Worth the wait

Oh nooo , when was last time you bought a plant because of me

 

Not yet Sal. But you keep TEMPTING me!!

 

If it was that cold hardy and easy to grow we would all have one!

 

I agree , it may survive but will never produce flower , but who know , maybe some dutch botanic is working on it , as it seams that the way of making lots of money today is produce and sell tropical plants that will be killed by the winter .

 

Tropical plants will always be killed by our winters, the only difference these days is people seem to have large amounts of money to spend on plants that dont stand a chance.
The info is there more than ever these days, but they still buy expensive, old, large specimen plants.
Then sit back and watch them slowly die over a few winters.

If people are prepared to part with the cash, you cant actually blame them for selling them.

 

I do agree Pete. One thing that I have learnt over the last 10 years of gardening - is that you really don't have to spend much money. Especially if you have good friends like the people here on GC to swap with.

High winter temperatures are a problem, but there is loads of stuff that just needs a frost free winter.

One nursery I like is http://www.hillhousenursery.com/tender_exotic_plants.html . Their site is quite useful for reference as all the tender plants that they offer will survive just frost free. They don't believe, or have the money, to overwinter at higher temperatures.

 

Pete not blame them at all , as now they are produced in mass production , we got the luxury of buy musa for few quids , cannas for 50 pence and so on , really with £100 you can turn a small garden like mine into a tropiocal garden, let it all die in winter ....and start all again next year with some new variety of plants.
You should know better then anyone else how hardy it was 20 years ago to find tropical plants , then growing them for 20 years from seeds and now you can buy the same size plant for £30 pounds.

 

I'm very, very jealous sir!

Shiney - that is Mucanna bennettii (sic?), a relative but different species. Only reason that I say is so that I can ask if anyone has seen one in flower in the UK.

Never seen a seed pod on the one at Oxford!

Strongylodon macrobotrys is available to buy from here for just £40!