just found this plant, the trunk forming gunnera, looks very much like a tree fern in a way.
sounds brilliant but can't find much info.
anybody know if it is available?
gunnera peltata
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Troppoz
Re: gunnera peltata
Oh I like that very much! It looks like something growing on Pandora 
A garden where you could plant a thicket of that with a path meandering through it would be sensational.
Let us know if you score one
A garden where you could plant a thicket of that with a path meandering through it would be sensational.
Let us know if you score one
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Re: gunnera peltata
I had been looking at this on Rare Palm Seeds, but I haven’t had very good germination with seed from them except for their palms.
Chad.
Chad.
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Mr List
Re: gunnera peltata
i wonder how fast the trunk would form from a seed grown plant 
must be years
must be years
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Arlon Tishmarsh
- Posts: 6957
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Re: gunnera peltata
Bit of info from the intraweb.....
"RHM985 Gunnera Peltata
This immense Gunnera is endemic to Robinson Crusoe Island, in the Archipelago of Juan Fernandez off the coast of Chile and forms large stands in moist, sheltered areas. Gunnera peltata forms a stem up to 2 m tall. The gigantic leaves can reach 2 m in diameter and emerge from a nest of ruby-red fibers at the apex of the stem. Although virtually unknown in cultivation, it has extraordinary ornamental potential and will thrive in any consistently cool climate.
Caring for gunnera plants: Soil: Gunnera species grow in deep, permanently moist, humus-rich soil in sun or partial shade. Large varieties need shelter from cold, drying winds and winter protection; all varieties are unsuitable for high heat and humid climates.
Maintenance: Gunnera manicata demands a virtually unlimited water supply in their growing season that's why it's ideally planted along the edge of a stream or a pond). Plant it right after the last frost in spring and add as much compost, well-rotted manure and slow-release fertilizer as possible to the soil. Even after the plant has settled in, massive amounts of compost, manure and fertilizer are needed.
Protection: Unprotected crowns can not survive temperatures below 18 degrees. The crowns of smaller varieties should be protected with dry mulch. The leaves of larger varieties should be cut off after the first hard frost. Inverted, the leaves provide excellent coverage for the resting crowns. Another method to help keep out moisture is to remove leaves after the frost, cover the crown with 20 inches of straw, cover with a burlap tarp, or large plastic container, such as a tub, and than add another 20 inches of straw. Seasoned wood chips or sawdust will work even better. After all danger of a hard freeze is gone, in late March or early April, protection can be removed. Then be sure to mulch the Gunnera plant.
Uses: Gunnera plants may be planted in large containers for their first few years, depending upon their need for deeply cultivated, moist, fertile soil, in a sheltered location. Gunneras are great for waterside planting and other moist places. The crowns of these plants should be protected in the winter by mulching with dead leaves."
Could be worth a try
Seeds seem readily available although far more expensive than manicata etc but plants hard to come by
"RHM985 Gunnera Peltata
This immense Gunnera is endemic to Robinson Crusoe Island, in the Archipelago of Juan Fernandez off the coast of Chile and forms large stands in moist, sheltered areas. Gunnera peltata forms a stem up to 2 m tall. The gigantic leaves can reach 2 m in diameter and emerge from a nest of ruby-red fibers at the apex of the stem. Although virtually unknown in cultivation, it has extraordinary ornamental potential and will thrive in any consistently cool climate.
Caring for gunnera plants: Soil: Gunnera species grow in deep, permanently moist, humus-rich soil in sun or partial shade. Large varieties need shelter from cold, drying winds and winter protection; all varieties are unsuitable for high heat and humid climates.
Maintenance: Gunnera manicata demands a virtually unlimited water supply in their growing season that's why it's ideally planted along the edge of a stream or a pond). Plant it right after the last frost in spring and add as much compost, well-rotted manure and slow-release fertilizer as possible to the soil. Even after the plant has settled in, massive amounts of compost, manure and fertilizer are needed.
Protection: Unprotected crowns can not survive temperatures below 18 degrees. The crowns of smaller varieties should be protected with dry mulch. The leaves of larger varieties should be cut off after the first hard frost. Inverted, the leaves provide excellent coverage for the resting crowns. Another method to help keep out moisture is to remove leaves after the frost, cover the crown with 20 inches of straw, cover with a burlap tarp, or large plastic container, such as a tub, and than add another 20 inches of straw. Seasoned wood chips or sawdust will work even better. After all danger of a hard freeze is gone, in late March or early April, protection can be removed. Then be sure to mulch the Gunnera plant.
Uses: Gunnera plants may be planted in large containers for their first few years, depending upon their need for deeply cultivated, moist, fertile soil, in a sheltered location. Gunneras are great for waterside planting and other moist places. The crowns of these plants should be protected in the winter by mulching with dead leaves."
Could be worth a try
Seeds seem readily available although far more expensive than manicata etc but plants hard to come by
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Simba
Re: gunnera peltata
Wow, I didn't realise how big that was until I saw the people in the bottom corner for scale. Jurassic park eh....Troppoz wrote:Oh I like that very much! It looks like something growing on Pandora
A garden where you could plant a thicket of that with a path meandering through it would be sensational.
Let us know if you score one
Re: gunnera peltata
Has anyone seen any hardiness data for this species?
