545 Controlled Flowering of Oenothera fruticosa L. `Youngii-Lapsley' and Stokesia laevis L'Hér `Klaus Jelitto'

Abstract

Oenothera fruticosa L.`Youngii-Lapsley' and Stokesia laevis L'Hér. `Klaus Jelitto' are two hardy herbaceous perennials with great potential as pot crops. The vernalization and photoperiod requirements were examined for each species. Plants were cooled for 0, 3, 6, 9, 12, or 15 weeks at 5 °C with a 9-h photoperiod. After cold treatment, plants were forced in greenhouses at 20 °C under a 16-h photoperiod using high-pressure sodium lamps. The photoperiod requirement was determined by forcing plants at 20 °C with and without a 15-week cold treatment at 5 °C under 10-, 12-, 13-, 14-, 16-, 24-h and 4-h night interruption using incandescent lamps. Plants of Oenothera fruticosa `Youngii-Lapsley' cooled for 0 weeks did not flower. All plants cooled for 3 weeks flowered and time to flower decreased from 53 to 43 days as duration of cold increased from 3 to 15 weeks. `Youngii-Lapsley' flowered under every photoperiod, but time to flower and number of flowers decreased from 54 to 40 days as photoperiod increased from 10 to 24 h. Percentage flowering of Stokesia laevis `Klaus Jelitto' increased from 50 to 100, and time to flower decreased from 112 to 74 days as duration of cold increased from 0 to 6 weeks. Without a cold treatment, plants of `Klaus Jelitto' flowered only under daylengths of 12, 13, and 14 h. After cold treatment, plants flowered under every photoperiod except 24 h, and time to flower decreased from 122 to 65 days as photoperiod increased from 10 to 16 h. Additional aspects of flowering and the effect of different forcing temperatures will be discussed.