Can't make up my mind

I raised this 'Orchid vine' (Bauhinia yunnanensis) from seed some years ago and this is the first time it has done anything more than open a stunted flower. It's quite a delicate looking member of the Fabaceae with typically paired, 'camel-foot' leaves and slender, albeit rather rampant, clambering stems. It has run amok this year and finally is showing a number of flower buds, albeit rather sparsely all over the plant.

This is the first to open and I think I need time to decide what I think about it. The flowers are about 8cms. across and are carried in small clusters. Getting any Bauhinia (even the hardiest species) to grow and flower out of doors in the UK takes some doing, but am I letting that detract from it being a rather dowdy flower? I dunno - maybe it needs a bit more time to put on a really effective show.

Sorry about the pic quality, sunlight is so intense at the moment and avoiding deep shadow is very difficult.

 

Well I dont think I could get rid of it Dave.
Think I would have to give it another couple of years at least to see what it does, now that the flowers are starting to form properly.
Could be a freak due to the extra warmth this year or could be that its just really getting going.
Anyway as you say quite an achievement.

 

I may chance one of mine(variegata) outside next year although it will have to remain in a pot. The biggest is about 3ft high. I don't expect it to flower but it will make an interesting plant among the palms .The others, I shall keep under glass, at the moment they have had a mild attack of blackfly but not too serious.

 

The seed you sent me is up strongy, the comparison between that seed and bought seed is very clear. Fresh seed of most things germinates so much quicker, I sometimes wonder about what we are being sold.

 

I wondered whether they would germinate at all as it looked like they had been on the ground baking in the Turkish sun all summer, but I guess that is part of their natural cycle and would wait for the first heavy rains. Anyway I'm glad they did. Talking of fresh seed, a friend at work gave me one of his Erythrina CG last autumn about 18ins high I took the top out and by june this year it had three branches each 3ft long and two of them flowered. I managed to get one fertilised and produced one pod. This produced only three seeds which had rippened by the time I returned from holiday.I soaked and sowed them a couple of days later and two germinated four days later. I now have two small plants 6ins high already. It was kept under glass untill it finished flowering and the pod rippened outside. Fresh seed as you say.

 

I'm obviously interested in this thread but can't make any comment. I've got my B galpini and Strongy's "unknown" B attempting to germinate at the moment so I live in hope!

Oh, by the way, my friend Stuart Merelie's article is out this weekend ... sorry, it's monthly not weekly, the magazine goofed (to be polite) and had to do two one following the other weekly!

He (Stu) e-mailed me tonight and said one of the the subjects is a Gbenko. Two years ago we had to have one uprooted (30 foot tall) from by our apartment in the IoW because the insurance company said it was too close to the building! It was 150+ years old and cost the residents about �£700! :(

 

OK, whats a gbenko?

 

A chappy I know in Washington state reckoned that once it gets going it is vigorous and free flowering. Mine has grown over 10 feet this year so I'll agree on that first point. I have it in a large-ish pot growing through trellis and other things on a raised roof area immediately outside my back door. It gets the full brunt of quite severe north easterlies in winter and although any frosts are light, the exposure can be severe.

Oddly, although last winter here was our coldest for 20+ years, the Bauhinia retained most of its leaves. Maybe now that it has started putting on strong growth, more prolific, earlier flowering will follow. I'm sure I'll get to like it. It has benefited from my inertia - space here is so limited that I tend to get rid of anything that fails to perform. I have no sentiment for plants that fail to earn their keep.

 

.... actually that's a place I went to in Guinea, West Africa when I worked for a diamond mine! obviously having a senior moment!

What I meant to say was Ginkgo, the Maidenhair Tree which is actually a Conifer!

Many apologies ...

 

not exactly a conifer, LoL! It's one of a kind!! I love ginkgos - but who's got the space for them?? My Mum got one, and fortunately it didn't thrive too well in Hamilton - don't think she realised quite how big they can get, or how bad the females can smell.....

 

Okay, Dendro, we disagree again ... do you or I tell Dr D G Hessayon that he is wrong?

Also, my Aussie book says ...

"The Ginkgoales seed-bearing plants more primitive than the conifers and more ancient, first appeared in the Permian Period about 300 million years ago, and flourished through the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. About 100 million years ago they began to die out, leaving the Maidenhair Tree as the sole survivor ..!

So, who do we believe ????

 

Ginkgo usually gets lumped together with conifers by gardening writers. Horticultural convenience supercedes botanical correctness for the sake of folks reluctant to grapple the complexities of taxonomy. Ginkgo is no more closely related to the conifers than are any of the cycads ... and folks tend to classify them as palms, which is even worse!

Hessayon knows this, but ignores it in the interests of expediency and for the sake of his target readership. His success has been built on providing easily understood, basic information for mainly novice and main-stream gardeners. The 'wonders' of plant classification can be a real frightener for them especially if they struggle with plant names.

 

All about this fantastic and ancient tree here: http://www.xs4all.nl/~kwanten/

 

An interesting article, Hornbeam.

DaveP said "Ginkgo is no more closely related to the conifers than are any of the cycads ..."

Cor Kwant, author of the article says .. . "Although the Ginkgo is more like a conifer than a deciduous broadleaf tree it is neither, it has a unique position. Recent research suggests a much closer relationship to the cycads than to the conifers."

So now I'm even more confused, which is not difficult ... but I do know it's not a diamond mie! :D :D

 

so does that mean we don't disagree, LoL?? :rolleyes:

And does it really matter what we categorise it as? We value it exactly the same, whatever it's called.... And what was this thread about anyway???