WHAT'S LOOKING EXOTIC IN 2015

You are probably right LongK.

That's the great joy of very cheap packets of bulbs - you have no idea what you have got, or when they might flower. Keeps life exciting.

John - that's lovely. You have got some very big plants there.

 

Amazing @JWK

 

Garden is looking great @JWK.
All I've got is the measly Bops coming out, first flowers opening this week.

 

P

Hi Pete,

How can you call Bird of Paradise " measley " :(

I've been growing one now for about 10 yrs and there's never been a hint of a flower :(

It's a good strong 2 stemmed plant in a 10" pot ( lt broke the last one it was in ), individual leaves are over 2' long on stems about the same length and there are two new leaves coming now. One is just starting to unfurl now and looks as though it's going to be well over 2'. In total there are 19 leaves.

What am I doing wrong ? ? ?

Any tips please.

 

Lobivia haematantha


Had to nip home at lunchtime to get this with it's flowers open.
Worth it though as most of these have now gone over.

 

Only joking about it being measly Anthony.

Your probably doing nothing wrong as such, they can grow in pots, I've flowered them in pots, but big pots, mostly above 14 inches in dia.

To get good flowers you cant beat a free root run, despite what the potbound brigade might say.
I was not going to show this until more flowers are out, but it gives a clue what they do when they are unleashed, even in the UK.

 

So really I should put it into a bigger pot then now. I was always under the impression that you had to keep them pot bound, to flower them.

 

Dont give up Anthony.
Give it as much direct sunlight as you can.
Pump it full of tomato feed from about now onwards until November.
But dont overwater, the roots are fleshy and store water.

My first plant flowered after a long time, once you get the first flower, things move on the next year, and you pot on slowly each year.

 

Yes the potbound theory is the one that is usually banded around.
You can get flowers that way, if you feed well with high potash.
But the flowers form in the axials of the leaves, so you need to keep the plant growing new leaves, also, for a continuation of flowers.

The flowers will not be the best quality, but I know any flower is better than none.

 

Thanks Pete

 

Pete- those BoPs are beautiful and that's a wonderful patch you have. I was so pleased that mine flowered for the first time this year - in a pot. It finished a while ago, having been early with the heat of my conservatory. Do they flower again during the year, or is that it till next spring?

John - that Patricia is lovely - I had forgotten about that. I find mine can flop a bit outwards and leave a bald patch in the centre. So, I put 4 short canes and a piece of string round which makes it form a perfect hemisphere. It flops over the string and hides it completely.

 

Showing off at its best!

That is the trouble with cacti blooms - stunning but they can be so short lived.

 

Peter, mine being outside I only get the one flowering period.
Some of those flowering stems formed last October, some early this spring, its a slow process, but worth it.
Should have flowers for around three to four weeks now.

Not sure what you could get in your conservatory with year round growing.