What's looking exotic in September 2012

My D. imperialis is about the same height also Peter.

 

Lovely set of photos PeterS! Glad to see that your Bessera are blooming for you too!

Best that I can do at the moment is the first bloom on my Passiflora "Amethyst" at long last................

 

Mine is obviously reading this thread! as today it has come into flower

 

Pete - your Dahlia imperialis looks wonderful. Their foliage is wonderfully neat and tidy compared with any other Dahlia. My D. excelsa started well by flowering early this year. I think the flower is almost identical to imperialis but I understand that it was very unusual to flower so early. It was in bud when I bought it - so it was the nursery that achieved that. But the growth has been untidy and its very very brittle - bits keep breaking off. So overall it hasn't really been a challenge to imperialis and hasn't reached the same size.

Armandii - I love that Canna Musafolia Grande. I think that to do well Cannas need to be free and not squashed in by other plants. My C. Cleopatras in pots have done very well, but I also put some Cleopatras and altensteiniis in a border amongst other plants and they have done poorly - I presume lack of direct sunlight.

Kristen - so pleased about the flowers. Its a great fun plant.

 

Indeed. First year for me, at first (as I was nuturing them along in 3" pots) I thought "Why am I growing this" - it looks like a "dead nettle", after all ... but well chuffed now. Tall, nice foliage, and now ... the flowers too!

The two of us had a walk round the garden this evening, "taking stock", and the exotic-bit has filled-up in the last week or two (as it would do at this time ...)

The Cardoons are a big patch of leaf now, and lots of things go together well - lots of foliage styles in an Exotic garden, so hard to fail to get some good combinations! and the Purple leaves of Cannas, Ricinus and Aeoniums (I've got A. schwarzkopf planted, but have bought A. voodoo this week - My! that's a big chap!), and the Leonotis nepetifolia have filled out perfects.

The "Hot" herbaceous border, which is still 50% "not hot", is always a source of interesting debate - "Shall we keep that one more year" - of several clumps of Echinacea (the bog-standard Purple one) or the Montbretia (I use the term "Montbretia " in the derogatory boring-Orange sense ... not the nice sharp, and "hot", Crocosmia Lucifer!) ... they've all got to come out (I have LOTS if anyone wants them ...). It would be worth a new thread to find a list of Red plants that I can raise cheaply - either from seed, or things that I can bulk up easily from cuttings.

I need to go round with tape measure this weekend and make notes on Height for my OCD-spreadsheet!, and to record whether planting distances are right, or need adjusting next year.

Is Leonotis nepetifolia going to set seed for me that I can keep, or does it need an exceptional Autumn to ripen?

 

Good to get those Musas to germinate Armandii.
Just wondering if they would grow faster if kept in smaller pots for a while.
I know they have large root systems, but small pots, particularly plastic ones, warm up much faster.
I find those large thick ceramic pots OK for established plants, but they are very cold for anything that's not making good progress.

 

Kristen - I have grown Leonotis nepetifolia for about three years and always had plenty of seed. This year has been particularly cold and my plants are only just getting into flower, but I am hoping that I will get seed as well.

Nearly all sources say that it is an annual, but I have seen at least one site say it is a tender perennial - but I have never got it to come back after overwintering frost free.

 

My Brugmansia yesterday against a lovely blue sky; one flower open and another 4 just about to burst open

 

My Leonotis have struggled, although there are flowers forming now.

I've kept one in a pot and will attempt to get it through the winter..............

 

Lovely Bilbo - and so much nicer against a blue sky.

LongK - I would be interested to know if you succeed. However there are plenty of tender perennials that are just as good if grown as an annual - things like Salvia coccinea and S. patens. I suspect L. nepetifolia may be just one of those.

 

Worth sowing some seed in the Autumn and "assisting" through the Winter I wonder? (rather than trying to dig up and keep mature plants going?)

 

I'm thinking maybe the growth pattern has more to do with available sunshine, and with that, warmth.
The mid part of the summer was very dull around here, guessing it was in most parts of the UK, things only looked up, lightwise, in August.
And for the beginning of Sept its been better than July.

I'm thinking you might need to try to keep them moving during the winter, they look too small to dry off.

 

I've a feeling that you're correct, but I'll give anything a shot once............