Howdy –
Fer you Northerners… Do poets (recurvus, Ornatus, any other species) set seed and spread for you, or that you know of? Do they naturalize?
-s
Howdy –
Fer you Northerners… Do poets (recurvus, Ornatus, any other species) set seed and spread for you, or that you know of? Do they naturalize?
-s
I can’t think of any poet that won’t set seed. Haven’t grown Ornatus.
Daniel Bellinger Wadsworth OH
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Poets are notorious selfers here. recurvus, ornatus, helenicus and poetarum all self. I have 4 bulbs of helenicus after 7 years from the original 3. Poetarum has 2 bulbs from the 1 purchased 5 years ago. None of the seed has been allowed to drop and sprout in place. Under standard growing conditions, they are quite slow in multiplying. A few hybrids multiply at a rate comparable to those in divisions 1-4. Only one has been moved by rodents and the clumps were spread. The clump remains together until moved or separated by me. I have noted some clumps that have remained intact for 20+ years. Dozens of flowers produced in a tight clump about 1 foot across.
Cheers
Michael R Berrigan
Senior Development Specialist
Central Research Process Laboratory
3M Company
218-2B-03 3M Center
Maplewood, MN 55144-1000
651 736-9865
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Sara,
Poets have naturalized with wild abandon at our Shaw Nature Reserve (SNR) in Gray Summit, MO where literally thousands of seedlings have taken root over the years to provide a plethora of morphological distinctions. Attached are two images taken by Keith Kridler (2005), demonstrating an area where species and named clones wantonly coexist, and their resulting offspring.
This past spring, Gary Knehans and I collected specimens from an area containing several 9W-O/R varieties with a few ornatus-looking types growing amongst them. The resulting amalgam of this colony yielded natural hybrids with distinctly orange-tinted petals upon first opening (these quickly matured to off-white, a pale almond if you will—definitely not poet white). Many boasted superb form and habit, but lacked any degree of sun resistance. Still, they are lined out for further evaluation. Larry Force has also collected at SNR and can attest to the variation within these naturalized colonies.
As they grow for me, both in the PHS field and the displays at MOBOT, they rarely self. I have only occasionally seen a self-pollinated pod, and as I recall it was on ‘Vers Libre’. Yet, I have seen a great number of self-pollinated pods on varieties at Oakwood, notably this spring on John’s new ‘Poet Lauriate’, which was loaded (btw, ‘PL’ is an AMAZING flower and grower!).
Over all, poets thrive for me as garden plants and as field line-outs. The one noteworthy exception for me has been ‘Unknown Poet’, which I have decided to stop trying after three failed attempts—such a pretty flower and one that thrives for so many in this region. Some of the Scamp and Mitsch varieties are outright aggressive asexual propagators here; the rest of the lot seems to grow with the same ease and increase as any good daffodil.
Gearing up for fall planting,
Jason
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Way cool! Sounds like it gets back to that argument of “What IS a poet?” If two white flowers make an ernge (deep woods Southern for “Orange”), what’s a flower to do?
-s
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