I've never got them to germinate, perhaps you could stick a photo up and I'll try again this year.

Don't prick them out - they detest root disturbance.

I have a 50cm high one I've had for many years - I started out with 2, but I blinked the wrong way once and one just died. I would cut out as much as possible around the seedlings and try to establish them in pots (coir and sand might work). My big plants are growing in normal aussie potting mix(low P) 50:50 with 10mm gravel. I grow it in full sun in a greenhouse with air conditioning. In the wild they seem to grow anywhere from deep peat on the sides of streams through to gravel on the sides of hills. They also get 3m of rain and mild conditions :)

When you repot, place the plant and soil, wholus bolus, into the new pot. I've lost many richeas by not following this precaution.

I also get red spots on the leaves, I have no idea whether this is a virus or what but so far it hasn't killed it (touch wood!).

Incidently richeas are indeed dicots, so you should be seeing two leaves. What shape they might be I can't say.

For me, in Melbourne, R. pandani seems the most robust of the big tassies. I've never kept scoparia alive more than a summer. R. gunnii (the small eastern tassie one) is easy to grow and propagate.

I have two R. continentalis from the mainland, and they have survived a summer growing in a large foam box and have put on considerable new growth.

Hi Nathan,

Many thanks for a very informative answer.I will attempt to take a macro shot of the seedlings on the weekend and post it for you.
I grow what I bought as R. scoparia but I'm not sure it is the real thing. I will also get a pic of that plant which is happy enough in a raised bed growing in ballast (sharp sand and gravel) with a little composted bark.

Thanks again for the advice about the medium and root disturbance, I will follow it carefully.

Cheers

Mark

R. scoparia is well known as being extremely viciously spikey. If it hasn't made holes in all your gardening gloves, it might not be the real thing. However, I know of no other genus that looks like richeas (the closest would be the giant wa leucopogon).

From what I remember of the pandanifolia up on Mt Field, a gritty peaty mix would probably be OK. Most of the more impressive specimens are in nicely shaded, damp areas. It grows up in the alpine areas in a much reduced state, but even there the water table and humidity are probably always high and the night temps low.

I don't grow pandanifolia (not enough space) but I do grow dracophylla & scorparia down here at sea level - both rather slow-growing but easy if they don't get hot & dry for too long.

Kayman, Tasmania

I have taken a few snaps of my pots of Richea seeds and also two shots of what I bought as Richea scoparia. It is not very spikey so I now doubt the ID.

Here is the album...
http://www.pbase.com/pillharrier/early_2005

In Richea germination 3 you can clearly see little two leaved seedlings. Anyone confirm that these are Pandani?

Thanks for the added advice Kayman.

Great plantsa - shame they are so tricky!

Here is a link that might be useful: My garden

Your picture of scorparia looks a little like acerosa (leaves narrow, lance-shaped, near upright, sharply pointed, 8-14 mm long), but I think the leaves are just too long.

It doesn't look too much like the forms of scorparia (leaves persisting on the branch when dead, rigid, lance-shaped, tapering to a sharp hard point, 3-6 cm long; some curving, others straight) I'm familiar with from around Hobart & Mt Field, but it does resemble a drawing in Kirkpatrick's book of a form from Ben Lomond - though more sparsely clothed than that one (you may want to try and up the light levels & reduce the temperature you're growing it in).

It's difficult to tell but on balance I'd plump for scorparia (unless someone with more experience than me or access to The Student's Flora of Tasmania is prepared to join in).

As for them being tricky - I was at the local botanic gardens last week; the scorparia in their Tasmanian plants area was looking decidedly off-colour, so you're in good company.

I agree, R. scoparia when I've grown it has shorter leaves and thicker stems. The leaves certainly look like richea though, and I agree that acerosa is more believable. Here is a I've dug up.

Those 'seedlings' look like marchantia thalus to me, or maybe a fern (though I though ferns had heart shaped ones). Are they transparent? Then they are probably some bryophyte.

Not having sown any Richea myself I won't comment on the identity of the seedlings. However, if you got the seed via a certain company in Wales, then the original collector is very very good and wouldn't have misidentified it. Whether they remained viable is another matter of course.

