WHAT'S LOOKING EXOTIC IN 2015

finally out in the garden for the summer

 

Apparently so

Your white form looks far better than mine which is a] too dry (I suspect) under a pair of very large (15 metres) conifers, and b] under attack from greenfly.

 

I got Brugmannsia confused with Datura, so accidentally bought some Datura seed off Thompson & Morgan. The flowers barely opened and it was just like the wild flower. Not like the fantastic Brugmannsias here.

 

Grown well Datura are perfect substitutes for Brugs in certain situations (lack of space or lack of overwintering facilities).
Ideally stick to D.wrightii (huge fragrant blooms) or D.metel (more floriferous) and don't bother with the coloured double forms (waste of time in my experience).
They will flower within ten weeks from seed in ideal conditions. I now consider D.wrightii to be hardy.

 

King Protea just opening

Cereus peruvianus,

 

Now that is just plain showing off

 

Pete - I don't like to be pedantic - (actually - as you know - I do) but your Iochroma was a first a Dunalia, then became Acnistus, then Iochroma, but is now an Eriolarynx.

Irrespective of the name both your white and the blue ones are fantastic. And I love the King protea - that's not outside is it? I was almost tempted to buy one at Gordon Rigg's (the first one I had ever seen on sale) a short while ago, but I am sure it would hate the humidity of my conservatory.


Begonia braziliensis hybrid. I know this is common in garden centres and doesn't really qualify as exotic, but for the first time in my life I have just bought one. The seller insisted it was a fibrous rooted annual, but a bit of Googling says that it is a tuberous perennial. Does anyone have experience of overwintering these? They will need some heat of course. Or are they simply difficult to overwinter and hence described as annual?


Asarina erubescens - which is now called Maurandya. The more usual scandens is only about 3 or 4 feet high. But this is a bigger species and is already up to 8 feet.

 

I seen a post on fb and ordered 2 just in case i murdered one they came this morning in 9cm pots,are they slow growing ?

 

Jeeeeez - so now there is confusion over the taxonomists confusion!!!!!!!!!
Iochroma it is then. At least I can remember that.

They grow almost as fast as their Brugmansia cousins. Give them at least a year in an unheated greenhouse to harden them off.

 

You can be pedantic if you want Peter, it sounds like some kind of compliant of the foot?
If its like gout, you have my sympathy.

And yes the Protea has been outside for a few years now.
I grew it from seed.

 

I used to athlete's foot powder for my pedantic cuttings. Its an antifungal agent, and I read that it worked as well as hormone powder (which is mostly antifungal) with Salvia cuttings.

I still can't get over the difference in our climates. There is no way I could leave an Iochroma outside over the winter, let alone a Protea. And I think Protea has to be almost the most exotic flower - fantastic.

 

Good idea, about the athletes foot powder.
I stopped using rooting powder when they remove Captan from it, I'm sure it was only the fungicide that actually did anything.

As to the Protea, its outside, but gets some frost protection, its next to my Strelitzia, which has 9 flowering stems this year, and should be opening in the next couple of weeks or so.

 

Arisaema tortuosum...................




Beschorneria septentrionalis is putting on quite a show now..............

 

My triffid is on the cusp of opening to its full glory: