On 1/9/06 14:33, in article , "Nick
Maclaren" wrote:


In article , Sacha
writes:
|
| Over lunch I checked into this a bit more. Ray grows ours from cuttings.
| It's Ipomoea learii. He suggests that sowing seed as early as January
| wouldn't go amiss ....

Er, you mean that for the annual Ipomoeas, not I. learii (indica etc.)
The latter is not fertile.

Yes, the annual ones. That's why I said Ray grows ours from cuttings. And
on that note of confusion caused by me, a customer came in yesterday saying
that his neighbours had told him that the I. learii he'd bought from us
wasn't a 'real Ipomoea'. They were all growing the annual one and of course
knew better than any nurseryman. ;-) I'm happy to say he went away
reassured.

It turns out that the problem is that its pollen doesn't germinate;
that of some other species does (in I. learii flowers), but doesn't
get far down the tube. I enquired in a few quarters if there were
any good descriptions of the physiology of germination in vascular
plants, and got my usual deafening silence. It is a topic that is
rather beyond mere undergraduate courses :-)

But it layers like the devil (just try to STOP it doing so!), as I am
very sure that you know, so its infertility is not normally regarded
as a problem :-)

Ours scramble all over the place in the greenhouses they're in and pretty
much get on with things by themselves. Wonderful!

--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
http://www.discoverdartmoor.co.uk/