WHAT'S LOOKING EXOTIC IN 2017

Got a small plant of bougainvillea, which @strongylodon gave me at shiney's a couple of years ago, just coming into flower.


Coelogyne cristata.


And I think Konjak will be flowering soon,

 

That is a magnificent specimen Pete!

 

@pete I hope to get some different Bougainvillea cuttings next month in Menorca.

The original plant which yours and many other plants and cuttings came from was brought back from the Philipines in the 80's!

 

Pete that's really nice and quite new to me.

I went to the Harrogate Flower Show today, which I really enjoyed.

They have few tropical items, so I bought a (sort of) pot. Its difficult to see, but its full of small holes. The logic being that it's a very convoluted shape and stops roots just going to the edge and then going round and round. The roots are free to go through the holes, where the tips die off, effectively air pruning them. It also delivers a lot of air to the roots.

Some time ago, I read that Citrus plants like a lot of oxygen at their roots, and I managed to get some large (and very porous) baskets for underwater plants to plant a couple of Calomondin in. I mentioned this to the chaps on the stand and they said that they mainly sold these pots to commercial Citrus growers. The guy I bought this off said he had planted his Musella x lasiocarpa in one and it grew at a fantastic rate. So I will try that with mine.


Another purchase was a Clianthus punicea. Having tried to grow this from seed at least 3 times and failed, I was delighted to see some large plants on sale.

My other purchase was a rhizome of Tacca integrifolia. That's the white flowered Tacca, that I understand is quite a bit larger and easier to grow than the black Tacca chanterie. Having tried many times to grow Tacca from seed and failed, I recently obtained a T. chanterie rhizome from Himalayan Gardens, so I now have two on the go. They are just like buses, you don't see one for 40 years then two appear almost together.

 

An absolute favourite of mine!

Larger My T.chantrieri was five foot across!!!!

The first of my Echeveria to bloom this year is Echeveria "Hercules" (Echeveria pulidonis×E. elegans).................
Echeveria "Hercules" by longk48, on Flickr

Echeveria "Hercules" by longk48, on Flickr

 

Clianthus punicea, I must give that another go, I grew on the fence for a few years until the hard winter of 2009.

If you want a real challenge try Clianthus formosus, I managed to get it to flower on a couple of occasions many years ago, but it's a difficult one.

 

I have just Googled that as I had never heard of it, and then I realised that I knew it under the name of Swainsona formosa, which I have always admired.

I see that its not too difficult to get seeds, and there is a whole world of other Swainsona's and Australian peas that I don't know.

Clianthus puniceus has to be hardier than I thought, if you could grow it outside Pete. No chance of that here. I am not very good at getting things to flower. I sowed some Hibiscus coccinea seed about 4 years ago, seeing them advertised as a 6 foot annual. It is, in fact, a tender perennial like most other Hibiscus. But, whereas in Thompson and Morgan's garden they will reach 6 feet and flower in one year, in a heated conservatory in Yorkshire they have never reached more than 3 feet and not flowered in 4 years. I decided they had to go, so left them in a pot outside to die over the winter. They couldn't even do that right. I see that they have just started to sprout again.

 

Ditto. I grew some more last year and went into the winter with three. The one in the house was the first to turn its toes up just before christmas and a few weeks later the one in the porch was a goner.
I got the one in the unheated greenhouse through the worst of winter protected by fleece but then that shuffled of this mortal coil just when it was warming up!

 

I have just read that it tends to be a short lived plant 2 to 4 years was quoted.

 

On the basis that a hard winter comes along every two to four years? In their native New Zealand they make large shrubs/small trees.

 

When I grew it I treated it as an annual, didn't even consider being able to get it through a winter.

I found getting the watering right was the hardest thing, along with not enough sunshine.

 

I can't find the quote about a 2 - 4 year life again for C. puniceus. But I am getting the feeling that it must be longer than that. As you say longk they can get up to 4 meters (13 feet) or more high, and they would be pushed to do that in 4 years let alone 2.

 

Amorophallus konjac


These are currently "enhancing" the atmosphere of the greenhouse

 

Hi @NigelJ those Sarracenia look pretty advanced outside.

My Konjak is yet to open, probably tomorrow.

 

@pete
The Sarracenia are well on for the time of year and who knows what they'll like be like after this weeks cold spell. However no space in the greenhouse. The plants will survive but the flowers may get hit. I shall top up the water and hope the thermal mass keeps them from getting too cold.