H.'Fortunei Hyacinthina' sports
page 3

Just for fun, this is what the plant looked like on June 15/09, just a few days before it went under the knife. You'll notice quite a few differences in variegation amongst the various shoots you see here and the object of the exercise will be to separate as many individual shoots as possible to grow on.

After a lot of humming and hawing the deed was finally done June 22nd, 2009. Bring out the knife, clear off the potting bench, get the Pro-Mix ready and let's go. Out of the pot it comes and the roots are washed best as possible in order to be able to better see where the cuts are best made. Some shoots were separated as just single shoots, others had more simply because it was difficult to do a proper single shoot division with a suitable amount of root mass. This picture will give you an idea of the root mass I had to deal with. In case you wonder, the initial division off the mother plant was done in 2007, June 19th to be precise, at which time there were 4 shoots.

As you can see from the picture at the top, there is/was quite the variance in variegation pattern, particularly when you compare them all against the initial emergence of this sport on the mother plant. When there is such a variance it's only understandable that you end up with preferring some over others and in this case the one I prefer most is this one. It's one I have given the working cultivar name 'Twisting The Night Away', a name that kept popping into my head lying in bed the morning I started to do this page, June 23rd.

Division #2, to the right. Only one of the 12 divisions I ended up with had all twisted leaves, the others either showed it on one leaf, or none at all. As you go through the pictures of all the divisions you will see there is a tendency for the heavier variegated leaves to have a degree of twisting. This one here is an example of a division with hardly any and the variegation on this one is not stable yet either. As you can see several leaves are variegated on one half only and there are still signs of streaking.

Division #3, this smaller single shoot division is like the one above, quite unstable still. I have no doubt things will change for it next year.

Division #4 is another work in progress.

Division #5 shows more promise, but, like the ones above, there are still signs of streaking and instability. Notice there's a hint of twisting on a couple of leaves...

Division #6, a streaker with a twist....

Minor amount of streaking only, I'm not expecting much out of division #7 for next year.

#8 is yet another one with a twist...

Division #9 shows hardly any twisting, but it still does have that nice tri-colour medio variegation, I'm anxious to see how this develops over the next couple of years.

Division #10

Division #10 again, this is from a different angle and shows the twist in 3 out of 4 leaves.

Division #11 is one of the smaller divisions, and only with some minor streaking, but hope springs eternal and we'll see what next year brings for this one.

The final division, #12, shows nothing at all, it's plain Jane green. But wait, it's green, not blue... well, we'll see next year. After all, I know that Hyacinthina's colouration varies quite a bit depending on the amount of direct sun it receives and this one saw probably about 4-5 hours of it prior to division.

Eight of the twelve divisions are sitting side by each in a tray which get filled with water every 3 or 4 days for the first month or so, just to make sure we keep them well hydrated -and out of direct sun- to give them a chance to establish themselves. The others are treated similarly in other trays. On top of that they receive very little, if any, direct sun for the first few weeks.

Not only are the tags numbered for each division, the pots are numbered as well. That will make progress evaluation much easier next year and beyond.

There is in fact one additional pot which has but a small piece of crown and some roots I found in the clean up of the potting bench. I suppose technically that would make that #13, perhaps lucky #13. It was worth taking a chance, nothing ventured, blah-blah. I've had success earlier this year with a small 'Blue Mouse Ears' crown which at the time showed no apical buds at all and now is a healthy, decent sized 2 shoot division. The key would appear to be the crown part, I'm not holding my breath though.