"Oh my god - what's that"

Two cracking ideas :thumb:

 

I haven't yet, although on another forum there is a member who swears by him. One thing to be said about (for) him is that his seed appears to be fresh. What is available at any one time is limited. If the house move had fallen through I would be having a go at these..........

Rare Brugmansia sanguinea! - Gorgeous RED! - Fresh seeds | eBay

C.ugandense strikes easily from cuttings in water. I'll do more late May - use green stems with no sign of flower buds. Change the water (I use boiled water cooled down) once a week and they should be ready to pot up after 5/6weeks.
Mine is a little too big for the window sill!
It took -3°c before christmas. It dropped all its leaves, so I gave it a prune and bought it back indoors. Now covered in fresh growth and the first cluster of flower buds are well formed. It's a thirsty plant when in growth.

 

I love Clerodendrums but not seen C. ugandense before, its very pretty

I liked the look of

Clerodendrum Bungei at Great Dixter, and bought

Clerodendrum trichotomum var. fargesii at Urban Jungle, which I also saw at Kiftsgate (just down the road from Hidcote)

 

Both lovely Clerodendrums Kristen, and pretty hardy too (C.ugandense is not sadly).
If I remember correctly, it is C. bungei that has a reputation for "wandering" so keep an eye out for suckers

Clerodendrum speciosissum is outstanding for a heated greenhouse or conservatory........


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I planted a Clerodendrum in my parents garden more than 35 years ago, and my planting plan says "Clerodendrum trifolium" - which doesn't exist! I wonder what it was. It suckered a lot, and the plant itself stank! I expect I just misspelled it and it was "trichotomum"

 

Yes, I absolutely with this, lots of our old favourites have the wow factor -that's why they are so wildly popular- but we don't see it because familiarity breeds contempt. For example, most large-flowered clematis have it but they are now so common we don't notice anymore. Imagine what a medieval peasant would think if they saw one.

Also, the structure, layout and plant combinations, size and quality of growth are usually as important as individual plants in creating the OMGWF.

Gunnera always has that wow factor but is now too common and well-known to surprise people. Tetrapanax is almost as good but still not commonly seen, though. Strongylodon definitely has the WF but is deeply tropical and has such stringent requirements as to be virtually impossible except for specialists in the UK. Which is why we never seen it being grown because otherwise everyone would, wouldn't they?

When I've had Joe Public round my garden (always in early June) the plants that have attracted attention have been:
Pawlonia tomentosa - pollarded. Nobody knows what it is but they sure notice it.
Cytisus battandieri - Pretty but fairly common IMO. Looks it's best in June, though.
Cephalaria gigantea - Again pretty, and I like it but not with the WF IMO. I think people like it because it's big.
Phlomis russelliana - A good workhorse (if a bit assertive) but not with the WF as far as i'm concerned.
Rheum tanguticum - definitely wow!

People ask me about these time and time again, which I find surprising, while fabulous things like hosta Frances Williams, catalpas, macleayas, osmundas don't get a mention, plus all the ordinary things which most gardeners know about so they don't need to ask me what it is.

It depends a bit how large, healthy and well-grown a specimen is. It's much harder for a small or delicate plant to create an impact, no matter how beautiful. If you have to to look at the flowers with a magnifying glass to notice their beauty then most people are going to miss it.

PeterS- I think you might have to move to Cornwall or Pembrokeshire! You could flower echiums there.

 

By Echium lass - y're reet. Do you mean I could really put this outside?



The photo (of Echium pininina) was taken today. It has hit the 8 feet ceiling and is bending over. It is flowering, but a bit half heartedly as it is inside and has outgrown the low level light source. It wasn't meant to do this. I think this is a late 2011 flowering rather than an early 2012. It was set to flower outside last year but I put it outside too early. It got badly set back by the cold then only started the flower spike in the autumn.

 

LOL. Hope you've got a bit put by for roof replacement!

I've definitely seen those outside in St David's, though it was a few years back when we had that run of very mild winters.

 

the large dahlias (dinner plate)



large alliums:


fatsia polycarpa

 

They will go outside OK in a pot. This was last summer. I would definately call this an OMG plant.

 

There is a Clerodendrum rotundifolium, but I think that is one of the more tropical ones.

The one that I'm after is C.incissum (sic?), common name Musical Notes.

 

Brilliant! Very entertaining, keep them coming

 

Did you grow the Echiums from seed Peter? I'm wondering how long they take? They certainly have the OMG factor.

Erythrina crista galli has it for me, if I could just get mine to bloom! The two flower stems got mangled in strong winds last summer. This photo was taken at Oxfords botanic gardens........

Just hope that it has survived the winter. As if that's not bad enough, I now have to dig it up as the house move is going through after all.

 

LongK - I have Googled Erythrina crista galli, which looks lovely. One site said 3 to 4 years to flower. Digging it up implies that it is hardy - is this so? I am always a bit worried about growing flowering trees. Some trees can take many years. Like Beech can take 60 years to flower, and Wisteria could take 20 years from seed. But then Brugmansia (also a tree) will usually flower in its first year.

Echiums are very easy to germinate and grow. Overwintering is not that difficult, but must be frost free. They don't like the damp over winter and the crowns can rot, even when the plant as a whole survives. In this case they will grow again but usually develop several growing points, which will give smaller flower spikes than one big one.

They are generally biennials, but the tallest one E. pininana is more likely to take 3 years to flower in our climate. E. russicum is said to be hardy down to -20C but still doesn't like the damp. I overwinter it in a cold frame, but I gave one to a friend who left it outside all last winter with a polybag over it. Last year I overwintered so many that I had to throw a lot away.

 

You are being overly pessimistic but, yeah, you would be much better off with a grafted plant.

Not sure that age-to-flowering for Beech et al is important - there is no "Wow! Factor" in a Beech flowering, and even a Tulip Tree is going to flower so high up, and with such hard-to-spot flowers than it, sadly, won't "Wow! Factor" either :(

The Echiums on Guernsey (where they grow / flower with gay abandon) definitely have the "Wow! Factor". The guy at the ice cream "bothy" where we got refreshments was clearly tired-to-death of "Wow! WTF is THAT?" tourist's questions! - although he clearly had the equal of the tourists though, as his answer was something along the lines of "I think its Echium pininana, but it might be Echium ..." :D