Tropical Gardening

I have two types of Brugs (Suavolens and Miss Emilie McKenzie). Both are from cuttings this year and I have also grown them as standards with clear stems until the 'Y' fork. In only 4 months or so I am pretty impressed at the speed they grow and the numerous huge blooms they throw out. I will...

Very nice indeed

I think its a lot to do with temperature. I have two pots of Canna altensteinii, which were overwintered together as rhizomes. One pot was put outside after the last frost and is now one foot high, and the other has been inside my conservatory, where its a lot warmer. The inside one reached 8...

I did try to see which specimen we have but there are so many to trawl through I gave up. Anyhow my better half has now cut the flowering part right off as they had died, just hoping she has done the right thing . Time will tell!

You say its only a plug plant at this stage? Grow it on up until about mid Oct outside, or in the greenhouse, from then on watch the weather, if we should get some hard frost it might just need to be taken indoors for a few days, aim to keep it ticking over through the winter. That way by next...

Sihitch. The problem is in getting them back into growth without them rotting. Its the same problem you get with many different types of tuber and rhizome, such as Colocasia, Amorphophallus, Gloriosa etc.I am not that good at it myself. But I think the key is to have them in very very slightly...

I'll take some pics of the seedlings i've potted on, early days though.

I tend to use ordinary compost with quite a bit of coarse grit added. I repotted one today and also put some slow release fertiliser.Well drained rich compost is usually suggested, I think cacti compost might be a bit to low in nutrients.But be careful of over potting.

That's interesting Pete - because I thought that nearly everything was hardy in your garden. The phrase that Morrisons use for P. canariensis of "hardy palm" is really pushing it then. Perhaps its just the money that's hardy. The plant dies but the money lives on.

I suspect something at the base/roots too. Maybe dig it out and put it in a container until it recovers.

Calathea is a strange plant. Looking at the big leaves you don't expect a flower like that - I gather its a member of the ginger family.

Dibley's have a fantastic range of Begonias (and other plants too)

Bostin

Here's mine Coolsox - Zantedeschia elliottianaIt's one of the smaller ones so I grow it in a pot and allow it to die back over the winter. Seed grown it was just the two plants that I potted up and it is multiplying freely.

What an incredibly moody looking picture!Thats my lonely cabbage palm out front, the lower leaves are starting to yellow and it's looking sad (like last time it was rootbound) but that pot is fairly large! Under the pot is a stump from the last owners tree that once grew in the same...

Sirius do you want seeds of parritae? ad the moment I`m growing an hybrid of it , less delicate , the only parritae seedling I`ve managed to germinate it`s really slow and not easy

...Amazing Kindred

I'd forgotten that it was you who started me off on that one

That's a shame Harry - fingers crossed for your others.

Thanks jwk, appreciate the advice. Thankfully little care, although my wife did bump the car into one!