Erythrina Crista-galli

Mine flowered in the first year, the pics are on here somewhere.

That's why i've given up with them now.

 

I must try one in the ground at some point.
Must admit my Protea is not looking great this year, it always was a long shot with my neutral soil, but like the Erythrinas they really only have a limited life in pots.
If the Protea turns up its toes, I'll give an Erythrina a chance in its position.

I did see one flowering at the base of a wall at Wisley a few years back.

 

This is one at Ventnor Botanic Gardens a few years ago now when I was volunteering it was growing outside against a wall, the plant must of been a few years old although I dare say it's long dead now with the snow we've had in the last few years


Erythrina crista-galli by Carl Bullock, on Flickr

 

May have survived Carl if the winter temps were above the mainland ones and no prolonged frosts.

 

I shall endeavour to find out

 

I'd be interested to know as I can provide frost protection, but not rain protection.

 

Here's the one at Oxfords botanic gardens last year................



In a similar spot to the one described at Ventnor and it came through the winter of 2010/11 just dandy. Which is more than can be said for mine.

 

They are usually planted up against south facing walls, and maybe protected in the winter at most botanical gardens, so they usually get through nicely. If you can replicate that then you should get it through a fairly heavy winter. A little protection goes a long way. It would be interesting to see if they gained some height after a mild winter (ie a winter where the minimum temperature is -2 or -3C)

 

I have a feeling that the above ground rootstock needs to survive in order to reshoot the following spring, not sure the plant can sucker from underground roots.

 

Well the taller of my two Erythrinas is now 7ft tall, unfortunately the flower bud never developed but the plant is very healthy, so I'm not too bothered, I can wait until next year . The bottom 12-18" of the stem is now turning woody so that's a good sign for getting it through the winter - hopefully. I've also noticed a tiny little sucker popping up today too about 4" away from the main stem, its about 1" tall at the moment, has anyone else had them sucker?

 

The one at OBG appears to sucker................

 

I've never had one actually sucker Bilbo, grow new shoots from low down, yes, but not from underground, ie. directly from the roots.
If so, that suggests root cuttings might work.

 

Update.....well my two Erythrinas reached around 8ft and 6ft respectively last autumn and were cut back a little to get them in the greenhouse to over winter. They were overwinetered dry and cut back as the trunk began to die back, leaving me with around 1ft of healthy trunk by around March. Despite still having a healthy stump that was bright green below the bark neither of them were showing signs of reshooting but then all of sudden the larger of the two burst into life 5 days ago and has already put on this growth in that time


So its now a matter of seeing how big they get this year and will they flower??, only time will tell

 

Well done Bilbo. And thanks guys - this thread has been an inspiration - on re-reading . I am currently growing several from seed. They have done quite well but have been outside, in the cold, for a couple of months - so I am not expecting that much this year.

But the future looks promising.

 

I used to do mine in late spring when I was confident that it was fully back into growth.