Pete's place

Wow Pete - they are really pretty little flowers!!!! They remind me of the icing flowers you put ontop of fairy cakes!!!

 

How do you find these beautiful plants, pete, I've never heard of chilopsis. Such a lovely flower!

 

Thats one from seed Liz, I've been working my way through the Chiltern seed catalogue for the last 20 yrs, and before that it was T & M, grew my first bananas ensete in 1977.

Along with pitcher plants, these two got me started, still got the packets, how sad is that?
T& M used to make some wild claims in those days.

 

Did you get fruit in 18 months?

I often browse through Chilterns', better than the back of cereal packets any day- but you seemto have the knack of picking beautiful plants. What are you trying at the moment?
At least your packets have decimal currency on!

 

No fruit Liz, and what I know now is that I probably never would with them, but the plants were a great talking point for a few years.
I have had many plants that have just not been worth growing, or as far as I'm concerned almost impossible to grow, but thats experience.
The exacum is an annual that I like, but I came across it in their so called 'lottery mixture' of greenhouse plants, its a mix of all sorts of seed and you get to work out what they all are after you've grown them. Got a really interesting climber coming along at the moment but havn't a clue what it is as yet.
I have eased off a bit due to space and not having the time, so no real large ones anymore, but have grown erythrinas, jacaranda, feijoa, eucalyptus, acacia, cacti, echium, melianthus, michauxia, and loads of others that I cant remember off hand.

 

Hi, Pete. I've been doing my research on this wonderful Chilopsis linearis and all indications are that it is a tree ( :eek: ) possibly up to 30 feet but can be trained to keep it small! I can't find any of the seed companies listing it ... any clues?

By the way, your Crepe Myrtle looks great ... they're wonderful here at the moment!

 

Well Chilterns usually have chilopsis, but for some reason its not in this years catalogue.
It does grow from cuttings, but thats not much help to you, is it? :rolleyes:
All I can suggest is to keep a look out.

My crepe myrtle DID look good for a while, but the strong wind and heavy rain that everone wanted has almost finished it off, the caesapinia has masses of buds but they're not opening properly now either, starting to rot on the plant.
Well we had about 6 weeks of summer this year, so it will be remembered as "The long hot summer of 06" :D

 

Remind me why I moved to more pleasant climes ?

 

Pete, just thought I'd have a decker at Chiltern Seeds and they post to Europe .... and I did find a listing for it!

Yours just looks like ground-level grass ... how old is it and do you think it will be a tree?

 

Yes it would become a small tree, mines about five years old, but it loses some wood each year that has not ripened, so the stems die back and growth although fairly rapid is cut back by frost. Not a problem you would have.
Its about 6ft high, but one I kept in a 5 in pot is 18ins high and also flowering.
Its a survivor, but I think a really hard frost combined with dampness would kill it.
BTW its deciduous.

 

This is Jatropha podagrica, one of my suprises from Chiltern a few years back.
Its set seed itself, this year.It flowers all year and grows a swollen stem to store water, so its not bothered if I forget to water it.

 

What a strange plant ... bit like monkey feet ... bit like our newcomers' feet! :eek: I see this is in your conservatory?

Deciduous even with me?

 

Looks like a tiny fig! another to add to my want list. This site is very bad for my budget. :D

 

I see it from the Euphorbia family having the milky sap, same as the Poinsettia, so deciduous, needing it's resting period. Although it would suit my climate, only going for everygreens now.