What's Looking Exotic in October 2012

Well we're now well into autumn and a lot of exotic plants are probably past their best, but my red banana is still going strong and my cannas are still looking good too

 

Lovely Bilbo - that Ensete maurelli is a cracker.

 

Cracking bilbo

 

Tibouchina urvilleana is still flowering - inside my sitting room.


Just yesterday, I saw by chance a Colocasia "Black Magic". Its a silly time of the year to be buying such a thing - but I may never see another - at least not in a local garden centre.


This is pathetic in the extreme. This is all that my Bougainvillea has done all year.


I finally got round to potting up my Urginea maritima, which were already starting to sprout. Its new to me. Its a member of the Hyacinth family and is not hardy. It likes to be half out of the compost. It will grow leaves over the winter, then go dormant and not flower till about August or September. The bulb is huge - its already the size of a large apple, but apparently it can grow as big as a football.


The flowers will grow to 4 or even 5 feet and should look like this. Well nearly as good as these.

 

Love the colocasia black magic! Seen one on eBay That caught my eye
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Colocasia...eedsBulbs_JN&hash=item19d5955bad#ht_730wt_922

 

Mowgley , don`t get yourself disappointed , sometime they are selling really small plants and it will take years before it will reach the size in the picture.
they look really nice in group , I always suggest to buy at least 3/5

 

not much left , but more flower and plants ....


the canna edilus is in flower , finger cross for some seeds , as apparently seeds are virus free.


thai canna buds (maybe red flower)


nice orange flower are coming out


alocosia still growing big


clementis


dicksonia


thalia flower

 

Looking good Sal

 

Thanks Bilbo , but not for long , first frost espected this weekend.....

 

Still looks good sal. Went into b&q today and tried to barter with the gardening guy.
There red maurelii bananas are still £9.95 in 3l pots, the leaves are quite tatty but a fair size.
I asked him if he could knock it down to a £5 each I'd take all 3
Was having none of it

 

Mowgley my local garden center was selling them for £2 ......3 weeks ago , but wait , £9.95 i way to much .
as soon as the frost will arrive I will dig them and start to overwintering....

 

I dont think my black magic will get through the winter at this rate.it went cold so i put it the greenhouse and this happened



Its back outside now but dont know if it will recover being a young plant,i think i bought 2 mnth back but weather being horrid hasnt helped

 

Joolz - sorry about your "Black Magic" - I don't know what happened there. However, I suspect that there may be no serious problem. It will either continue to grow slowly if it has light and some heat through the winter, or it will just revert to a tuber and start again next year from scratch if its colder.

My concern, at present, is how to stop tubers from rotting when they go dormant. I had some Arisaema tubers that I planted in the border. They grew very nicely but within days of dying back I dug them up and one tuber had already totally rotted and the other two tuber were partly rotten - so I had to cut the bottom third off them. Will an Arisaema tuber regrow with a third removed?

Sal - I love your Alocasia. Is that a special named variety, or simply something you picked up in a food store?

 

I have those concerns ... plus the Red Spider one during the Winter :(

I'm not sure I have time & energy for Colocasia .... I've made a completely ham-fist of them in this my first year of trying.

 

I am intrigued by Colocasia - especially that you can buy them for a few pence in a food shop. I am going to try and keep a few going inside the house under low level grow lights, and let the rest go back to tubers in the cold.

I am hoping the ones kept green over the winter will turn into bigger plants next year. Also I don't want to risk losing my "Black Magic" and a nice red stemmed one that I have (from a food shop). I have never had RSM until recently - its a worry.