What are you going to grow "New to you" for 2015

I hadn't heard of Special Plants before - some interesting seeds for sale.

 

I thought Patio Fire looked like your Shiney chillies . Its classed as an "ornamental" chilli , but they say its productive and the chillis have a nice bit of heat. I can't seem to find any information on them now , seems like only Premier Seeds on Ebay sell it . Anyway if it looks half as good as the photo I will be well pleased !

 

A few more newbies arrived in the post today, this time from Robins Salvias.

All Salvia;
S.cardiophylla,
S.candelabrum,
S.caymanensis,
S.leucantha "Purple Velvet",
S.miltiorrhiza,
S.splendens "Yvonnes Giant Form". I think that this is the one that @PeterS has referred to in the past.
And an un-named species simply referred to as Salvia SL411..................

 

I'm trying a few vegetable varieties I haven't grown before this year, would be interested to hear of any tips/experiences from those of you who have grown them.

Purple Sprouting Broccoli 'Red Arrow'.
I normally grow 'White Early' followed by 'Purple Late', the latter wasn't listed in my catalogue this year so I'm going for 'Red Arrow' as a replacement.

Cucumber 'Delistar'.
Listed as a new variety in the catalogue, I'm trying this as a direct replacement for Passandra, a good medium sized greenhouse variety which I've grown for a number of years, but which were a bit of a let down last year.

Sweet Pepper 'Mavras'.
A purple 'bell' pepper which I'm trying for the first time, alongside my regular orange bell variety 'Arianne', as a comparison.

Courgette 'Buckingham'.
A yellow fruited variety which I'm trying as a replacement for the ever reliable 'Jemmer', which I've grown for years, but couldn't get hold of this year.

 

Yvonne's form is in USA. I believe that Robin said that he got this from a friend in South America. However the feeling is that they are both the same and are simply the species, which can grow up to 9 feet in the wild. There is a lovely pink variety, which I had from Seed Hunt in California some time ago.

 

I must admit that I went with Yvonnes over the standard species as there was so much talk on other forums of it being a particularly vigourous form especially in climates closer to ours.

 

It was reasonably tall 4 to 5 feet for me - but never really that vigorous. But I don't have the heat. However I did manage to have it in continuous flower (along with Salvia coccinea) for 12 months. I took cuttings in the autumn of plants in flower. I cut off all the flower buds from the cuttings and put them in my light-box. However the cuttings kept on flowering so plentifully that in the end I let them get on with. The cuttings thrived and grew and continued to flower until the next autumn when I took more cuttings and repeated the process. I never had much luck in keeping the mother plant alive over the winter - but then it was too big for my light-box.

My theory is that once a plant starts flowering it produces chemicals that encourage it to continue to flower until something makes it stop. So a cutting from a plant that wasn't flowering, won't start to flower for some time. But a cutting that is flowering still produces those chemicals and will continue to flower. The downside is that the flowering will sap the energy of the cutting and could retard or even kill it - so everyone says take non flowering cuttings.

You hear many stories of tropical plants that flower almost continuously in the tropics but only briefly in the UK. I suspect that many plants have this ability, but its just too cold to do it in the UK.

 

@longk have you grown this one before , its new to me
Gloriosa Carsonii

 

Yes. Here was mine last year.............


The colour was not as good as the one in your photo but look at the shape - it has the best shape of all the Gloriosa that I've grown.

 

Just ordered seeds including (pictures from the internet) :-

Acalypha hispida. I have been looking for seeds for this for some time. Just found some in Greece on e-bay. The tassels can be up to 24 inches long. However it needs a minimum of 13C over winter, and I am not sure whether my garden room at 10 C will be warm enough.


Tacca chantrieri. I was first shown this by @longk - many thanks.


Tithonia diversifolia. Bolivian sunflower. I gather this can grow up to 26 feet high - interesting


Mansoa hymenaea - garlic vine. I had never heard of this, it just looks pretty. A tender climber from Mexico.


Costus guyanensis. I have always wanted to try a Costus, member of the Ginger family. I know nothing about them.


Mucuna sempervirens. Chiltern says it is a vigorous, evergreen climber with lustrous, deep green leaves. The flowers, however, are something rather special: a dramatic purple-black in colour, they are produced in large, hanging bunches of twenty or more blooms. Each individual is three inches or more long and is more like a small, bizarre, tubby bird than your ordinary, normal pea flower. These are followed by 16 in. long, velvety seed pods

 

If it is being grown in Greece it will be fine in the 10°c of your garden room. The humidity may be an issue though?

You'll be cussing me when it's five feet across!!

How does it get its common name?

Looking forward to this one!

 

Interesting Shiney - did you ever get Mucuna to flower?