WHAT'S LOOKING EXOTIC IN 2017

What a load of Gomphocarpus! Actually, on second thoughts a decent sized one would probably do OK outside over the summer - but then that goes for almost any tropical plant. It's the winter that's the problem.

I am still struggling with my Hibiscus coccinea. The seed packet said it was an annual that would grow to 6 feet and produce red flowers all summer. It didn't. In fact it's a tender perennial and I have grown it under glass in my sun room for 3 or 4 years with plenty of heat over the summer, and it has never got over 3 feet and never flowered - it dies back each winter, so never makes any headway. I left it outside over the last winter, not caring whether it lived or died, it survived and is almost 3 inches high now!

I do like Mandevilla, but you need to keep it for two or three seasons for it to get to any size. As I said earlier the key is keeping it alive over the winter.

 

If you have B&M near you they sell Mandevillas for £1.99 .
I've had mine for about 3 years now, kept in my kitchen ( unheated ), and the longest stems are now about 8' long. It's just starting to flower now.

 

Now that is cheap.

 

The price tells you they are intended to be just a throw away pot plant, like so many are these days, good for you for growing it on.

Found this today on one of my Brachychiton acerifolium, it is only intended as a foliage pot plant but it's got some flowers coming.


Not much to look at I guess, but this Ceratonia siliqua, (carob tree), has kind of outgrown it's allocated spot, one I planted on the allotment died this winter, so it shows it depends on where you plant that makes all the difference.

Earliest I can remember the Albizia flowering, must be the hot weather.


Caesalpinia with the perennial morning glory just starting to flower.

 

Hi Pete, all their climbers..... Clematis, Honeysuckle, Ivy, Fuchsia, Hydrangea, Passiflora etc are all the same price.

 

Speaking from experience they grow and bloom well outdoors. All that's needed for the winter is a cool greenhouse.
I think that Charlie Pridham is growing one outdoors in Cornwall.

They look small - is my small flower thing catching!

 

Pelargonium Sidoides



One for you @longk, each flower is only about 1 cm across. Can't really capture the colour on photo, it's the deepest red you can imagine.

 

Nice!

 

I still wish I could grow Caesalpinia outdoors @pete, I could, in a pot but I would have to over winter it in the greenhouse.

 

A good sunny wall is the answer, I never had much success growing it in pots.
I'm willing to bet you have milder winters than I do.

 

Three cacti.
Left, is Carnegiea gigantea, (saguaro), centre, Ferocactus emoryi in flower, right, Ferocactus wislizeni, the "compass barrel cactus" that always leans to the south.


Podranea,


My first bunch of "lakemont seedless", fingers crossed.

 

@pete - is that first flower a rafflesia or some relative? You grow an amazing range of things!

 

No, its Stapelia variegata , well I know it as that, I have a feeling the name has been changed though.

 

Ah, similar looking though.
Unfortunately I haven't got much exotic flowering at present - a watsonia, and one of my seed grown acacia are all I've got. Though the acacia has been flowering off and on for months. BTW @pete, @shiney , @longk and others can I ask some advice? I put a query up about fascicularia, and no-one replied. Do you grow them?