What's Looking Good November 2024

Oh sorry, I thought you was talking to me.
You mean there are others?

 

@Plantminded If we had snow, you always found me in the garden once an hour and shaking off the snow from the plants. I learned over the years that's not always the frost but the snow that damages plants.
However, I expect the fronds of the tree fern will suffer due to the frost in the recent 2 nights.

 

Yes, I went around removing the snow on a few plants the following morning @simone_in_wiltshire. If I leave it on the tree fern fronds and it then freezes, they go brown. They look OK at the moment so should last a bit longer .

 

Kniphofia "Christmas Cheer" doing its stuff. Plenty of buds to keep going till then.

Grevillea miquelliana continues flowering. Not many at a time, but always some.

Surprisingly the eryngium is still in flower (a bit) in front of an annual alyssum

Fascicularia looking seasonal. Unfortunately the rosettes currently flowering face downward - the pot needs to be on a stand to avoid bending down to see them!

 

That Grevillea has quite large leaves @CarolineL, I've only ever come across the needle like ones, apart from robusta.

 

I like your Grevillea, @CarolineL. Would you say it is easy-going? I have often thought of growing one of the Grevilleas. Nice to have some flowers at this time of year.

 

That grevillea is very different to the normal needle ones like rosmarinifolia (the clue is in the name ). It's very like G. victoriae - but that died in that shock frost a couple of years ago and this one went "what frost?"
It's now a big shrub of about 5 feet high and 4 foot diameter, and flowers all year - just a few, but there's always some. It seems very reluctant to take from cuttings - I've tried a lot. If any take, I'll pass some on!

 

Thankyou, @CarolineL, yes the leaves and buds on yours reminds me of a climbing honeysuckle, rather than spiky looking rosemary. That is a shame about G.victoriae. I would rather have a shrub that keeps going all year, than one that suddenly succumbs to inclement weather: G.miquelliana sounds robust and reliable as well as pretty.

 

Yes, but that dodgy frost (was it 2 years ago?) also killed rosmarinifolia, arbutus menzii and lots of other things in my garden - it was bad. So you might find victoriae does ok - particularly since you seem to be south. G. "Olympic flame" and juniperina should also be ok for you

 

Thankyou, @CarolineL, yes it was 2022-2023 I remember when many plants succumbed all over the place. I will have a look at those too.

 

That spell early in winter 2022/2023 was mainly caused by a spell of very mild weather thoguh autumn, and plants carried on growing. Then temps dropped suddenly, so they were hit harder than usual.
I lost Phormiums, which has never happened in all the years I've grown them, and that's the reason. It went from high single figures to minus 10s etc, where it normally gets colder gradually from about September onwards, and plants can adjust to that, and will then cope with very low temps. I've had them in temps at that level many times without a problem, as they're in containers to help with wet conditions. The one I thought I'd lost, in a raised bed, survived - mainly because it was right up against the edge. It's still not back to full size though.
I still regarded that as a pretty mild winter because those cold spells were short. The other one in March '23 also affected many plants due to the same process.

 

I planted 2 varieties of garlic a couple of weeks ago and one batch is through and about 4 ins tall. No sign of the other one yet. There is a solitary leek which is growing well, I have my eye on it, waiting for it to grow big enough for to contribute itself to a meal some time.

 

Ipheion Jessica? still flowering

Callicarpa n its first year. I planted purple and white next to each other but the purple flowers didn't set this time

 

Most things are in decline here but I've noticed that this Solanum laxum Album has put on a brave attempt to flower for the first time. It's in quite deep shade but sheltered. A much more delicate climber than its thuggish blue relative, S. crispum Glasnevin. I'll need to find a better location for it next year.

 

I also prefer Solanum laxum to S crispum and have grown it against a North facing garage wall since around 2006, it took a few years to start flowering and flowers were mainly near the top where it got more light.
It was hit badly by the very cold winter around 2010 and I actually removed it down to the ground in around about June/July and the top growth was very dead; in the October I noticed a shoot, about a foot long, 18 or so inches from the where the plant had been. It took about five years to reach the top and start to flower again. Since then it's flowered almost year round and with me it's pretty much evergreen.