Mednilla speciosa

Here is my find for this week. I can't believe how healthy it looks. I've been looking for one for a long time.
:) Donna

It is a beauty!

So funny, last night a few of us were emailing back and forth about this plant. We were salivating over it. LOL

Thanks, Kell!
:) Donna

Hi Donna...Here that is known as Philippine Orchid...and we know the botanical name as Medinilla magnifica. Did you know they are epiphytic? I stuck a young 'un in the crotch of a tree and it is getting HUGE!!!

Congrats....it is lovely!!!

Carol

PS...there is a red one too...I am lusting after it.

I knew it was also called the Philippine Orchid. It is so cool. I couldn't believe the size and how healthy it is. I hope I can keep it that way...lol.

Thanks, Carol!! Now you shouldn't say lusting over something because know I'll be keeping my eyes open for it to and all the over hoyas that I don't have...lol.

:) Donna

I doubt that this is Medinilla magnifica. No sign of the beautiful
bracts magnifica is known for. This one looks like medinilla
myriantha. It could be magnifica if the bracts had already fallen off. Usually the bracts last longer than the flowers. I found one at my Lowes store this summer tagged as
magnifica. They were in horrible shape so I got it for 10.00.
In a 3 gallon pot

Jackie.

Lowes??! I have been keeping my eye out for this one since seeing it at the SF Conservatory! And Carol, RED! Ohhhhh....
Kell, you didn't include me in the salivating D-mails? LOL! You mean there are others of our kind that enable?! Oh yeah Doh, that's why we are here on DG!

**

Donna,
What a find!! Love it! I tried looking it up in the plant files with no success. Can you help?
Thanks,
Barbara

Here it is Barbara: http://davesgarden.com/pf/b/Melastomataceae/Medinilla/

Oh Sue!!! I have been racking my brain trying to remember what nursery I saw this one in. And when I saw your pictures I remembered I saw it at the Conservatory a few weeks ago.

WOW Donna, you lucky duck.

Thanks, Kell. Jackie have you ever taken cuttings for it?
:) Donna

Donna, this Jackie hasn't. I still need to repot mine. Just too
many plants for an old lady. If I get it repotted and growing well, I can take cuttings. Just remind me later

Jackie

Jackie are you saying yours is different than mine? If yours is I would luv to try it. But I need to know how to root cuttings to trade with someone.
:) Donna

Beautiful plant, whatever species it turns out to be!

This message was edited Sep 18, 2005 10:31 PM

Donna, I've studied your pic again and I believe they are
probably the same plant. Leaves and flowers pretty much identical.
I am going to try rooting it in my Fertilome potting mix when I'm ready to try. Probably
would be better to wait till spring and use a rooting hormone
and bottom heat. Might be hard to root this plant during the winter.
Might be hard to do in spring, summer and fall too. LOL
Won't know till we try.
Jackie

Regarding how to propagate the above beauty:

Thanks Pam for looking up all the info. Great site!
:) Donna

I have rooted them in vermiculate with good success. I do have bottom heat for them. One of my favorite plants.

Thanks, Bward. At what time of the year did you do this?
:) Donna

Summer and winter. Use bottom heat in winter. They are not the easiest thing I rooted but neither are they that hard to root.

Thanks again! I'm going to try and root some after it finishes blooming.
:) Donna

I have been successful rooting them with the first method below. A nurseryman friend of mine is successful using the second.

1. Pick a top cutting just as the newest leaves are losing their red underleaf blush. Put in a rooting medium, provide bottom heat and humidity and process a bunch of them jammed in close together. 70% successful.

2. Cut tip just below 2nd node. Trim back leaves to about 2" of growth from the base of the leaves. Stick cutting in water (change water every 2 days) until the 'wound' hardens, and then plant in a rooting medium. He tells me about 95% success.

Heat and humidity are the keys, here.

The seeds are extremely viable: when they are ripe, pull off and smear onto a slab of damp moss. They will grow!!! This plant is best grown epiphytically.

Thanks, Carol. I might try both methods. Since I've never had this plant before will I know what the seeds look like to try growing them from seeds?
:) Donna

How is it doing, Donna? I want a MEDINILLA MINIATA so much or any one actually! But I want to know if it can winter over in my dining room that has lots of sky lights but on the cool side. Do they have to be in GH??

I AM DESPERATE FOR IT!!!! LOL

How lovely. I almost bought one this spring when Home Depot had them.. Now I wish I had. If they have them again in the spring I must get one. Congrats.

I believe I saw magnificum on ebay recently forsale.

LOL, I believe I did too, and linked her too it. I think the heat & humidity requirement thing is a concern for us here in CA, she's convinced she'd kill it.

Though mine hasn't bloomed yet, I have M. magnifica....I grow it as a potted plant in an east windowsill in WISCONSIN....so *my opinion* is....if *I* can do it, kell....*you* can!!

Mine does sit 'in the company ' of other plants, which I suppose helps with humidity, and I do have a humidifier running (just a small one) in that corner of the living room/plant room during the winter.

