tony@plantdelights.com>
To: <ferns@hort.net>
Sent: Friday, July 16, 2004 11:48 AM
Subject: [ferns] athyriums


> Judith:
>
> Great discussion on selections of ferns.  I called Carol Randaci who
> introduced A. f-f 'Dre's Dagger' to ask how it differed from A. f-f
'Victoriae
> Her response is below:
>
>     In answer to your question about Athyrium "Dre's Dagger" and A.
> "Victoriae" here is our catalog entry describing the difference we found
in
> the garden.  (hopefully you will too) We grew the two together for over 5
> years to be sure "D.D" remained stable.  It takes a few years for
Victoriae
> to grow to its full potential.  Our oldest "V's" are between 18-20 years
> old now and have fronds measuring almost 24" from the ground.  "V" fronds
> are almost 3" from pinnae tip to tip across, while "D.D." are only 11/2 -
> 2" wide.  So we picked "D.D." because of its smaller growth habit.
>
> -Carol
>
> The International Code of Nomenclature of Cultivated Plants allow for new
> cultivars to be named if they differ in one or more characteristics from
> the parent.  Since the parent was not a clone, but would be the equivalent
> of a seed-strain, a more dwarf form would certainly be acceptable to name.
> Since Latinized names after 1959 are not acceptable, the new selection
must
> be given a name consisting of a word or words from a modern
language...i.e.
> 'Dre's Dagger'.
>
> Regarding plants remaining stable from tissue culture, I'd like to make
> two points.  Plants mutate both in tissue culture and in our gardens.  The
> problem with tissue culture is that it is often difficult to see mutations
> in the test tubes.  We have had many ferns tissue cultured which remained
> completely identical to the parent.  Others, such as some of the Athyrium
> f-f form sometimes vary slightly from tissue culture.  The problem is
> primarily in the instability of the parent species.  The Athyium niponicum
> 'Apple Court' that we sent to tc have proven competely stable...so far.
>
> Regarding other selections of A. niponicum, Athryium n. 'Ursula's Red'
> never colored up for us as per the photos.  A. n. 'Burgundy Lace' does
> color nicely as Judith mentioned.  For us A. n. 'Silver Falls' is quite
> nice also.  As she stated, you would get some plants as good from a spore
> batch, but the naming process has to start somewhere.  Now that we have a
> standard for several color forms, we have a target to exceed with future
> selections.
>
> A. 'Wildwood Twist' didn't have any sign of any other species in the
> parent other than A. niponicum.  For us, there was also no sign of any
> twisting.
> Tony Avent
> Plant Delights Nursery @
> Juniper Level Botanic Garden
> 9241 Sauls Road
> Raleigh, NC  27603  USA
> Minimum Winter Temps 0-5 F
> Maximum Summer Temps 95-105F
> USDA Hardiness Zone 7b
> email tony@plantdelights.com
> website  http://www.plantdel.com
> phone 919 772-4794
> fax  919 772-4752
> "I consider every plant hardy until I have killed it myself...at least
> three times" - Avent
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> Support hort.net -- join the hort.net fund drive!
> http://www.hort.net/funds/

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Support hort.net -- join the hort.net fund drive!
http://www.hort.net/funds/
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index