I don't think that the seeds are wrong - Marchantia appears anywhere that is moist. Indeed I am suprised that someone who keeps a greenhouse hasn't already learnt about liverworts.

The seeds probably haven't germinated, that's all.

Thanks guys. The seeds were imported from Tas via a fellow exotic gardener here in the UK. Unfortunately I don;t know the source. I'm not big on liverworts but I understand where you're coming from on the Marchantia. I'll monitor the situation anyway. Come to think of it, the leaves do look a little transparent but they are so small it is difficult to know for sure.
All the best

MArk

Hey Mark, hey guys.

I would have posted earlier but haven't been to the site for quite some time.

I don't know alot about Richea but reading though your posts I looked up the descriptions of both R. scoparia and R. acerosa in my copy of The Student's Flora of Tas. If you don't have any flowers then the way to tell the two apart would be the lenth of the leaves. R. acerosa's are 8-14mm long and R. scoparia's are 30-60mm long. The margins on the leaves of scoparia are also scaberulous.

Hope that helps.

Matt.

greyscarr, you are absolutely right! I have an acerosa growing right in front of me, and the leaves aren't much more than your average epacris impressa. Looking at those pictures again and I'd say it's more likely to be a R. dracophylla grown with too little light (making it look stretched out, and perhaps also causing the red). Not a species I've had much joy with, but then Mark won't be getting 45C days in the shade (and probably 50C in the greenhouse).

OK, according to my trusty copy of The Students Flora of Tas, R. dracophylla's leaves are "mostly 15-30cm long, margin scaberulous with distant projections".

Having only ever seen and appreciated Richeas growing in the wild on trips to Tasmania I cant pass comment but I want to say what a beautiful garden you have, and I am so impressed that it is in Britain! It really looks very tropical and I think you have achieved an effect that a lot of Australian gardens fail to reach when they try to look tropical.
You should be very proud of yourself and your garden!

I also thought that Id suggest a couple of tropical looking plants that I have seen doing quite well in Hobart - Strelitzia nicholia, seemed to be doing very well in the open in a number of gardens, as well as S. reginae, but I am told that they were both slow growing. I have also seen the kentia palm, Howea fosteriana growing in sheltered frost free spots as well as the bangalow palm which I saw you already had one of. I have even seen a golden cane palm growing in a very sheltered spot against a sunny brick wall.

Just thought I would also comment on your beautiful garden....something to be proud of.....Tina

I agree with Tina......what a beautiful garden, I am green with envy.

Marie

Glad we're agreed that this is unlikely to be acerosa. Not sure if I agree that it's dracophylla, but the plants I'm used to aren't 'drawn' by low light levels.

You might try getting a copy of the June '05 edition of "The Plantsman" which has a small piece on Richeas. It includes a key (probably only useful when your plant flowers) as well as recommendations about where in the UK they can be grown outdoors. This has it that dracophylla is the least hardy, only to be tried outdoors in the south-west or (perhaps) under the shelter of evergreens.

Kayman, Tasmania

Many thanks for all the continued advice on the Richeas. Going on the leaf size it would fit in with being a R. scoparia as the leaves are about 50cm long on average. I have seen a few R dracophyllum growing in UK gardens and it looks nothing like them (IÂve been trying to source one myself but itÂs difficult here).
My plant is grown in full sun but my mid summer highs only get to around 30 degrees at best.
Tina/Marie and Footfullofbindis (WhatÂs your real name :O))
Thanks very much for the comments. I have been working hard on the garden for 4 years and it is starting to get to something like what I wanted from the outset. IÂll never finish it because new plants are always becoming available and I get bored with some stuff and out they come. If youÂre interested, My garden is featured in a similar gallery site run by members of an online discussion forum called the UKOasis  discussing the growing of exotic plants in the UK. Most of the gardens featured are geared towards growing exotics. The URL is www.pbase.com/theukoasis
The discussion forum is at http://p206.ezboard.com/bukoasis

By the way, my Archontophoenix cunninghamia will beprotected over winter by heating cables as are a number of other borderline plants I grow in the groundÂCyathea medullaris, Ensete ventricosum, Rhopalostylis sapida etc. I used to be an engineering designer of heating cable systems so I have a knowledge of what to do and so far it has worked.