I haven't found it to be as particular about humidity as we're lead to believe.

It's known to grow 'somewhat epiphytically', so use a fast draining mix and don't overwater.

I've given up trying to propagate it, though.....it's tough, in my opinion.

I placed it outdoors this past summer, so am hoping that will help me to see some blooms this year (last year on another forum, another 'northerner' had posted photos of hers blooming after placing it outdoors for the summer.)

This is my 3rd year owning it.

HA HA. A nursery friend of mine defies all conventional wisdom and roots his by:

Take a two node tip cutting.
Cut the leaves down to about 1/4 of their normal size.
Stick end of cutting (mature green wood) into water. Wait for the nubbies to form.
Plant it.

He has about 90% success, He is here in Hawaii...just down the road. Not HOT, high 70;s during the day, 60's at night.

Go figger!

kell, so far mine is still alive....lol. A few leaves have been falling off. I guess I better move it more under the lights. It is is in the basement so that is definitely enough moisture for it.

Aloha when you talk about a two node tip cutting does this mean where the leaves come out of is the node and the tip is the new growth???
:) Donna

But in your humidity Carol, you could root a dead stick by just suspeneding it in the air. LOL.

Brian, thanks to Sue I went for your magnificum as well as a couple other of your plants late, last night. SO I HOPE I GET HUGE ONES!!!! LOL!!!

I was also looking at Enid's red MEDINILLA MINIATA with such complete lust. LOL. But $100 is a lot to kill off. If it weren't winter I would go for it. I wonder if MEDINILLA MINIATA is an easier plant than magnificum. Wishful thinking huh?? But Nan is making me reconsider. I am so easily encouraged.

Donna...the 'tip' should be half mature and count as one node, then the next set of leave and then....cut!

Looking out the window, I see our bush in bloom - if I find any ripe seeds, I will send them off for SASE.... Will come back this p.m. and let you know. They are EASY to start by seeds...just mooosh them on some long fiber spagnum moss.

Funny story about the Botanical Garden here. They kept finding M.magnificas sprouting up all over the garden...where they weren't planted. So...they followed the 'trail' of medinillas which led one way to a hole in the fence and the other way to the BetelNut Palms. Some 'addicts' were coming in at night, stepping on the fallen seeds on their way TO the BetelNut palms and the same route back to the hole in the fence, and tracking the seeds on their shoes!!!

Carol

I am so jealous Carol. You get to grow all the fun stuff. Which one do you have? There are so many varieties. I was trying to figure out the kind our San Francisco Conservatory had, but couldn't figure it out.

So do the BetelNut palms make you happy?? Can you get those seeds? LOL

Seeds?!!!! (*****raising hands wildly****)

So, Carol....these medinillas are relatively *easily* grown from seed? Why is (or was) the plant considered 'rare' or hard to find, I wonder?

You seriously mean that some people still use those nuts for stimulating effects? Here I thought that was a 'long ago' thing....hmmm?!! funny!

I think I have one of these palms.....are the seeds similar (loosely) to a Coconut palm nut....but on a much smaller scale?

Cuz...I have a palm that I bought at a nearby nursery...they had it labeld 'coconut palm'...but the seed was still attached, and it wasn't a coconut palm seed, for sure!!
The seed was about the size of a tree walnut.

I grow a few different forms of this plant the magnificum seems to be one of the easiest. I have started them from seed and have trays of them now. But have not had great luck with the cuttings. Though I am sure it can be done. Here is a plant I saw years ago at a botanical garden. I am not one to really like trees or bushes but the one looks pretty cool and it can grow as a epiphyte which is how I like to grow them.

Do they take a while to grow to a 'sizeable' plant from seed?

I've just always heard that they're difficult to propagate, and my attempts 'sealed' that one, for me! Of course I've never had seeds, though.

I don't feel so bad now about my bad luck with attempting to propagate from cuttings if you've had trouble, too!

But bward says she has done it!! Good going!

Carol if you do get some and they are different than the one I have could I trade you for some? With mine I've let the little round pods fall on the soil. Not sure if they are ripe enough but it would be exciting to see some babies growing.

Brian do you have pictures of your different forms of mednilla? The one you took a picture at the botanical garden looks neat with the pink brackets or whatever they are called remainding on the plant. Or is it the flower just starting off?

:) Donna

There are lots of seed pods...but none dark enough to be ripe yet. Send me a CD Jewel Case (empty) in a padded envelope stamped and addressed and I will fill the Jewel Case up with seeds. OK?

The head of the Botanical Gardens here just smears the pod/seeds on moss growing on a tree and...PRESTO...they sprouted. It is ALWAYS warm and humid. I have been lucky with seeds smeared on spagnum moss. This also works with M. 'lalique' ...will try to find some of those...translucent corollas with a purple center...not as big leafed as the others. I also have a red Medinilla (NOT pink) which I planted in the crotch of a tree and it is growing well, but not flowering yet.

Send to Carol Noel
P.O. Box 1359, Keaau, HI 96749