 |
Melica altissima atropurpurea |
 |
|
|
| Common name |
Siberian melic grass |
| Family |
poaceae |
| Life cycle |
perennial (Z4-9) |
| Flowers |
deep purple (late spring) |
| Size |
2' |
| Light |
sun-part shade |
| Cultural notes |
ordinary garden soil |
From seed  |
See details below
detailed seed-starting info below
|
| Seed ripens | early July |
The first year I grew this, out of all the seed I sowed, just one germinated - and it looked pretty spindly, too. So we were pleased that the next year, not only did it return, but it looked like a pretty robust plant. Then, late May, all of a sudden these striking dark plum flowerstalks appeared. I think this is one of those plants that is better than expected - a rare treat!
|
|
| 
| | An added bonus: it returns to brighten up the garden in early spring - this photo was taken in early April. |
|
In our garden, this plant grows in the following area: cutting garden Seed for this plant is included on my seed trade list About my plant portraits
Visitors to this page have left the following comments| J O'Hara | Jul 09, 2004 | Hi. You might want to check the sowing instructions in the Thompson & Morgan website for this plant - sounds somewhat fussy, which may be why yours didn't take well.
Cheers |
| Kathryn Yuodsnukis | Apr 19, 2005 | WOW Looks like a show stopper. started mine March in a cold greenhouse about 3inches as of today 4/19. Did take a lot of seeds, but well worth the effort and time. |
| Knud Poulsen | Feb 08, 2006 | Started mine late January by using the Baggy methode. Germination started after 10 days in the refrigerator. Germination rate 80%
Thanks for the info, Knud - the more data, the better. |
| Robert Persinger | Mar 26, 2006 | I had absolutely no trouble starting Melica altissima using the large zip-lock baggy method and placing them in a warm, east facing room. Got scads of shoots within ten days. Whadda I know?
They certainly self-seed nicely for me. Perhaps my original seed was less than perfect. |
- Seed from '02 trade. Baggy 70F (1 out of many germinated, 7d)
- Same seed as above. Pot set outside in early March. Germination started in April, continued into May, total of 8 seedlings (out of many seeds)
Most seeds apparently are duds - sow thickly. Letting mother nature do her thing may be better than inside conditions.
I welcome comments about my web pages; feel free to use the form below to
leave feedback about this particular page. For the benefit of other visitors
to these pages, I will list any relevant comments you leave, and if
appropriate, I will update my page to correct mis-information. Faced with an
ever-increasing onslaught of spam, I'm forced to discard any comments including
html markups. Please submit your comment as plain text. If you have a
comment about the website as a whole, please leave it in my
guestbook. If you
have a question that needs a personal response, please
e-mail me.
Last modified:
April 08, 2005
Contact me
|