Kayman  I will endeavour to source a copy of that journal. Do you know if itÂs available in the UK or would I need to order it online from overseas?

Nothing further has happened in my R pandanifolia tray but if it does IÂll let you all know.

All the best

Mark

Here is a link that might be useful: UK OASIS Garden Galleries

Dracophylla's leaves average 20+ cms long. If yours are less than a third of this (5cm not 50cm? At this point I should apologise for consistently mispelling scoparia previously. Guess it happens to all of us.) it does seem unlikely to be that.

I'm told that Richea seed germinates profusely when fresh but may take several years when older. Good luck with the wait ahead with the pandanifolia.

Plantsman is the RHS journal. Available separately or as part of their membership package. If your library doesn't have it, you'll need to find an RHS member and make friends.

The Archibalds would be a good site to source seed of dracophylla in the UK. They also have seed of curtisiae (the hybrid between dracophylla & scoparia which was recently raised to species status, named after Winifred Curtis who died in Hobart aged a 100 only a few days ago).

Here is a link that might be useful: Archibalds Seed Site

50cm? That sounds like pandani if anything!

Oops. I meant to write 50mm (i.e. 5cm) not 50cm. Sorry. Definitely not Pandani.
I wasn't aware of Archibald's seed site Kayman even though I live a few hours from them. I will be placing an order. Thanks for the info.

Regards

Mark

You have a stunning garden, you must be very dedicted to grow some of those plants in the UK.

I don't know a lot about Tasmanian plants but Footfulofbindis (love the name) has made a couple of good suggestions. I would recommend Kentia Palms (both Howea forsteriana and belmoreana) for planting in colder areas. My palm book says they can 'withstand mild frosts without setback'. I know they are more cold tolerant than bangalow palms. The nursery I used to work at years ago used to send 100's of Kentias to Melbourne regularly.

Strelitzia nicolai is supposed to be quite cold tolerant.

Markee - what do you mean by heating cables? Are these something that goes under the ground to warm the soil or is it something that warms the surrounding air? How do they work - hot water? electricity?? Is it expensive to run? Which part of Wales do you live in? I have been to Anglesea for a couple of windy weeks and I cant imagine anything tropical growing there no matter how hopeful you are....
BTW - real name is Sean, but you can call me Foot....

Hi Foot,

The heater cables I use were sourced directly from a company I used to work for. They are electric cables very similar to soil warming cables but I use them above ground wrapped around the trunk/stem of the plants. They are self-regulating so that as the ambient temperature outside drops, the output of the cables increases and therefore the warmth of the cables increases. They are pretty efficient though and based on an ambient temperature of about Â5celcius, the power output of the cables is about 11watts/metre. I use a total of 70 metres in my garden totalling about 800 watts at that ambient temperature. They are connected to a thermostat that switches the system on when the temperature drops to 5 degrees celcius. The intended use of these cables is freeze prevention in pipelines at refineries, oil rigs, chemical plants etc.
I wrap my plants with fleece first, then wrap the cables around then another few layers of fleece. Some of the plants also get a rain cover (Ensete ventricosum being one).

Goldhills  Kentia palms are easily available here in houseplant sections of DIY chains but are not suitable for planting outdoors. My average winter low is -6 celcius and we can get days in cold periods where the temperature hardly climbs above zero. There are plenty of palms we can grow outdoors thoughÂButia, Trachycarpus, Jubaea, Chamaerops, Trithrinax, Phoenix, etc. Of the more borderline species I have a Livistona australis outside (which has survived Â6 for a few winters in a Birmingham (UK) garden), a Rhopalostylis sapida, a Syagrus rom., and the Archontophoenix cunninghamia. The Archontophoenix is a very ambitious experiment here but only cost £30 from a fellow enthusiast. It survived last winter in a pot with the heater cable wraps!

Thanks for your compliments.

Wish I could send a few Archontophoenix over to you. They only cost a couple of dollars for plants a metre or more high.

I admire your dedication.