What's Looking Good In May 2022

2nd is Crinodendron.

3rd is a small pot grown Echium, probably a hybrid.

 

I feel compelled to ask now for the sake of completeness, what's the first one @pete?

Nick

 

It's a rhododendron yakashumianum, (spelling),I've had for about 30years, it's rarely done well and it's very leggy, dare I cut it down, I wonder?

Last year I stated pouring all my left over tea, from the pot, around the base and the leaves are the darkest and shinyest they have ever been and the flowers are not bad either.

 

I use left-over tea on my plants.

 

Seems a shame to get rid now it's doing its best! I'm not typically a fan of red flowers but I think it's quite pretty, the flower colour complements the foliage colour nicely IMO!

Nick

 

OK as promised three more of my salvias - this one is 'Royal Bumble', with some catananches in the foreground:



Amistad:



And 'Nachtvlinder', with nasturtium 'Chameleon' which I've not grown before - rather pretty:



And finally a photo of my photographic 'assistant', looking rather unimpressed:

 

Alstromeria " Rock and roll "



Jenny namaste

 

@Clare G They're lovely! Well, I would never have thought of pairing 'Nachtvlinder' with a nasturtium but it works really well, doesn't it? Makes me want to experiment with something similar, perhaps a Cistus ladanifer! I've been repeatedly tempted by 'Amistad', but already have so many purple-flowered plants and lost a similarly tender salvia this winter, 'African Sky'. It's so frustrating, because any plant with an H4 RHS rating or above is fine but H3 plants snuff it and I seem to like so many of them!

Aww, so adorable! Nah, probably also thinking the salvia/nasturtium combo is an interesting and unusual one!

Nick

 

That is superb, not seen it before.

 

Passiflora edulis with a fruit below ...

 

@Jenny namaste, your Alstromeria Rock and roll plant looks lovely
How old is that plant ? are they susceptible to slugs/snails or other pests ?
Thanks - John

 

@Cordy
@Victoria

Had it in that pot for 5 years and it is tucked in a mini GH over winter and re potted in fresh compost in early Spring,
Jenny

 

Cut the rhodi back hard if you wish @pete they bounce back easy enough but may lose flowers next year or get them late . That's a nice Echium jammy sod I'll will have a large specimen one day.

Salvia flowering already @Clare G they must be 4-6 week in front of my Amistad. You can get a pink Amistad @Nikolaos it were on Chelsea last night but Urban jungle have had it for sale for a bit .

Don't know about the Alstroemeria Rock & roll its nice but very brash

 

Do you bloody mind not mentioning delightful new plants, Perki? I've already got pink covered with Salvia greggi 'Icing Sugar' and was therefore hoping to hate 'Amistad Pink', but it's flipping gorgeous!

salvia amistad pink - Recherche Google

Nick

 

Perki the Echium is in a pot,so easy to overwinter, they just don't get so big.
I did cut half the rhododendron back last year but the cut stems just died and never had new shoots.