widnet il bahar

beastmaster · Post by **beastmaster** » Wed Aug 16, 2006 8:45 pm

Got a dried flower of widnet iL bahar from my girlfriend's nanna's garden ( they had it for years and years ) and would like to see if its possible to grow it from seed if anybody knows how before I just plant them?

sandra · Post by **sandra** » Wed Aug 16, 2006 10:00 pm

Never tried seeds but ive managed with small cuttings.

Post by **MWP admin** » Thu Aug 17, 2006 11:27 pm

Asteraceae wild plants (the family to which widnet il-bahar belong) are usually very successful growing plants from seeds. Sow them in the fall supplying chalky soil with very good drainage. Do not fertilize much in the beginning and never overwater. Full sun, air moisture is a bonus

wolf · Post by **wolf** » Fri Aug 18, 2006 4:38 pm

Sandra - when is best time for cuttings ?
ps...anyone reading this please do not take cuttings from the wild - try the mtarfa cemetary ( just at the edge of ta qali on the new road...dik li kellhom jaghlqu ghax infethilha zipp.... !!! ) where there are good mature plants - plenty of them and so you will not be doing any damage ...ps the cemetery is always open too every day and for very long hours

wolf

Post by **MWP admin** » Fri Aug 18, 2006 6:24 pm

wolf, according to 'strict' environmentalists, you cannot do that either - maybe they reply you here about it!

Now I always wonder how authorities are allowed to propagate wild plants (with strong seed dispersal power) and spread them everywhere. Contradictory ?!

But well, to reply you

, take the cuttings during the coldest month and apply rooting powder at the base. They should produce new leaves during mid-Spring. Januarry-Febuary ideal for Malta. Dont fertilize before growth starts = roots has established. Proper drainage is the key to success.

Note that seeds are more exciting to grow - you would have your own baby plants!

wolf · Post by **wolf** » Fri Aug 18, 2006 6:46 pm

widnet at mtarfa cemetery is planted and cultivated ....only dead britons can report me there - though i suppose they are much more alive ( bless their souls ) than all the mepa enforcement hordes put together ......

issa ha tghidli meta l-ahjar naqta bicca ???

wolf

sandra · Post by **sandra** » Fri Aug 18, 2006 9:35 pm

I had done the cuttings during the winter time and kept them in my lab..this was some time ago so I dont remember exactly when, as we have a gardener at school who actually split the large cuttings into smaller ones for me. I also placed the ends in rooting powder as MWP said and placed them in soil. The cuttings were brought to me by one of my students who had the plant in her front garden, so it was nothing illegal. I dont believe in taking cuttings from the wild.

We planted two plants at School which were given to us from Argotti. Trying to get the kids to appreciate the national plant. Pity though that one "vanished" and the other one had one of its branches trod on. Unfortunately not all kids are the same.. there was I taking my students to observe the plant in full bloom ..only to find the mess. At least my students were quite shocked.

Post by **MWP admin** » Sat Aug 19, 2006 6:57 am

It would be a suitable post for the "why we hate Malta" of my other personal (and unfamous) forum hosted on Marz Kreations.

I dont know from where this mentality comes from and it is sickening. At least the children would learn a different lesson - how ugly vandalism is.

BTW, I too think that there is nothing wrong to encourage propagation of indineous plants.

jackpot · Post by **jackpot** » Sat Aug 19, 2006 9:04 am

Robcar: as far as I understand the English/Maltese language, WOLF seems to be much more sarcastic than me...

wolf · Post by **wolf** » Sat Aug 19, 2006 9:44 am

sarcastic.... who me ???

wolf

robcar · Post by **robcar** » Sat Aug 19, 2006 10:59 am

IL-PINE · Post by **IL-PINE** » Sat Aug 19, 2006 12:14 pm

Heh, you can also take cuttings from further down the road - just opposite Chadwick Lakes entry or in the bypass of Mellieha - that leading to Anchor Bay.

We are learning from you, Jackpot

Post by **MWP admin** » Sat Aug 19, 2006 1:05 pm

"issa ha tghidli meta l-ahjar naqta bicca ??? " Note that I have told you in the first post !! (Confirmed by Sandra)

Post by **MWP admin** » Sat Aug 19, 2006 1:07 pm

And you can come to our street, found in one terrace garden just beside the pavement.

Post by **MWP admin** » Sun Aug 20, 2006 11:44 am

BeatMaster, which location you plan to grow Widnet il-bahar? Are you from Malta?

beastmaster · Post by **beastmaster** » Sun Aug 20, 2006 1:40 pm

BeatMaster, which location you plan to grow Widnet il-bahar? Are you from Malta?

I got the flower with seeds in it from Gozo nadur and im gonna grow it in paola. And yes Im very much maltese.

If the seeds grow into little plants then they will be panted in my still not liviable house in luqa were there is a very sunny little garden in it.

