Navia arida

Navia arida

 

I work at Tropiflora 2 weekends a year, the Spring and Fall sale Festival. My job is to just talk to people about plants.

The last sale (4/5/2014) I bought this Navia.

 

It did better then Navia igneosicola did this pass winter. I just moved it up to a 7 or 8 (I'm to lazy to go look) inch pot. It does have a small offset coming you can't see in the photo.

 

4/5/2014

 So far only 2 Navia can be found that will grow in Florida:  Navia arida and Navia igneosicola
 

7/23/2014



7/23/2014

This loos like it's going to be a bigger plant then Navia igneosicola .

 

Navia igneosicola

UPDATE 7/23/2014

Well growing it like a Cryptanthus in a tray of water didn't work out as well as I had hope. The leave tips started to dry out. This passed winter  it didn't look that good. A lot of the lower leaves turned brown but it did make more offsets then I though it would. So came spring I removed 5 offsets and potted them up. 

All 5 offsets rooted easy and fast, and are growing good.  The 5 offsets came off the stem. The potting mix is what I use for most of my plants one part peat and three parts perlite.

None of them have flowered yet.



**************************************************************************
Navia igneosicola 12/11/11

Not much can be found on the internet about growing Navia's.
Almost all grow in high elevation and do not like growing at sea level.

I have been growing Navia igneosicola like  Cryptanthus.

Not in full sun and in a tray of water this pass summer. 
With winter on it way I am going to give full sun and no water in the tray.

Dec. 10, 2012

I did not know it could do this. Did you? 

Navia igneosicola Dec. 10, 2012 

 

‎August ‎07, ‎2012

Interesting article below:

NAVIA: AN ANCIENT AND EXTRAORDINARY BROMELIAD GENUS

Richard Evans Schultes
http://journal.bsi.org/V05/2/#A

If you are interested in more information check out the link below.

http://journal.bsi.org/search.cgi?query=Navia&page=1&per_page=10&max_text=500
 

xEnchotia Ruby

I have one but what do I do with it?

 

 

xEnchotia Ruby is Encholirium horridum x  Hechtia rosea

 

 

From BSI. org:

Bromeliad Cultivar Register

Spineless mature terrestrial rosette to 1.5 metres diameter x 1 metre tall. Arching bronze green leaves each 110 cms. long x 6cms. wide tapering to a point. Massive, erect inflorescence to 1.75 metres high, red-stemmed and multi-branched with ruby sepals and suffused red / pink / cream petals. Tropiflora code #5739. Reg. Doc. 8/2011 by Dennis Cathcart
Country of origin: Florida USA

 

Seed Parent: Encholirium horridum

Pollen Parent: Hechtia rosea

 NOTES 

New Bigeneric genus: x Enchotia by Geoff Lawn in J Brom Soc 61(3): 138. 2011 In August, 2011 the nothogenus x Enchotia ( Encholirium x Hechtia) was first recorded in the BSI's Bromeliad Cultivar Register under ICBN Rules (Vienna Code 2006) . Its breeder is Ray Lemieux, employee at Tropiflora Nursery in Sarasota, Florida who created this cross in February, 2006 and he also coined this new bigeneric genus name x Enchotia. Seed Parenl: Encholirium horridum L.B. Smith. Contr. Gray Herb . 129:32, pl-3, figs. l-3, 1940. Pollen Parent: Hechtia rosea E. Morren ex Baker. Handb. Bromel. 140. 1889.

 x Enchotia ‘Ruby’

Geoff Lawn

BSI Cultivar Registrar

It took Florida breeder Ray Lemieux “only” 5 years of cultivation (2006-2011) from seed to produce the first blooming new bigeneric x Enchotia ’Ruby’ (Encholirium horridum x Hechtia rosea ). Considering that both parents are heavily spined, the several dozen seedlings showed a surprising outcome --the majority were spineless, or nearly so--with a few small random spurs.  A second and third repeat of the cross using different clonal forms of the same parental species produced similar mixed results. So the smooth edged clones share the grex name of ‘Ruby’ whilst the prickly forms are collectively called x Enchotia ‘Ruby Star’, both of which greges may exhibit slight clonal variances at maturity. This phenomenon of spineless progeny from prickly parents has become rather common in, for example,  Aechmea fasciata  cultivars or hybrids, but is less seen in the Pitcairnioideae sub-family genera. Noted smooth-edged exceptions are  Dyckia ’Naked Lady’ ( encholirioides x brevifolia), Dyckia hebdingii hybrids  and some Encholirium crosses (pers. comm.--Dennis Cathcart).

