Spot the difference

The conservatory plants almost one year on...
August 2012:


And this morning:


The over winter problems have been; aphids on the banana, mealy whatsit bugs on the citrus reticulate, extensive leaf loss on both citrus trees making them look quite ugly, although both are flowering at the moment. The plants in the trough are also in bloom (can't remember name), you can just make out the droopy long stems with lavender coloured blossoms. The large palm has been steady with no noticeable change. I stopped putting fresh flowers in there in case they were introducing bugs.

 

That is a beautiful conservatory, kazzie. It might be worth looking into biological pest controls...they work much better in an enclosed environment like that.

 

Thank you noisette... it used to be a junk room (does anyone else have one of those?). Now I spend quite a bit of time in there tending my plants, but not really having a clue what I'm doing! I have wondered about biological pests, but I always have the double doors leading to the sitting room open.

 

If they've got some juicy pests to munch on, I doubt that the predators would move in with you, but I see your point! The citrus must be the most difficult, as a systemic insecticide which kills off the nasties also travels up into the fruit. I spend hours wiping scale insects and mealy-bugs off the leaves here

 

The citrus trees don't look too great at the moment... I slowly rotate the pots over the months to see if that helps at all. The leaves continue to fall off daily from the lemon tree, but it has been flowering well. Not wanting to be a pain, I did a search on here and think I read that I shouldn't feed them during flower.

A plant that is doing well in the conservatory is the Magnolia grandiflora... but a big shame the flowers have such a short life.

 

I've lost so many citrus trees over the years, due to over-enthusiastic watering and too much coddling, so I won't be dishing out any advice on those!
Are you planning a roof extension for the Magnolia, or is it a 'dwarf' variety?

 

Magnolia grandiflora will get big given a chance although its not the fastest growing tree. We grow it outside without any problems in Bedfordshire - easily hardy to well below -10C (lowest our garden has taken).

 

It's in a small pot at the moment, so can be planted outside. Lemon tree still looks rubbish!