The Genus varies from fairly reliably hardy to not hardy at all.
This species will not have seen a frost since at least the last ice age and probably not then either.
Chad.
The Genus varies from fairly reliably hardy to not hardy at all.
This species will not have seen a frost since at least the last ice age and probably not then either.
Chad.
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Mr List
Re: gunnera peltata
don't you think it would be fine to treat liek brugmansia?
out in summer ,away in the cellar in winter?
out in summer ,away in the cellar in winter?
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Kyle
Re: gunnera peltata
I've just acquired some Gunnera peltata seeds from eBay. Any advice on how I might go about germinate them would be appreciated.
If anyone has had success germinating other Gunnera species I'd be interested to hear what you did.
If anyone has had success germinating other Gunnera species I'd be interested to hear what you did.
Re: gunnera peltata
Kyle,
Since no one else has answered.
I grew several species from seed years ago, and don’t remember doing anything ‘special’. Some batches of commercial seed came up like cress, and from some batches nothing appeared at all.
Fresh seed seems to be important.
This site has info.
Christopher Lloyd wrote [in The Well Tempered Garden – Collins 1970]
‘Another way of increasing gunneras is from seed. I have raised a good many this way at various times, and seed is offered by Messrs. Thompson & Morgan of Ipswich, or you can save your own. But the outcome is chancy, and, in as many years as not, the seed fails to germinate. The gunnera’s inflorescence is an extraordinary looking, cone-shaped affair, about 2-ft. long and made up of a large number of fleshy green spikelets covered with green pimples. Some of these turn orange, later in the season, and I gather a handful of them in autumn. They spend the winter drying out on a sunny-window sill. At the end of March I scrape the pimples of the spikelets and sow them. What the best conditions are for germination, I have not discovered. I can never get them to germinate in darkness. And it is usually not until July that the first seedlings appear. By then the seed pot is standing in the open. The seedlings can be potted off individually as soon as large enough to handle. They should be overwintered in a frost-proof frame or greenhouse and can, if large enough to fill a 5-in. pot, be planted out in the following June – the best time for establishing them in the garden. If not large enough, hold them over for another year.’
In his 2001 revision he added.
‘The key to success is to sow in spring and keep the pot in a light and airy place.’
I wonder now if the batches I thought had failed had been thrown away too soon!
Chad.
Since no one else has answered.
I grew several species from seed years ago, and don’t remember doing anything ‘special’. Some batches of commercial seed came up like cress, and from some batches nothing appeared at all.
Fresh seed seems to be important.
This site has info.
Christopher Lloyd wrote [in The Well Tempered Garden – Collins 1970]
‘Another way of increasing gunneras is from seed. I have raised a good many this way at various times, and seed is offered by Messrs. Thompson & Morgan of Ipswich, or you can save your own. But the outcome is chancy, and, in as many years as not, the seed fails to germinate. The gunnera’s inflorescence is an extraordinary looking, cone-shaped affair, about 2-ft. long and made up of a large number of fleshy green spikelets covered with green pimples. Some of these turn orange, later in the season, and I gather a handful of them in autumn. They spend the winter drying out on a sunny-window sill. At the end of March I scrape the pimples of the spikelets and sow them. What the best conditions are for germination, I have not discovered. I can never get them to germinate in darkness. And it is usually not until July that the first seedlings appear. By then the seed pot is standing in the open. The seedlings can be potted off individually as soon as large enough to handle. They should be overwintered in a frost-proof frame or greenhouse and can, if large enough to fill a 5-in. pot, be planted out in the following June – the best time for establishing them in the garden. If not large enough, hold them over for another year.’
In his 2001 revision he added.
‘The key to success is to sow in spring and keep the pot in a light and airy place.’
I wonder now if the batches I thought had failed had been thrown away too soon!
Chad.
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Kyle
Re: gunnera peltata
Thanks for your input Chad.
I snatched up all the seeds that were being offered, so that will at least give me a chance to try different things. (Greenhouse, heated prop, cool basement window).
Seems the most importantly thing is not to handle them. I wonder if those who collected the seed knew that?
I snatched up all the seeds that were being offered, so that will at least give me a chance to try different things. (Greenhouse, heated prop, cool basement window).
Seems the most importantly thing is not to handle them. I wonder if those who collected the seed knew that?
Re: gunnera peltata
They survived my grubby adolescent fingers back in the 70’s so they can’t have been that fussy!
I think letting light at them [shallow sowing] may be important.
Chad.
I think letting light at them [shallow sowing] may be important.
Chad.
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Kyle
Re: gunnera peltata
Nothing happening at the moment I'm afraid. They were only sown a month ago though. I received about 90 seeds and have them in 3 different containers of 30. One in the heated prop (lifted off the base with polystyrene). One in the basement just out of direct sunlight and the other under shade netting in the greenhouse.Mr List wrote:did these ever do anything kyle?
I researched a little about their natural habitat. If I recall correctly they had typical maximum summer temps in the mid 20c's and minimums something like the mid teens. The areas I've got them in should all be pretty close to this range. I was also extremely careful not to touch the seeds by hand due to concerns about skin oils interfering with germination.
I'm still hopeful that I'll get some results.