 Under good growing conditions x Enchotia ‘Ruby’ is a large terrestrial, the mature rosette reaching 1.5 metres diameter and nearly 1 metre tall.  The arching bronze green foliage comprises about 150 smooth leaves each 6cms. wide tapering to a point and to 110cms. long.  The erect inflorescence stem, 5cms. thick at its base, rises to 1.75 metres average height above the rosette crown.. The massive red-stemmed raceme has up to 32 branches with ruby sepals and suffused red/pink/cream petals, indicative of its hybrid genes. The spike is initiated mid-Winter and blooming lasts about 8 weeks over Spring.  When the inflorescence is spent and preferably removed, basal pups emerge slowly between lower leaf axils, or are visible from the main stem if lower leaves are stripped to allow more light and encourage offsets.

x Enchotia ’Ruby’ is destined to mound into tight clumps if not divided, just as with its pollen parent Hechtia rosea , now classified as  synonymous with  former H. macdougallii  L. B. Smith. This tough Mexican species hails from Oaxaca State and is dioecious, meaning male and female flowers are on separate, individual plants, as are all Hechtias. The seed parent Encholirium horridum , a lithophyte from Espirito State, Brazil is mostly monocarpic --rarely or never offsets.

Undoubtedly x Enchotia ’Ruby’ will become a staple, sun-loving feature xerophyte planted in the garden landscape,  adaptable to tropical, sub-tropical and temperate climates, but also can be grown in extra large soil-filled containers for full sunlight positions. 

Published in BSI Journal, May-June, 2011. pp.138-140.     

 

Below is Encholirium horridum x Hechtia  macdougallii old label  the new label should read Encholirium horridum x Hechtia rosea

Photo from 2009 at Tropiflora

Hechtia  macdougallii  is now Hechtia rosea

Photo from 2009 at Tropiflora

 

 

 

Euphorbia milii

Euphorbia milii  (Crown of Thorns) comes in different colors flowers and leaves.

 This one is doing some thing a little different. It has a flower on top of flower.

 If you look closely you can see 2 flowers coming form one flower.

yellow

yellow and pink



pink

You can find them with variegated leaves

This is the large flower and large leaf hyb.

 

 

Seedlings

For the most part I don't start seeds to grow things.
But seedlings do show up from time to time in some plants that I did not plant

This first two  plants came from Tropiflora in Sarasota, FL

Euphorbia iharanae

Euphorbia millotii

 The plant below came up last summer in a pot that had some other plant in it. I'm hoping it will be a
Euphorbia millotii x Euphorbia iharanae cross. But it may just turn out to be Euphorbia iharanae.

I have had Euphorbia millotii seedlings come up also.

Euphorbia millotii x Euphorbia iharanae

Haworthia limifolia variegated

This Haworthia limifolia variegated I've had for a few years now and has not put out any offsets.
But this year it started to do this. I got excited until I looked closer. Dyckia seeding.
I do get some seedlings of Dyckia that come up on there own. All have not been un-interesting.

Euphorbia viguieri 

Euphorbia viguieri 



Euphorbia viguieri  is getting to be a weed in my yard. I never planted any, I had one in a pot. Haven't counted them lately but I must   have 15 or so coming up in pots and on the ground.

Euphorbia geroldii

Also last summer I got my 1st seedling of Euphorbia geroldii that came up in some other pot.

Euphorbia geroldii

Euphorbia milii and or hybrids show up ever now and then.




This one came up about 5 years ago.



?