following a tidy up ...

After a great day tidying up my patch I went round trying to identify some of the survivors. I'm taking an inventory so I can take cuttings for the big move when lots of things will have to stay behind.

These 2 are the same plant doing well in the shallowist stone pot but I can't remember what the flowers look like.




These 2 might be the same plant. The red flower is all on its own with a really thin stem. These leaves may be part of the same plant but I didn't want to dig that far down to see if they're connected.



This cheery fellow I think came from a cutting, but it doesn't resemble anything in my garden. It's currently climbing my twisted willow and looks like it might flower this year.


Thank you

 

Why is it as soon as you post one of these you find the answer? The 2nd plant is an anemone st brigid - I remember where I got it now.

 

2nd one looks like chilean glory vine Eccremocarpus scaber it will flower this year usually orange or red,self seeds.

 

Craig, the first pic is Geranium palmatum, a sort of giant, Madeiran version of our native 'Herb Robert'(Geranium robbertianum). It's a plant with 'attitude' when grown well and can be biennial or a short-lived perennial. I have one that is now 5 years old, growing from the crack in some paving, so a lean diet obviously makes for a longer lived plant.

Growing to around 1.2m. high (at flowering) it produces a large rosette of foliage than can be as much as 1m. across. From this tall sprays carrying masses of rosy purple flowers appear during summer. Well worth keeping and you'll get more than enough seeds after flowering. It seeds itself around and outside my garden and I just leave one or two, where I want them to grow.

The third pic is of the early leaves of one of the Japanese honeysuckles and is probably 'Hall's Prolific'. This is a more vigorous version of Lonicera japonica 'Halliana' with slightly stronger fragrance and fractionally larger flowers. As the season progresses, the more typically elliptic leaves will be produced.

It is very vigorous and tends to be evergreen in sheltered spots or semi-evergreen to almost deciduous in more exposed areas. Watch out for downy mildew on plants growing in dryish soils.

 

Thank you Walnut and DaveP,

Thank you for taking the time for such thorough explainations - it's really appreciated.

I've started a picture library of random plants that appear in my garden so I can keep track of them. Perhaps one day I'll print them from Lulu and keep it as a reference.

I'm going to wait for the climber to flower (hopefully this year) so I can make a definite identification. Isn't garding exciting? It's currently growing up a twisted willow - not intentional, but I've read that it doesn't harm the supporting plant and provides year-round interest on an otherwise blank stem.

Craig

 

Are you sure the geranium isn't Maderense, Dave .

I think there is some confusion between the two, I've grown both from Chiltern seeds.
Palmatum is under Anemonifolium, and is similar but has distinct differences.

I once saw these planted in a bed in London, they had removed all the lower leaves along with the stalks, it looked very tidy but the plants were unstable and must have fallen over at some stage.

The old leaf stalks remain and support the plant n ormally.

 

Always a bit difficult with a pic of an obviously young plant Pete, so I went outside to look at the leaf bases on mine to confirm. Sometimes there's a well defined 'pointiness' to the leaflets, but those on Craig's plant are about the same as mine of a similar size and age. While I was out, I decided to strip off the old, yellowing and dead leaves of Cordyline indivisa. There were tiny palmatum seedlings growing in the leaf bases. They get everywhere.

I know what you mean about stripping the old stalks off maderense - folks do it in the mistaken belief that they are tidying the plant up. The effect is to make it unstable and just as it is looking its best in full flower, it topples over and looks less than neat. I had some nice ones at my old house, where they produced quite impressive 'wigwams' of supporting leaf stalks.

Although I very much like the rounded flower shape of maderense, I prefer the more open, airy sprays of palmatum, which is why I have it in this garden. I was surprised to see that the oldest plant I referred to, is starting to send up flower sprays already. Normally it starts in mid-June, but was at its best in late May last year. This time it will be a month earlier.

 

I know what you mean about seedlings getting everywhere, maderense comes up in all my paving, I just wish the adult plant was as hardy as the seedlings seem to be.
I cant keep it, or Palmatum without some winter protection.