What's looking good in October 2011

I also have various colours of Impatiens balsamina :thumb:

 

Bilbao - they are lovely. Niamniamensis is great fun and balsamina looks like a good houseplant.

Pete - I think I am missing a trick with rhizomes/tubers. I bought a number at the Harrogate flower show in the spring, and have not had much success with them. I think most of it is down to the cold weather - although it was hot early on.

I suspect that to get rhizomes/tubers out of bed they need heat. After a long rest over a cold winter, heat must be the only thing that tells them to get up. And if its a cold spring they have no incentive. I think the key must be to get them really warm in spring, because once they have committed themselves they can't go back. I am not quite sure how to do this but keeping them in the house must be the first step. Certainly the Dahlia chaps say to bake the tubers early on.

 

Hi Peter, regarding gingers, I've noticed that you get two growth spurts.

The spring one, when the shoots go on to flower and the late summer one, which usually results in just leafy growth.

But both start when the days are a certain length.
I agree that heat may well be the cause of the spring growth, but not the late summer growth.

I know within gingers there are certain variations, but I think many of the more tender kinds have this growth pattern, and want to remain evergreen.

 

Pete - I didn't realise that that Hedychium had two growth periods. I can well believe that the second is linked to the day length. But if a rhizome in spring is beneath the soil surface, I am not sure how it knows about the day length.

You have prompted me to have a Google, and I understand that they don't like being dug up (or disturbed) and this can cause them to not flower that year. So, perhaps it is not surprising that the one I showed above hasn't flowered, having only planted it in spring.

I have also read that its the winter wet that tends to kill them rather than just the cold. And it does appear that heat is neccessary, both to stimulate growth and thereafter. Comments said that they can start growth so late that they don't have time to flower. So I think that it must be a greenhouse plant for me for the first part of the year.

 

Yeah my gallery pink finished about a month ago, but the governor just keeps going on and on.....but my it's a tall one. I'm constantly having to tie it in

 

Good point about the spring growth being under the soil.

But if I were you I'd try to keep the foliage that you have right through the winter, it might not work with densifolium as I think that is deciduous.

 

Viburnum Tinus 'Eve Price' seems to think its spring.

 

Mahonia 'Charity'

 

Some of my flowers are like the Duracell bunny; they just keep going and going :D

A stunning pink Dahlia - flowering at its best now.
Perennial Lobelia 'Deft Blue' - been flowering for months now.
Okra (?) - only one flower at a time but has been flowering now for 5-6 weeks.
French Marigold - also been flowering since May, the colour seems more intense now.

:thumb:

 

A few photos taken around the garden early this morning. A clear, crisp dawn with a touch of ground frost.

Early moring dew decorating the dogwood.



A few late fennel flowers defying the onset of autumn.



Quite a nip in the air, ground frost on the grass.



The virginia creeper is starting to colour nicely now.

 

Still peeking through!

 

What is that flower ?
I have just had eight appear from nowhere (amongst my sweetpea plants) this past two weeks


I did not plant them, they have just appeared

Jack McHammocklashing

 

Brugmansia sanguinea has just come into flower. With a bit of warmth it will flower all winter.


One of my seed grown Brugmansias has come out white - most are pink or yellow.


Echium pininina (third year) is getting ready for its winter quarters (behind). I had to dig it out of the border.


Fuchsia boliviana alba from seed this year. Its touch and go whether the frost comes before the flowers open fully.


Lepechinia hastata.

 

Nice everyone!!

 

PeterS, that Brugmansia sanguinea is a stunner.