My first time i ever saw a real widnet il bahar was a couple of years ago at my girlfriends nanna place hence were i got the flower and since then I have been completely fasinated with it.

Im usually more into growing baby trees from seeds and carnivours plants so this is my first time with an indigenous plant with such value as the said plant. I always imagined it since begining a very rare plant it take hell to grow one. But i should start my growing proceure next week.

And sorry for the blabbering and thanks for the great reply and will keep you posted

Post by **MWP admin** » Sun Aug 20, 2006 2:37 pm

Thanks for the info... interesting! Hpe you succeed! I too am trying trials to grow this plant in pots from seeds this season. Hope I manage well. I will also keep you posted about it, on a more dedicated topic called "Cultivation and propagation"

I leave you with a photo of our national plant as a welcome poster to BeatMaster (from seeing your nick, I taught you were another spam dude!)

beastmaster · Post by **beastmaster** » Sun Aug 20, 2006 7:03 pm

Thanks for the photo Stephen

and about my nick its beastmaster not beatmaster

I kept that nick from another forum of completely differnet argument so I remember the name as I have jioned many forum with different names and passwords and then forget what it was. And no Im no spam I really like these things but Im not a herbologist or something like that as a lot of people here are as I noticed. Plus would love to jion when you people make an outhing in the countryside.
So hopefully see you soon guys

Thanks Ramon (my real name)

cactus · Post by **cactus** » Mon Feb 26, 2007 7:01 pm

Hi to all

I am a new member here and this is quite a belated reply, having passed nearly a year, but I could not read this without comment.

I used to observe a plant of P.crasifolius planted near the large roundabout at Paola near the cemetery, but on the central strip leading to the petrol station. No doubt it had been planted there and I used to stop my car at the traffic lights coming from the other way and there it was but then some well wishers decided to plant new flowers on the roundabout and thereabouts. This was of course with good intensions but alas the pretty national plant was unscrupulously removed.

Some members mentioned the plant growing at Imtarfa cemetery. Other propagated plants of this species are growing near the traffic-lights leading to Tal-Barani road coming from Bulebel.

I was not aware that it has been successfully propagated by seed. I had been told by someone that all the flowers of this plant at Dingli cliffs are attacked by a wasp and the seeds do not mature.

Thanks to all and keep on the good work.

Post by **MWP admin** » Mon Feb 26, 2007 8:44 pm

Yes, this plant is being used to decorate several traffic islands now. However I think the normal and fast propagation method is by cutting rather than by seed. The cutting is taken and transplanted in December, though some suggest an earlier date, around October.

RB · Post by RB » Mon Feb 26, 2007 10:28 pm

Cuttings I took around December or January (I forget from memory, but it's on the pots!) seem to have struck, or at least I have 3 out of 5 that seem to, evidenced by the previously shrivelled leaves filling up again and roots being visible from the drainholes of one pot. The rest are still shrivelled but I suspect that eventually they may also take.

It seems that semi-ripe cuttings are best, ie cuttings not too long consisting of the growing tip rather than woody, sectional stem cuttings.

I do consider that as per Gaia's recommendations, an earlier date is better, somewhere around Sep/Oct when the plant does not have the fresh, soft growth of barely succulent leaves, (requiring considerable water uptake to retain turgidity) which one finds around December or later.

In Sep-Oct the leaves on the plant are the drought resistant leaves that are retained over the plant's mostly dormant summer season, thus better able to handle "the chop" and placing less demands on the stem.

RB

jackpot · Post by **jackpot** » Tue Feb 27, 2007 9:54 am

not a wesp but the larvae of a moth (as well as some other species of "insectivous vegetarians"), and at least we found 1 which is not yet described but we work on it!

cactus · Post by **cactus** » Wed Feb 28, 2007 3:28 pm

So, are all the flowers being eaten (or damaged) or do a few seeds manage to mature?

If they are not managing to produce seeds it means that the insect/s (whatever they are) must have either recently developed the taste for this plant or it had been recently introduced. When I say recently I mean in the last couple of hundred years.

RB · Post by RB » Wed Feb 28, 2007 4:08 pm

"all the flowers of this plant at Dingli cliffs are attacked"

It may well be that not all the flowers are attacked. The plant is relatively long lived, hence if some seeds are produced, there is still enough for survival, which could mean that the bug has always been around.

After all, many plant seeds/flowers are popular with insects and other animals, and end up being consumed/destroyed.

As far as "recently" (the introduction, if any, of the bug) referring to hundreds of years, then this would be in slight contradiction with the above quote - I do not think that any of the plants in the wild are "hundreds" of years old, so if as per your assumption, they would all be extinct by now, no seeds for hundreds of years.

The bug could be a more recent introduction, or as you say, it acquired a taste for the plant. Likely the former - after all it has wings!

RB