Re: Bear's breech - Acanthus
- To:
- Subject: Re: Bear's breech - Acanthus
- From: M* T*
- Date: Tue, 15 Jun 1999 04:57:48 -0400
Well, I grow A. mollis latifolius and A. balcanicus; mollis does not bloom
for me (appears, from thread on these plants on Shadegarden list, for lack
of sun), but balcanicus blooms faithfully. I have tried collecting seed,
but had no success germinating it so far. Believe it must be scarified and
requires a cold stratification period, but have not worked this out
correctly, it seems. If your plant sets seed, you will be able to see it -
large, dark reddish-brown, smooth rather flat, oval seeds - in the "mouths"
of the hood where the flower faded. Prickly removing it as these plants do
have spiny bits. Flower spike will have dried a bit and turned a rather
unattractive brown when seed is ripe...if you want seed, you need to leave
the flower stem until it browns and seed turns color... I find a very
small percentage of flowers have been pollinated; maybe get half a dozen
seeds out of a dozen flower spikes.
But, there may be others on this list who have more and better experience
in collecting and germinating seed from this species...if there are, I hope
they will speak up with words of wisdom for all us acanthus-germinater
wannabees...
A. balcanicus is, indeed, a synonym for A. hungaricus - which is, as you
can see from the bit I copied below from the International Organization for
Plant Information (IOPI) Provisional Global Plant Checklist (handy site
when trying to verify a bot. name) URL to checklist:
http://www.bgbm.fu-berlin.de/IOPI/GPC/default.htm
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~copied bit~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Acanthus hungaricus (Borbás) Baenitz
•Source: Med Checklist database (Vol. 1 and 3)
•Family: ACANTHACEAE
•Protologue: Herb. Eur. n° 9138. 1896.
•Status: Accepted
Synonyms:
•ACANTHACEAE, Acanthus longifolius var. hungaricus Borbás
•ACANTHACEAE, Acanthus balcanicus Heywood & I. B. K. Richard
•ACANTHACEAE, Acanthus longifolius Host
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So, seems we are growing the same plants. Yours will become a clump at
least 3 feet in diameter. I find I have to provide my clump with a girdle
early on or it tends to smother all the other residents of that border
because it spreads its skirts far and wide. Have also had to either stake
or otherwise encourage the flower spikes to remain upright - they want to
flop over, too. Lovely plant, however....very architectural. Yours is
blooming at an early age and will eventually take up considerably more
space than it does now! For an idea of space, here's a scan of my girdled
child:
http://www.hort.net/mtalt/acanthus-balcanicus.jpg
Marge Talt, zone 7 Maryland
mtalt@clark.net
Editor: Gardening in Shade
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----------
> From: Don Martinson <llmen@execpc.com>
> Date: Saturday, June 12, 1999 6:43 PM
>
> For years, I admired the stately flowers of Bear's breech, Acanthus
mollis,
> but resisted buying one because most sources rated it hardy only to Zone
7,
> while I am Zone 5(b). I finally found Acanthus hungaricus that was rated
> to Z 6. As I like to experiment with plants that might be marginally
> hardy, I purchased one and planted it along the south side of my house.
It
> has survived 2 winters with temps down to -20F, but with snow cover and
it
> is now putting up a nice flower spike. I have a picture at:
> http://www.execpc.com/~llmen/acanthus.jpg
> My Hortus III doesn't list A. hungaricus, but does list A. balcanicus and
> the Forrest Farm Catalog suggests that these are one and the same.
>
> Is anyone else growing any of the acanthus species? How do I best
collect
> and germinate the seeds?
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