We are in the first week of Spring here so all sorts of ideas popping up in my head
In theory all my project ideas seem good to me but I need to be kept in check
Let me know if you think if any of my project seem to be overly enthusiastic and I need to calm down a little
Project 1: Collect all the species and Cultivars available in Australia
This is a long term goal not something that can be done in a short time. I am at around 150 cultivar range after around 7 years of collecting with a couple of unfocused years in there. My assumption is that there are less than 250 cultivars available in Australia. With the Australian biosecurity regulations being what they are, I do not anticipate more than a dozen or so new cultivars being imported by nurseries every year. Which makes this Project somewhat possible.
Project 1B: Grow each cultivar in two significantly different microclimates in the garden; totally exposed to the elements and semiprotected from the elements
Part of the exposed location
Part of the protected location beside a hedge. Excuse the dragon, it appears to be also doing some protecting
My wife got into fairy gardening a bit
Project 1C: Take regular photos of each cultivar to document the seasonal changes, including patches from both locations.
Project 2: Start experimenting with the idea of hybridising
Having read Kevin's book sealed the deal to give it a go.
Phase 1: Collect self pollinated seeds ASAP to experiment and figure out seed handling, germination, seedling growing protocols that works for me. Also exploring the possibility of germinating seeds indoors in our fishroom (I know I have too many hobbies
)
The fishroom is kept at around 25-26C (77-79F) with around 70% humidity. The racks are equipped with LED lights specially designed to grow aquatic plants underwater.
Would be interesting to see if the lights are good enough to prevent seedling from etiolating. I currently grow and propagate some Tropical plants in the fishroom; the Sempervivums are obviously not but, seeing if I can make the most of winter months would be interesting.
Phase 2: Practice hybridising
And hope for the best lol
Project 3: Once the collection seasonal growth/colour photography progress a bit, to start comparing and confirming the cultivar identifications in Australia are as they are in the rest of the world and plants have not been erroneously labelled by nurseries. Main aim to have an accurately labelled collection not to try to correct the nurseries.
Anyway all of that should keep me off the streets for the foreseeable future
Cheers,
Serkan
