WHAT'S LOOKING EXOTIC IN 2017

I've found that @longk only likes plants that you need a magnifying glass to see, and I dont think he likes variegated plants.

 

I do rather agree with LongK about variegation which to my mind detracts from the flowers. However I will make an exception for Begonia Rex and Coleus, where the flowers are insignificant and the leaf colouring makes a long lasting show.

I think the last of Shiney's first post is a Begonia rex, and possibly all of his second post are too. I don't recognise the first picture, but if you Google Begonia rex and select images begonia rex - Google Search there are an amazing number of different cultivars. I have recently started to grow a few and I believe that they can make quite big plants.

 

Well, I love variegation......from variegated agapanthus to golden king holly to euonymous emerald n gold to gaura corries gold to pittosporum Garnetii to hostas to abies confettii to Heucheras.
To blank the variegated plants would mean a much duller garden

 

Ha ha, very diplomatic shiney

 

I've waited a long time for my Strelitzia to open and it opens on the wettest day for months.


Clerodendrum ugandense.


Not a common house plant now, Tradescantia (Rhoeo) spathacea variegata.

 

Ha ha strongylodon, my hymenocallis have opened too in the wet after waiting a few weeks for them ....that's gardening

 

Lovely Strongy

I had coffee this morning with a couple who have moved here from South Africa, and the conversation got around to Strelitzia, which grew freely round them in S.A.. They mentioned that in each head there are up to 4 blooms and when one fades you can pull another one up. They say its used in the cut flower market to ensure blooms coincide with functions such as wedding dates.

Have you or anyone else heard of this?

 

Hi @PeterS - it's true that the flowers come one by one up from the same green sheath. I once grew a Strelitzia from seed, and when it flowered, the sequence lasted quite a long time. It survived in a barely frost free greenhouse for more than 25 years. Unfortunately I tried to repot it, and in the ensuing struggle with the roots that had got into the soil, I ruined it.

 

Thanks CarolineL that's very helpful. I had never hear of it, and as my single flower this year was at the back of my conservatory behind other things and at a height of 8 feet (standing on a small dais) I couldn't see the flower close up.

I am so sorry to hear you lost a 25 year old plant. As ever, when a subject is raised it prompts me to do a little Googling and I found this. It may explain why you don't get that many blooms.

They're pollinated by sunbirds, which use the "beak" ledge on the flower as a perch. The weight of the bird on the "beak" opens it to release the pollen onto the bird, which is then deposited on the next flower it visits. By using birds rather than smaller insects to do the pollinating it means as the plant ages and gets bigger rather than the plant producing ever increasing numbers of the same sized flowers, as you find in many other houseplants, what you'll notice is the blooms themselves tend to also get larger and larger.

 

Chaps - you're correct in saying that I don't really like variegated plants but I do make exceptions.

Just cos something is small it don't mean that you have to mock it

S.nicolai or S.augusta. They look a bit tiddly () in the second photo so my money is on S.augusta...............
Strelitzia augusta by longk48, on Flickr

Ipomea quamoclit is in bloom.............
Ipomea quamoclit by longk48, on Flickr