2 replies to this topic

[Andreas Eils]

Hello everyone,

I need somebody who has more experience and good knowledge about these trigger plants. I have just started with growing Stylidium. I have purchased a S. debile and a S. brunonianum. S. debile doesn´t make much trouble but S. brunonianum immediately began to cause trouble after I have unpacked it. And eventually it died after only three weeks. I suppose S. brunonianum is somewhat tricky and I assume I shall better grow it inside a terrarium under higher humidity?

Both plants came from Thomas Carow and he wonders if some species require certain seasonal conditions - perhaps a drier period, a hotter or/and a cooler period. Maybe someone of you can tell me if Stylidium or certain Stylidium species undergo a certain annual growth cycle and which it is.

Thank you in advance.

Andreas

[tropicbreeze]

We have 23 species of Stylidium listed as native here, there are far more listed for the south west of Western Australia. But the climates are very different in both places. So you probably need to take note of where your plants originate.

S. brunonianum is from the south west of WA where they get hot dry summers and cooler wet winters. In their summer humidity is very low so they might not be suited to terrarium culture. There's some information here: http://florabase.dec...rofile.php/7693

S. debile is from north eastern New South Wales and eastern Queensland. The climate there tends to be wetter all year with summer rainfall maximums. Winters are cool to warm but can also be wet. These would probably do better in a terrarium than S. brunonianum. Some information here: http://plantnet.rbgs...tylidium~debile

Our local Stylidiums grow in a hot tropical climate, where it's very wet, very humid and hot in the summer. The winters are dry but still hot. So I think you can select species for different conditions.

One of our native ones, S. candelabrum

[Andreas Eils]

Hello "tropicbreeze",

thank you very much for the information. S. candelabrum is also a very nice species. I have a pot with new plants of S. brunonianum now. *Cough* I regard the summer as "over" now here in Germany. Erm...to be honest, our summer this year again does not deserve to be called "summer".

I have put the plants into the terrarium and they look good this time. The other plant which died got yellow tips just over night after I´ve received it. Then brown areas spread all over the leaves during the next days. I treated the plant with a fungicide as it looked a bit like a fungal infection. But that didn´t help. I put it onto a bright window sill in low humidity. As said before our summer was no real summer but comparatively cool and rainy. On rainy days humidity is of course higher.
The plants thrive well in Thomas Carow´s greenhouse and I don´t think he gives some Stylidium species a drier summer rest. The soil of the plants has been very moist when I received the plants. My first S. brunonianum didn´t agree with the conditions I offered. Though those conditions would match more with the conditions at habitat except temperatures rarely rose above 22°C.

Well, I hope my new Brunonianum will be happier!   There are not many people growing Stylidium I guess, at least not many CP growers. What a pity! Their flowers are really interesting.

Kind regards

Andreas

Edited by Andreas Eils, 10 September 2011 - 00:12 AM.