What's looking exotic in September 2012

Emory Paul. Seen in, and bought from, Great Dixter exotic garden

 

few up dates
May

End of August

 

the banana looking plant is actually a single seed of canna altenstinii

 

The difference 3 months make sal, that looks fantastic!!!

 

I bought this Canna 'Tenerife' from Wilko's on sale about 2 months ago having already flowered (I got 4 seed from a pod too ), it cost £2. I potted it up when I got it back home and its thrived, sending up about a dozen suckers and 2 flower spikes, the first of which is just opening..; it's no more than 2ft high so I'm assuming its a dwarf variety

 

Sorry bilbo , got mine for 50 p each , my local market is awesome , 2 are red but really bad condition and 2 are yellow .

 

Just a few pics of mine.
Cleopatra that Pete kindly sent me will be in flower soon hopefully!

think this one is Wyoming

Can't remember the name of this one but it's one that bilbo sent me seeds for, don't think it will flower this year though

 

Just got back from a few days away, to find my plants playing tricks on me. Gloriosa rothschildiana was about to flower when I left two weeks ago, and its still about to flower - so too Tibouchina.


Fuchsia arborescens - has not done well this year - perhaps there is still time.


Leonotis nepetifolia - has grown well - an annual now about 8 feet tall - but thin on blooms.


Justicia carnea. A member of the Acanthus family from Brazil.


Tibouchina organensis. Another shrub from Brazil, has been about to flower for several weeks. But the buds look nice.


Pete's Canna Cleopatra is a real cracker. Thanks Pete . I have one plant that is pure black/dark purple.


Fuchsia boliviana has been flowering for months now - but I hadn't realised how big a part the seed pods played. I will try and collect seeds from as many of my exotics as I can and put them in a post later.


Bessera elegans. This is flowering late, but has been outside all the time.


Solanum rantonnetii flowered earlier and is now a mass of small buds again.


Hibiscus rosa sinensis. I wish that I could show my ones grown from seed, but they are nowhere near flowering.


Plumbago auriculata. I saw a beautiful one six feet high in a greenhouse in Devon.

 

Very nice collection there Peter, the Hibiscus is stunning...

 

Do you leave it/them out? I saw one in a nursery that I liked the look of the other day, but it said Min 7C which put me off!

Was flowering well at East Ruston the other day. Could have sworn that I had taken a photo, but can't find it now :( To the left of the greenhouse in the diamond jubilee walled garden - if that helps? !!

Mine too, lush-looking and tall, but [in my case] no blooms yet

Bought one this year; haven't looked yet to see if I have to bring it in?

 

For some reason my L. nepetifolia, from your seed Peter, is yet to flower this year, it grew like a weed last year and flowered from July, so this year I planted it as a screen in some very stony soil.
Result is nice stocky plants, but only 4ft high and just showing flower buds, I think they got dry recently and had slug problems early on.

Anyway, Melianthus major always starts to look its best about now until frost.

 

Pete, leonotis was one of the main flowers seen in gardens in Kenya as the curved beaks of Sunbirds fit nicely into the curved tubular flowers.

Cleopatra is on my wish list, a real beauty.

 

No sun birds here I'm afraid strongy, but they still produce masses of seed, well mine did last year.
Took a pic of Cleo today myself.
The red and yellow flowers are actually on the same stem, a bit of Wyoming in the back ground.


Or it can do this,

 

Kristen. I am growing both Tibouchina and Justicia in a greenhouse as the best chance of getting them to flower. I only put all my plants outside when I went away to make it easier for my neighbour to water them. However, I understand that they will both overwinter just frost free without any extra heat.

I love Leonotis nepetifolia, but it for me it needs an early start. Last year I gave my sister in Devon some plants that were sown about March, and they never got any higher than 2 feet, this year I gave her some sown in January and they are now over 8 feet.

Pete - that Melianthus looks so neat and clean. Its a really good foliage plant.

Strongy. Pete kindly gave me a couple of Cleopatra rhizomes a couple of years ago. I split them earlier this year and they are growing well, so I should have some spare - will contact you later.

Update on Dahlia imperialis. Mine is in a pot and must be 7 feet or more tall. On holiday I called in at Hill House Nursery, which is where I got mine from. I wanted to see theirs which I know grows to 18 to 20 feet, but it was little bigger than mine. I commented on this and I was told that that was normal. Theirs only starts to shoot up in about October. So I am looking forward to an Indian Summer and hope that mine will do the same. But I don't expect any flowers outside in Yorkshire.

 

Lovely collection there PeterS. Really like the Justicia carnea.