Show us your recent purchases 2015

Bought from RHS Wisely yesterday...

Echinecea purpurea Fatal Attraction
Astrantia major Ruby Star
Sedum Bertram Anderson
A small pinus for fun!

Also just bought from the garden centre some dark red and bright orange violas to liven up a pot.

 

Interesting ... a new battery for my Contour is probably about the same price as a ... Contour! So maybe buying an electric hedge trimmer, and winding up with 2 batteries, is the answer?

My petrol-powered hedge cutter doesn't have make my arms ache ... and I do have a LOT of hedges to cut ...

 

Bought me a bulb of Urginea maritima for three quid yesterday.................


Not the hugest bulb, but a good start. I know that @PeterS is growing one from seed and I wonder how this compares?

 

Daylily's arrived yesterday

JELLY DANCER
is a tall, stately, Unusual Form cascade. Maroon with darker eye and large yellow to green throat. Late bloomer with sturdy scapes that hold the blooms high above the foliage. Quills occasionally. L, 52”, 7”, three-way branching, 25 buds..
(Herr-D., 2010)
Dor., Dip. Android X Kirsten’s Corsage



Gnarly Gnome
Reed 2006
Dor Dip, ML , UF Crispate
52" x 6"
rosy lavender blend with violet eye above yellow to green heart throat
( I have waited 3 years to get hold of this one)

 

Telepathy - I just bought 2 today as well at the Harrogate Flower Show. I bought 4 two years ago rather than growing them from seed. They were about the same size then as yours and haven't really increased since, inspite of the fact that they could potentially get to be the size of a football.

So why have I bought 2 more? Well the ones I bought today have incipient flower spikes growing out of them, whilst the ones I bought previously have never flowered and instead of flower stalks are just starting to grow leaves, which is what they should do after they have flowered.

But I have got to the bottom of it, by chatting to the chap on the stall. Mine have been very happy to have been potted up and left in moist compost. But if they are too moist, as mine have been, they won't flower. So to get them to flower either leave them bare until flower spikes appear, or pot them up, half buried, like their close relative the Hyacinth but in extremely well drained, preferably very sandy compost. They will grow a few short roots once they start to flower, so they need to be potted up when they start to flower. Then, I think, the main roots come when they start to grow leaves in the winter.

So for me, the lesson is to lift them after the leaves die down in spring. Then perhaps not pot them up till they start to sprout a flower spike. Though possibly a trace of moisture at this time of year might trigger the flower spike.

I think there is a lesson here. I have done the same thing with my bougainvillea. I have kept them too moist and they are growing loads of leaves rather than flowering. I think a number of plants need to be a bit stressed to get them to flower properly. This might also include being in a smaller pot in some cases.

 

Thanks Peter!
I potted mine up today about a third deep. The mix I used was one third each of MPC, sand and grit.
One of the things that I have found with winter growing SA bulbs is that they like a summer baking. So mine stay in the greenhouse on the lower shelves basically dry. Two of my Lachenalia are through now and one of my Ferraria as well.

 

Urginea maritima

The two outside ones are those I bought yesterday - with flower spikes. And the centre one, which is part buried and no bigger, is one that I bought from the same people 2 years ago. In the natural state they flower in the autumn without leaves, and then only start to grow leaves in winter.

But you can see that mine are not "all singing from the same hymn sheet" .

 

I'm pleased to see that the appearance of mine is similar to your flowering ones.

 

they look similar flowers to Eucomis , same family ?

Spruce

 

Yes, members of the Scilloidea (spelling?) family. Difference being that they're winter blooming.

 

Heuchera Ginger Ale and Crème Brule, both going in a new bed with some previously divided Heucheras.

 

Eucomis is a genus of flowering plants in the family Asparagaceae, subfamily Scilloideae, native to southern Africa.

Drimia maritima (syn. Urginea maritima) is a species of flowering plant in the family Asparagaceae, subfamily Scilloideae (formerly the family Hyacinthaceae).

Spruce - absolutely right very close relatives - well observed . I hadn't been aware of that - I found the above two comments on the net

They probably all come from the same overseas source. However I am a bit disappointed that the bulbs I have nurtured for 2 years are no bigger. As they hadn't flowered, I would have thought they should have put on a bit of weight, given that I have seen pictures of them at 5 to 10 times the weight. Still if they flower OK - who's worried.

 

Sooner or later we work it out and then it all seems so easy! I like the challenge.