What's looking exotic in 2016

I grew Anomotheca laxa for a number of years outdoors in a sunny well drained bed. I lost it after a particularly wet winter/spring.
I agree about the Sarracenia flowers, flower arrangers love them.
I overwinter mine in a cold greenhouse but the rest of the time they are outdoors. This year they are just getting over having been repotted and reduced in size. They live in plastic pots in washing up bowls packed with a mix of moss and peat, this helps retain the moisture.

 

This winter has seen overnight lows of -5°c on a handful of nights but not overly penetrating cold. They're quite deep and as @NigelJ says they're in a well drained spot (raised bed built over rubble).

 

@longk
That sounds remarkably like the bed I grew them in.
When I moved in I had a demolished garden wall to dispose of, half went below the greenhouse and half under the raised bed for things that don't like damp roots in winter.

 

Bulbine frutescens....................


It's a small succulent that was overwintered in an unheated greenhouse. Small flowers but really fascinating............


The leaves have a sap that is applied to burns and other skin injuries/complaints.

 

Got the same old passion flowers, but always good to see the first flowers of the summer.

 

Lovely Pete. But I think my conservatory would be too hot for those. There are just so many lovely climbers.


Crinodendron hookerianum - a bush rather than a climber.


Asarina erubescens has just started. It was a real star last year with plenty of flowers over a very long period. Also its quite big - up to 20 feet last year, so it ran across the roof and hung down in lots of places giving my Spanish Moss a run for its money.


Thunbergia battiscombei. I thought I had lost it over the winter, when it died back to the roots which it didn't do the year before, but it has come back strongly and will probably make a better more compact bush for it. T. gregii produced a couple of flowers, but they had gone before I could get the camera out.


Justicia carnea has one of the most spectacular flowers. You can see its a relative of Acanthus.

 

Like the Justica especially.
I grow crinodendron outside in the garden as a shrub, its in full flower now also.

Do you know the difference between Asarina and Maurandya, only I bought a plant at a nursery back in the winter, when I asked for its real name they didn't know.
Best I can work out is its a Mauradya, it has quite fleshy leaves almost succulent.

The crinodendron

I always assumed it liked cool shade,

The mystery Maurandya. bit of a dark pic, sorry.

 

Hi Pete. I think that Maurandya is the new name for Asarina, so they are one and the same. Yours is clearly outside, so some species are clearly more hardy than I thought. I would be interested to know what species your was - its clearly quite big. The flower should be the key.

Your Crinodendron is lovely. You don't see any outside around here. But you are quite right about the cool and shady part. Having posted the picture, I checked its spelling on Google and then read a few of the Clerodendron sites, and they said - for a cool conservatory (I think your garden qualifies as a cool conservatory ). So tomorrow I will put it outside. Thanks for the prompt.

 

The third one is a gem Pete!

We found T.gregorii root hardy after light frost.

I agree.

 

Just opening, King Protea.

 

In terms of what's looking exotic growing a Protea outdoors is just plain showing off

 

Amazing Pete.

 

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Hi Longk,

Even growing one is showing off to me.

I can't even get my 12 year old Strelitzia to flower. Just keeps growing leaves and more leaves and even more leaves :(

The tallest are about 4' high now.

 

Does it get exposed to any cold. Mine bloomed after five years from seed.