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Re: Achimenes

On Wed, 7 May 1997, Mike Bernardoni wrote:

> Hello,  Would appreciate any advise on growing Achemines..            
>    I have 15 bulbs potted up for about 3-weeks no sign of life yet.  
> Have kept them lightly moist and under lights.  Any suggestions??     
>         TIA  Mike B.  :O)

Dear Mike,
	You need a copy of a special issue of The Gloxinian which featured
lots of articles on the genus Achimenes.  It is the First Quarter 1996
issue.  I have photocopies of the articles "How to grow achimenes-one pot
or one thousand" by Paul Arnold (originally written in 1969, but all still
perfectly good advice), and "Growing achimenes in hanging baskets", by
Margaret Cass.  This makes a neat "handout" of two double sided pages of
information all about growing these plants.  I give this to people to whom
I give rhizomes and/or plants of either achimenes, eucadonia, or
xAchimenantha.  

	These pages tell one everything necessary to grow these plants, as
well as providing an overview of the most common species and hybrdids.  
Unfortunately, the same people to whom I provide the photocopies wind up
asking me the most basic
questions after they have probably skimmed and later misplaced the articles. 
If you do not have any way to get that issue of TG, e-mail me back and I
will tell you some options for getting ahold of the information, even if I
have to type out some general guidelines from my experience.


	As for the ones which you planted, you don't need to worry that
they have not come up after three weeks.  I have only grown achimenes for
1.5 seasons, but it has been my experience that the plants can appear
anywhere from a few days to a few weeks after planting.  I usually wait
until the rhizomes have sprouted in the vermiculite where I store them,
and then I plant the rhizomes.  Even doing it this way, the plants
sometimes take a few weeks to appear.  I'd say that if you have no
spouting after six weeks, you might want to carefully dig up the rhizomes
to see how they are doing.  I have done this before with no damage to the
plants.  This may reassure you that the rhizomes are still alive, and may
show you that they are on their way up to the surface of the soil.  
 
	You do not need to keep them under lights until they break the
surface of the soil, but it won't hurt them, either.  If sprouting them in
a very cold room, one might try putting the pots _on top_ of the light,
near the ballast, for heat, keeping a close watch to prevent drying out. 
It sounds like you are doing everything right, and I hope that you have a
great time and lots of flowers later in the summer.  

Cordially,

Keith Dabney
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