Today I went to the Shops!

To buy a little ornamental house... similar to the one featured below

to put in another part of the garden...

Well ...

instead I came home with THIS!

Who could resist!
Heaps of character, approx 20 cm trunk, lots of great leaves/spines.

Take a closer look...you can see little baby plants coming from the base. I don't know if they are from seeds fallen into the pot or if these are pups of the larger plant. Cycads produce pups underneath the leaves close to the ground... so these may? be like that!

Cannot wait to plant this Lovely No.7 ...

My tally of seedlings is now 82, one I expected to die ...did! And I have two more doubtful ones. However I am again waiting for 4 more pots of seeds ... due in about two weeks or so...

Cheers

A few Fatalities

While I was away I had a few little plants fail to thrive, 4 died.

You can see (or maybe not! photo didn't upload as I'd hoped) the difference in the tiny plant in the center compared to the others

One of the 4 ... not doing too well!
Here are 3 of the little bodies ... mostly they were brown, maybe they

had too much water or maybe not enough...who knows!
or they were just little dud seeds...

However my total is still 83,
76 singles
6 pots now have 2 seeds in them and one has 3...
I have planted the 4 pots (previously deceased) with new seeds.
I expect 2 more fatalities as the seedlings are looking a trifle midgety.
Cheers

Fertile Seeds

I've been away for two weeks and G.L. has been looking after my little plants, and Boy! have they grown!

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This pot has germinated 3 seeds, I thought the seeds were a bit mangy, so I planted three in

in case... they all came up!

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Here we have 2x2 to the pot.

And just today another tiny one next to earlier sis/bro. Situated on the right in the center pot...hard to see...

(I don't know if Grass Trees have gender when a seed ... must find out about this!)

Update is: 83 in total

70...1 to the pot, 3 in 1 pot, 2 in 5 pots ...1 of the 70 looks as if it may cark it...

More later ... Cheers

This Tiny Sprout is Seedling No. 70

As you can see it is very new and very pale, this one took 22 days to emerge. From Feb 15th to March the 6th, Planted in the same day as some that emerged after 16 days... I am now waiting for the next 9 plants which were planted on the between the 15th and 24th of Feb 2008

I just checked the pots again to make sure of the dates and Gosh...now I've got 71...
update-now waiting for 8 seeds!

Cheers Carol

Yes! your eye's ARE ok!

this photo was so out of focus!

and it looked Great!

I like the little 1/2 moon shapes

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Grass Tree No.2

very plump seed pods, this photo was taken 1/12/07, some of these pods had 2 seeds inside.

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A Different Angle on Grass Tree No.3

Cheers Carol

Plant Fatality

This little plant came up with the seed pod stuck on the top,

consequently the plant failed to thrive, it didn't grow much bigger than you see in this photo.

After about 10 days and no more growth in the plant, the seed pod fell off, then the little plant went brown and died. I had continued to water the plant...but it died!

After the plant died I dug it out of the yogurt container and examined the remains of plant... (a plantautopsy...) I drew a line on the plastic lid to show how long the little tap root was. A really amazing length considering the size of the plant.
I buried the tiny plant in the garden...

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This is a photo of GT. No.2

The seed spear when it reached full height and before the flowers started to develop on what will become the seed pod.

Good news though! 69 baby plants now ...two more peeped out today!

Grass Tree No.2's Babies

A seed...

Here we have a seed compared to a regular match, as you see the seed is not all that big!

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Baby Grass Tree's: first day above ground ! (in a pot)

You can just see 2 tiny shoots in the 2 left-hand side pots,they emerged on the 16Th day after I planted them. Probably 1mm above the pot mix. These little fellows are in yogurt pots because: 1. They are cheap pots. 2. I can just cut each side of the pot, when I want to remove the plant (if it lives)to a bigger pot and I won't disturb the roots.

With or Without seed pods:

When the seeds first emerge they can either have their seed pods or husks still attached or not. I first observed sometimes the seed pod was pushed upward... I first thought that bugs may have been eating them... but after observing more seedlings this seems to be luck of the draw for the new baby plants. Below are two plants with seed pod still attached, they will eventually fall off .(I've read this somewhere)

Without pods:

Success!

So far counting the 4 tiny shoots that came up today, I now 67 baby grass trees 5 from GT No.1 and 62 from GT No.2

Unfortunately ... see that empty spot there, umm I had a fatality...more about that later!